William J. Buckley

After studying philosophy and theology at Cardinal Glennon-Kenrick School of Theology in his hometown of St. Louis, William Joseph Buckley completed his MA (Theology) and PhD (Social Ethics) at the University of Chicago, where he was a University Fellow and Junior Fellow at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion.

Bio and Featured Works

Selected a Fulbright Fellow, instead he accepted a German Government and University Fellowship (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) to continue his dissertation's comparative research on reproductive bioethics and end of life decision-making in Europe and the United States. An ecumenical fellowship commemorating slain seminarian civil rights worker Jonathan M. Daniels, received by Dr. Buckley during his St. Louis years, supported his early work as a volunteer, and then as an organizer of international teams of peace volunteers in Northern Ireland during its civil conflict. Ongoing research into bioethics led to publications and teaching (Georgetown Schools of Medicine and Nursing; Johns Hopkins). Research into how local communities constructively mobilize resources for justice subsequently inspired courses, curricular designed service learning, and publications such as his volume on ethnic conflict and humanitarian intervention entitled Kosovo: Contending Voices on Balkan Interventions. Reviewed in over twenty-eight international journals--Kosovo continues to receive online hits after over a decade in print. It has been used in some sixteen colleges and universities across six nations. Dr. Buckley's newest work, co-edited with Karen Feldt (PhD, RN),Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Death and Dying, addresses the timely topic of end-of-life decision-making. Dr. Buckley teaches and writes on a range of issues in comparative ethics including; private and public initiatives in geriatric care and genomic innovations; medical futility, end of life care, contending cultural constructions of sexuality; ethnic conflict, the politics of terrorism. His reviews and articles have appeared in the Journal of Religion; Theological Studies; Modern Theology; Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics; Ethics and Medicine: An International Journal of Bioethics; The Linacre Quarterly: Catholic Medical Association; Journal of Lutheran Ethics, Religious Studies Review; Revista Camino Real: Estudios de las Hispanidades Norteamericanas (Universidad de Alcalá, Spain); Revista Cultura y Religión (Universidad Arturo Prat, Chile); Filozofski Godisnjak (Belgrade University). He has served as a consultant to the United Nations Independent International Commission on Kosovo, the Maryland Higher Education Commission, as a member of hospital ethics committees and as a board member of a nationally recognized local domestic abuse shelter (Heartly House).