I think philosophy is at its best when grounded in intricate reflection on the details of lived experience, from the profound to the mundane. For that reason, my courses, like my research, draw heavily on personal narratives in which writers and philosophers articulate their lived experience. Thus, I regularly assign memoirs and films alongside traditional philosophical texts, as well as philosophical texts within the discipline that themselves incorporate extended reflection on personal experience. These tend to be authored by people from groups that are underrepresented in philosophy - marginalized voices and methodologies often go hand in hand - thus my courses are designed to challenge exclusionary conceptions both of how philosophy should be done and who should be doing it. See below for my recent course offerings and syllabi.
I have participated in multiple pedagogy seminars and workshops and organized a pedagogy reading group in the philosophy department at the University of Chicago. See my CV for details.
I wrote and distributed this Petition to Diversify the Humanities Core at the University of Chicago, which received over 100 signatures.
I have participated in multiple pedagogy seminars and workshops and organized a pedagogy reading group in the philosophy department at the University of Chicago. See my CV for details.
I wrote and distributed this Petition to Diversify the Humanities Core at the University of Chicago, which received over 100 signatures.
Recent Course Offerings
The Philosophy of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood (Spring 2024) [syllabus coming soon]
Pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood have been relatively neglected as topics for philosophical exploration, and yet they are ripe for philosophical inquiry from multiple angles, including metaphysics, epistemology, normative ethics, medical ethics, and social and political philosophy. Throughout our inquiry we will pay particular attention to the first-hand, embodied experiences of women. For example: What is it like to be pregnant? How can we make metaphysical sense of this experience? And how is it informed by the socio-political landscape? Moreover, what is the moral significance of giving birth, and what are the ethical and political requirements for a good birth? And finally, what does it mean to be a good mother, and how might this conception of motherhood play into women’s oppression? These are just a few of the questions we will explore, placing philosophical texts alongside memoir and film.
The Philosophy of Human-Animal Relationships (Winter 2024) (view syllabus here)
Intimate relationships – primarily relations of companionship – between humans and non-human animals are ubiquitous but not often the subject of philosophy. This is a shame, since such relationships are important and interesting, providing rich ground for philosophical reflection. In this course, we will philosophize about such relationships, drawing on memoir and film as well as academic philosophy. How, we will ask, are we to understand such relationships? What is their nature? How are they possible? And what do they demand of us?
Love and Personhood (Winter 2023) (view syllabus here)
Is love, in the deepest sense of the word, something that occurs only between “persons”? Contemporary philosophers often think so. And they tend to understand “personhood”, moreover, in terms of the possession of the special psychological capacity for self-reflective reasoning. But this conception of personhood notably excludes some cognitively disabled humans, infant humans, and non-human animals from the category of “persons”. This raises the questions: who can love, and who can be loved? To answer these questions, we will put some influential philosophical conceptions of love and “personhood” into conversation with other contemporary philosophical work, as well as personal memoirs, literature, and film, that speak to the possibility of loving “non-persons”: infants, neonates, and fetuses; the severely cognitively disabled; and non-human animals.
Topics in Animal Ethics (Autumn 2022) (view syllabus here)
In this course we will ask: what is the moral status of nonhuman animals, and why? Does species matter morally, or only the particular features of any given individual? We will consider different approaches to incorporating animals within various ethical theories, and their implications for the morally permissible treatment of animals. For example, is it ever okay to kill a nonhuman animal, and if so, which animals and under what conditions? Is it okay to breed animals for companionship, and if so, what do we owe to our animal companions? And, finally, given the history of domestication, what should be the legal and political status of domesticated species? As we consider these questions, we will reflect on the further question of how one arrives at a philosophically sound ethical position – the relative roles of reason, emotion, and feeling – and the kinds of materials that get one there.
Pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood have been relatively neglected as topics for philosophical exploration, and yet they are ripe for philosophical inquiry from multiple angles, including metaphysics, epistemology, normative ethics, medical ethics, and social and political philosophy. Throughout our inquiry we will pay particular attention to the first-hand, embodied experiences of women. For example: What is it like to be pregnant? How can we make metaphysical sense of this experience? And how is it informed by the socio-political landscape? Moreover, what is the moral significance of giving birth, and what are the ethical and political requirements for a good birth? And finally, what does it mean to be a good mother, and how might this conception of motherhood play into women’s oppression? These are just a few of the questions we will explore, placing philosophical texts alongside memoir and film.
