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Philosopher
Professor, University of Iowa
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I am a feminist philosopher and a social and political philosopher, and an expert in care theory and liberal political theory. My work evaluates how our existing and unjust caregiving arrangements obstruct the path of autonomy for women of color. In two monographs, Freedom to Care: Liberalism, Dependency Care, and Culture (Routledge, 2020) and Being at Home: Living Autonomously in an Unjust World (Oxford University Press, 2026), a co-edited volume, Caring for Liberalism: Dependency and Liberal Political Theory (Routledge, 2021), a coauthored video game, Surviving “the Indifferents”, and journal articles and invited chapters, and I advance a theory of just caregiving, explicating the connection between deference and subordination, the social role of “caregiver”, and gender and race. This theory of just care asserts full claimant status for the category of people implicitly assigned to be caregivers. In the United States, this category coincides with the social group “woman of color”. Consequently, when a woman of color seeks to make formal entitlements effective, she elicits resistance, thereby revealing the systemic and interpersonal constraints of the social form.
Trained as a feminist philosopher in analytic programs, my work in political philosophy, feminist ethics, and care theory is oriented by “nonideological ideal theory”, which aims to improve the concepts we use in political philosophy when facts of oppression serve as the point of departure. My concept the arrow of care map (2017) enables tracking the caregiving individuals provide and receive from one another, bracketing the cultural assumptions that often operate to legitimate status quo arrangements. This concept then requires analyzing the patterns embedded in caregiving arrangements as systems in the society. My first monograph, Freedom to Care, advances a care-inclusive liberal political theory. Freedom to Care has been the subject of two journal symposia in international philosophy journals, The Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy (2021), and Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review (2023), where the abstract has been translated into French. For my established work on care, I was selected as a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the 2022 NEH Summer Institute: Philosophical Perspectives on Giving and Receiving Care, a speaker in the Social Human Rights and Relationship Goods Seminar in Spring 2022, and featured in the internationally renowned book series, Live from Prairie Lights (2021).
In my second monograph, Being at Home: Living Autonomously in an Unjust World (Oxford University Press, 2026), I build upon the “critical liberalism” of Freedom to Care to develop “intersectional liberalism”. Intersectional liberalism insists on the value of non-interference for women of color in a sovereign domain of body, family, and dwelling. I argue that women of color can, and do, live autonomously. However, to be at ease in the world while living as full claimants requires a set of skills and practices that I develop within the lineage of women of color political thought and feminist autonomy theory. Intersectional liberalism insists on the value of non-interference for women of color in a sovereign domain of body, family, and dwelling. I argue that women of color can, and do, live autonomously. However, to be at ease in the world while living as full claimants requires a set of skills and practices that I develop within the lineage of women of color political thought and feminist autonomy theory.
Trained as a feminist philosopher in analytic programs, my work in political philosophy, feminist ethics, and care theory is oriented by “nonideological ideal theory”, which aims to improve the concepts we use in political philosophy when facts of oppression serve as the point of departure. My concept the arrow of care map (2017) enables tracking the caregiving individuals provide and receive from one another, bracketing the cultural assumptions that often operate to legitimate status quo arrangements. This concept then requires analyzing the patterns embedded in caregiving arrangements as systems in the society. My first monograph, Freedom to Care, advances a care-inclusive liberal political theory. Freedom to Care has been the subject of two journal symposia in international philosophy journals, The Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy (2021), and Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review (2023), where the abstract has been translated into French. For my established work on care, I was selected as a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the 2022 NEH Summer Institute: Philosophical Perspectives on Giving and Receiving Care, a speaker in the Social Human Rights and Relationship Goods Seminar in Spring 2022, and featured in the internationally renowned book series, Live from Prairie Lights (2021).
In my second monograph, Being at Home: Living Autonomously in an Unjust World (Oxford University Press, 2026), I build upon the “critical liberalism” of Freedom to Care to develop “intersectional liberalism”. Intersectional liberalism insists on the value of non-interference for women of color in a sovereign domain of body, family, and dwelling. I argue that women of color can, and do, live autonomously. However, to be at ease in the world while living as full claimants requires a set of skills and practices that I develop within the lineage of women of color political thought and feminist autonomy theory. Intersectional liberalism insists on the value of non-interference for women of color in a sovereign domain of body, family, and dwelling. I argue that women of color can, and do, live autonomously. However, to be at ease in the world while living as full claimants requires a set of skills and practices that I develop within the lineage of women of color political thought and feminist autonomy theory.
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Website managed by Lulu Newhart-Roarick: [email protected]
Google Scholar
The University of Iowa
Academia
ORCiD
Or reach out to me at [email protected]
Website managed by Lulu Newhart-Roarick: [email protected]