PHILOSOPHY
Research Interests
Philosophy of Resistance, Feminist Philosophy, Queer Theory, Critical Theory, Decolonial Philosophy, Philosophy of Emotions/ Trauma Studies
Education
Fordham University, New York NY Expected Graduation Date: May 2028
PhD Candidate in Philosophy
Supervisor: Samir Haddad, PhD
MA in Philosophy May 2024
Qualifying Paper: “A Cannon to the Philosophical Canon and a Radical Reorientation Towards an Elsewhere”
Loyola University Chicago, Chicago IL Fall 2019—December 2021
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science obtained with honors
Honors Seminar: The Arab Spring, Political Institutions & Constitutional Change
Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy with specialization in Social Justice obtained with honors
Honors Thesis: “The Shadow Feminist and Madwoman in the Negative Aesthetic: The Spirit of Queer Pessimism for a Radical Hope in the Rupture of Violent Resistance in the Feminist Imaginary” (in progress)
Committee: Jesús Luzardo, Ph.D., Eyo Ewara, Ph.D., and David Ingram, Ph.D.
Publications
2024 Book Review for The Affection in Between: From Common Sense to Sensing in Common, April Flakne, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 45 (2): 379-382.
Conferences & Speaking Events
2025 “Emotional Echoes of an Elsewhere: Handling Hard-to-Handle Anger.” Uehiro Graduate Student Conference: Political and Social Emotions—How They Divide or Unite. University of Hawai’I Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawai’i
2024 “MAP Sex and Gender Talk.” Minorities and Philosophy Café on Sex and Gender. Fordham University, New York, New York.
Teaching & Mentoring Experience
Instructor Fall 2024, Spring 2025
Philosophy of Human Nature, Fordham University
Mentor Spring 2025
Supervising Philosophy of Resistance Undergraduate Reading Group and Research, Fordham University
Service Work
2025 Committee member for the SPEP LGBTQ+ Advocacy Committee
RESEARCH
Overarching Question: How do those rendered unintelligible in a world of domination resist and build other possible liberatory worlds?; Site of analysis: gender-based and sexual violence
Brief description of interest: To theorize an answer to this question, I am interested in bridging the gap between the theoretical frameworks of epistemological violence/ injustice and affective violence/ injustice when it comes to questions of power and resistance, particularly in traumatic experiences such as acts of gender-based and sexual violence. I am not particularly interested in dichotomies of oppressor/oppressed, and thus for the scope of this project, I am not interested in thinking through questions of resistance as it relates to the oppressed against the oppressor. Instead, I am curious about theorizing a resistance project through turning away from such dichotomies and turning towards one another as we exist as subjects in a world of domination. In the face of epistemic and affective violence (such as gender-based and sexual violence), we are denied access to justice through the oppressor and thus rendered silenced and unintelligible in the world of domination that made us subjected to epistemic and affective violence. However, I am curious about a possible project of resistance to be found when we look towards other subjects of oppression and together work to build other possible liberatory worlds.
TEACHING
Philosophy of Human Nature Course
Course Description: The word philosophy means lots of different things, depending on the space you find yourself in. Etymologically speaking the word philosophy translates to "love of wisdom" with roots in Ancient Greece. So perhaps we can think of philosophy as a deeply affectionate commitment to the pursuit of curiosity and knowledge about the world, life, death, human beings and other living things, nonliving things, and the relationships, identities, and commitments that form and fall between.
With this in mind, throughout the course, I would like you to the best of your ability to examine your own life and your place in the world as well as your relationship to others and ask yourselves where you believe meaning arises from. What makes life meaningful? What makes death meaningful? What makes the world meaningful? And what makes our relationship to others as well as non-living things meaningful? Is it a love of something? Or love itself? Or something else entirely?
This course will aim to create the space for you to be able to weave yourself into the history of philosophy through pairing the work of canonical thinkers with non-canonical works in philosophy as well as literature, poetry, film, and art. Philosophy is more than the texts that make up its history. It is an activity or a praxis. So, you will learn to read what others have written both sympathetically and critically while also just as importantly will work on thinking for yourself and crafting your own narrative that pieces together your own views that you will learn how to clearly and persuasively argue both orally and in writing.