The Philosophy of Human-Animal Relationships (Winter 2024) (view syllabus here)
Intimate relationships – primarily relations of companionship – between humans and non-human animals are ubiquitous but not often the subject of philosophy. This is a shame, since such relationships are important and interesting, providing rich ground for philosophical reflection. In this course, we will philosophize about such relationships, drawing on memoir and film as well as academic philosophy. How, we will ask, are we to understand such relationships? What is their nature? How are they possible? And what do they demand of us?
Love and Personhood (Winter 2023) (view syllabus here)
Is love, in the deepest sense of the word, something that occurs only between “persons”? Contemporary philosophers often think so. And they tend to understand “personhood”, moreover, in terms of the possession of the special psychological capacity for self-reflective reasoning. But this conception of personhood notably excludes some cognitively disabled humans, infant humans, and non-human animals from the category of “persons”. This raises the questions: who can love, and who can be loved? To answer these questions, we will put some influential philosophical conceptions of love and “personhood” into conversation with other contemporary philosophical work, as well as personal memoirs, literature, and film, that speak to the possibility of loving “non-persons”: infants, neonates, and fetuses; the severely cognitively disabled; and non-human animals.
Topics in Animal Ethics (Autumn 2022) (view syllabus here)
In this course we will ask: what is the moral status of nonhuman animals, and why? Does species matter morally, or only the particular features of any given individual? We will consider different approaches to incorporating animals within various ethical theories, and their implications for the morally permissible treatment of animals. For example, is it ever okay to kill a nonhuman animal, and if so, which animals and under what conditions? Is it okay to breed animals for companionship, and if so, what do we owe to our animal companions? And, finally, given the history of domestication, what should be the legal and political status of domesticated species? As we consider these questions, we will reflect on the further question of how one arrives at a philosophically sound ethical position – the relative roles of reason, emotion, and feeling – and the kinds of materials that get one there.
Courses I Plan to Offer in Future
Animals in Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy
What does justice require of us in our relations with non-human animals? This is the general question that will guide our inquiry as we think through some key issues concerning animals in contemporary moral, social, and political philosophy. In the first part of the course, we will read and discuss several influential approaches to animal rights, including Peter Singer's Animal Liberation (1975),
Tom Regan's The Case for Animal Rights (1983), and Martha Nussbaum's Justice for Animals (2022). In the second part of the course, we will think about the ways in which the oppression of animals, and the requirements for their liberation, might interact with other forms of oppression, along dimensions of gender, race, and disability. Readings will include Sunaura Taylor's Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation (2017) and Bénédicte Boisseron's Afro-Dog: Blackness and the Animal Question (2018). Finally, in the third part of the course, we will think about the place of animals within our ethical and political communities: as friends, as fellow workers, and as potential citizens. Readings will include Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka's Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights (2011) and Kendra Coulter's Animals, Work, and the Promise of Interspecies Solidarity (2016).
The Ethics of Interpersonal Relationships
In this course we will examine interpersonal relationships as a distinctive site of ethical norms, duties, and reasons. We will focus primarily on three kinds of relationship: friendship, parenthood, and romantic partnership. In each case, we will ask: What is the role of such a relationship in the good life? What are the duties and obligations of each partner in the relationship? And what are the ethical grounds of the special duties, obligations, and reasons that arise in these relationships? We will also consider the kinds of wrongs that can be done to one another within such relationships, with a focus on (psychological, emotional, epistemic, physical, and sexual) abuse. We will ask: What constitutes an abusive relationship? Is abuse necessarily intentional? And in what ways is such abuse distinctively harmful to the victim/survivor? This will involve exploring relational concepts such as power, oppression, domination, exploitation, trust, vulnerability, betrayal, and gaslighting. In addition to reading texts in philosophy and psychology, we will watch and reflect on all ten episodes of the Netflix miniseries Maid.
Moral and Political Philosophy of Freedom
What is freedom? Why, how much, and to whom does it matter? And how, if at all, can it be achieved? Philosophers have offered very different answers to these questions. Drawing on historical and contemporary philosophical texts, our aim in this course is to critically chart some of this philosophical terrain to arrive at a deeper understanding of how we might answer these questions. Concerning the nature of freedom, we will consider various different conceptions: “negative” freedom as non-interference or absence of constraint; “positive” freedom as self-realization; “autonomy” as self-governance; and “republican” freedom as non-domination. On the value of freedom, we will inquire about the instrumental and intrinsic worth of freedom. Asking to whom freedom matters, we will consider the relation between “personhood” and the capacity for autonomy, and whether freedom might be valuable to those without such a capacity, such as dementia patients, children, and non-human animals. Asking how freedom might be achieved, we will consider the circumstances of our contemporary world and how issues of freedom intersect with the issues of class, gender, race, and disability.
The Experience of Womanhood
This course will be an opportunity to collectively reflect on the experience of womanhood – if, indeed, there is such a thing – and how it might show up in, be shaped by, or intersect with such things as: marriage and domestic partnership; pregnancy, childbirth, and/or motherhood; sexual desire; gendered violence and oppression; female embodiment; race, class, disability, sexuality, and transgender identity. As we read, think, and talk about these themes we will ask: what, if anything, is it like to be a woman? Is there some aspect of experience – “womanhood” – that all (and only) women share? How might collective dialogue around these experiences constitute empowerment? Readings will include Sojourner Truth, Iris Marion Young, Talia Mae Bettcher, Audre Lorde, Lisa Taddeo, Rachel Clusk, Ursula Le Guin, Kate Manne, Darcy Lockman, Angela Davis, Sally Haslanger, Eva Kittay, Martha Nussbaum, and bell hooks.
What’s Wrong with Inequality?
Should we strive for equality? If so, why? And equality of what exactly? In the first part of this course, we’ll consider distributive equality, asking what, if anything, should (as a matter of justice) be distributed equally. In the second part of the course, we’ll focus in particular on class inequality and labor relations, asking how inequality relates to exploitation and domination. We’ll discuss readings in both Marxist and republican traditions. Finally, in the third part of the course, we’ll consider social equality (otherwise known as relational equality), particularly in its relation to gender and race.
Morality, Partiality, and Love
In modern moral philosophy (dominated by Kantianism on the one hand and Consequentialism on the other) morality is understood as essentially impartial. As such, it is often thought to be fundamentally opposed to the demands of love, understood as essentially partial toward the beloved. Thus, when understood as claiming ultimate authority in the realm of practical reason, modern moral philosophy has come under fire for threatening to alienate the individual from the objects of her love. Does the moral perspective undermine the loving perspective? And what is the proper place of each in a human life? These are some of the questions we will think through together. In the first part of the course, we will study sections of Kant’s Groundwork and Mill’s Utilitarianism, to familiarize ourselves with modern moral philosophy. In the second part of the course we will consider critiques of modern moral philosophy put forward by, for example, Bernard Williams, Michael Stocker, Susan Wolf, and Harry Frankfurt. Finally, in the third part of the course, we will consider an alternative conception of the relation between love and morality, put forward in various ways by Iris Murdoch, Raimond Gaita, David Velleman, and Kieran Setiya.
Topics in the Philosophy of Love
Love is one of the most important, profound things in life, and yet it is notoriously hard to articulate, for example, just what love is, or why we love the things that we do. In this course, we will inquire about the nature of love, addressing some of the central questions that have occupied philosophers of love. Do we love for reasons, and if so, what kinds of reasons? Who can love, and who can be loved? What does love demand of us, and how can we love well? and What is the relationship between love and morality?
What does justice require of us in our relations with non-human animals? This is the general question that will guide our inquiry as we think through some key issues concerning animals in contemporary moral, social, and political philosophy. In the first part of the course, we will read and discuss several influential approaches to animal rights, including Peter Singer's Animal Liberation (1975),
Tom Regan's The Case for Animal Rights (1983), and Martha Nussbaum's Justice for Animals (2022). In the second part of the course, we will think about the ways in which the oppression of animals, and the requirements for their liberation, might interact with other forms of oppression, along dimensions of gender, race, and disability. Readings will include Sunaura Taylor's Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation (2017) and Bénédicte Boisseron's Afro-Dog: Blackness and the Animal Question (2018). Finally, in the third part of the course, we will think about the place of animals within our ethical and political communities: as friends, as fellow workers, and as potential citizens. Readings will include Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka's Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights (2011) and Kendra Coulter's Animals, Work, and the Promise of Interspecies Solidarity (2016).
The Ethics of Interpersonal Relationships
In this course we will examine interpersonal relationships as a distinctive site of ethical norms, duties, and reasons. We will focus primarily on three kinds of relationship: friendship, parenthood, and romantic partnership. In each case, we will ask: What is the role of such a relationship in the good life? What are the duties and obligations of each partner in the relationship? And what are the ethical grounds of the special duties, obligations, and reasons that arise in these relationships? We will also consider the kinds of wrongs that can be done to one another within such relationships, with a focus on (psychological, emotional, epistemic, physical, and sexual) abuse. We will ask: What constitutes an abusive relationship? Is abuse necessarily intentional? And in what ways is such abuse distinctively harmful to the victim/survivor? This will involve exploring relational concepts such as power, oppression, domination, exploitation, trust, vulnerability, betrayal, and gaslighting. In addition to reading texts in philosophy and psychology, we will watch and reflect on all ten episodes of the Netflix miniseries Maid.
Moral and Political Philosophy of Freedom
What is freedom? Why, how much, and to whom does it matter? And how, if at all, can it be achieved? Philosophers have offered very different answers to these questions. Drawing on historical and contemporary philosophical texts, our aim in this course is to critically chart some of this philosophical terrain to arrive at a deeper understanding of how we might answer these questions. Concerning the nature of freedom, we will consider various different conceptions: “negative” freedom as non-interference or absence of constraint; “positive” freedom as self-realization; “autonomy” as self-governance; and “republican” freedom as non-domination. On the value of freedom, we will inquire about the instrumental and intrinsic worth of freedom. Asking to whom freedom matters, we will consider the relation between “personhood” and the capacity for autonomy, and whether freedom might be valuable to those without such a capacity, such as dementia patients, children, and non-human animals. Asking how freedom might be achieved, we will consider the circumstances of our contemporary world and how issues of freedom intersect with the issues of class, gender, race, and disability.
The Experience of Womanhood
This course will be an opportunity to collectively reflect on the experience of womanhood – if, indeed, there is such a thing – and how it might show up in, be shaped by, or intersect with such things as: marriage and domestic partnership; pregnancy, childbirth, and/or motherhood; sexual desire; gendered violence and oppression; female embodiment; race, class, disability, sexuality, and transgender identity. As we read, think, and talk about these themes we will ask: what, if anything, is it like to be a woman? Is there some aspect of experience – “womanhood” – that all (and only) women share? How might collective dialogue around these experiences constitute empowerment? Readings will include Sojourner Truth, Iris Marion Young, Talia Mae Bettcher, Audre Lorde, Lisa Taddeo, Rachel Clusk, Ursula Le Guin, Kate Manne, Darcy Lockman, Angela Davis, Sally Haslanger, Eva Kittay, Martha Nussbaum, and bell hooks.
What’s Wrong with Inequality?
Should we strive for equality? If so, why? And equality of what exactly? In the first part of this course, we’ll consider distributive equality, asking what, if anything, should (as a matter of justice) be distributed equally. In the second part of the course, we’ll focus in particular on class inequality and labor relations, asking how inequality relates to exploitation and domination. We’ll discuss readings in both Marxist and republican traditions. Finally, in the third part of the course, we’ll consider social equality (otherwise known as relational equality), particularly in its relation to gender and race.
Morality, Partiality, and Love
In modern moral philosophy (dominated by Kantianism on the one hand and Consequentialism on the other) morality is understood as essentially impartial. As such, it is often thought to be fundamentally opposed to the demands of love, understood as essentially partial toward the beloved. Thus, when understood as claiming ultimate authority in the realm of practical reason, modern moral philosophy has come under fire for threatening to alienate the individual from the objects of her love. Does the moral perspective undermine the loving perspective? And what is the proper place of each in a human life? These are some of the questions we will think through together. In the first part of the course, we will study sections of Kant’s Groundwork and Mill’s Utilitarianism, to familiarize ourselves with modern moral philosophy. In the second part of the course we will consider critiques of modern moral philosophy put forward by, for example, Bernard Williams, Michael Stocker, Susan Wolf, and Harry Frankfurt. Finally, in the third part of the course, we will consider an alternative conception of the relation between love and morality, put forward in various ways by Iris Murdoch, Raimond Gaita, David Velleman, and Kieran Setiya.
Topics in the Philosophy of Love
Love is one of the most important, profound things in life, and yet it is notoriously hard to articulate, for example, just what love is, or why we love the things that we do. In this course, we will inquire about the nature of love, addressing some of the central questions that have occupied philosophers of love. Do we love for reasons, and if so, what kinds of reasons? Who can love, and who can be loved? What does love demand of us, and how can we love well? and What is the relationship between love and morality?