In this episode Jacinta speaks with Aminah Hassan-Birdwell, Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Emory University, about 18th Century Fante-British abolitionist and philosopher Ottobah Cugoano. We focus on his essay "Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species," discussing its broad-spanning and interconnected critique of slavery, law, labour and colonization. Hassan-Birdwell considers the breadth of Cugoano’s perspective, explaining...

In this episode, Dr. Elena Gordon, a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University, delves into the overlooked yet significant contributions of Catharine Macaulay to the philosophy of education. We explore Macaulay’s dual role as a historian and philosopher, her views on reason, sympathy, and the relationship between humans and animals, as well as her unique stance on educational reform. Dr. Gordon also reflects on Macaulay’s feminist perspective and offers advice for young researchers...

In this episode, Jacinta Shrimpton talks with Kristin Gjesdal, Professor of Philosophy at Temple University in Philadelphia. They discuss the 19th century philosopher Germaine de Staël's account of the passions, her abolitionism, and the existentialist themes that run through her work.

In this episode, Haley speaks with Shuchen Xiang, professor of philosophy at Xidian University, about her new book, “Chinese Cosmopolitanism: The History and Philosophy of an Idea”. In discussing the book, we talk about historical Chinese accounts of a metaphysics of harmony, and how that metaphysics of harmony informs thinking about social identity and difference. We also discuss the aims and process of comparative philosophy.

In this episode, Haley speaks with Huaping Lu-Adler, associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, about her new book titled 'Kant, Race, and Racism: Views from Somewhere'. In the course of our conversation about the book, we discuss what it means to philosophize from a particular perspective, the compatibility of Kant's moral theory and his racist claims, the ways that our contemporary philosophical canon has its origins in Kant's writings, and the importance of community for...

In this episode, Olivia speaks with Allauren Samantha Forbes, an assistant professor in philosophy and gender and social justice at McMaster University. We discuss the thought of the French philosopher and novelist Madeleine de Scudéry, who lived from 1607 to 1701. Though historians of philosophy are most familiar with Scudéry for her later philosophical dialogues, our conversation focuses on an earlier publication: 1642’s Illustrious Women or Heroic Harangues. Allauren argues that this...

In this episode, Haley speaks with Dwight K. Lewis Jr., assistant professor in the philosophy department at the University of Minnesota. We talk about the life and works of the 18th century philosopher Anton Wilhelm Amo, including his account of kinds of prejudice, and his views on justice as a tool and paradigm for reasoning. We also talk about the different contexts and manifestations of political resistance, and the need for varied mediums for philosophical ideas. 

In this episode, Olivia speaks with Jorge Sanchez-Perez, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Extending New Narratives in the History of Philosophy project who is currently an assistant professor in philosophy at the University of Alberta. We discuss Jorge’s postdoctoral work on the Huarochirí manuscript – one of the few surviving records of indigenous Andean philosophy in the Quechua language – and talk about the metaphysical ideas Jorge has worked to uncover in the text. Jorge also...

In this episode, Olivia Branscum speaks with Phil Yaure – assistant professor of philosophy at Virginia Tech – about the political philosophy of Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born into slavery, but eventually became one of the most influential black abolitionists of the 19th century after escaping his enslaved condition and learning to read and write. Phil’s research focuses on Douglass as a political philosopher, with special concern for Douglass’s conception of the US constitution as an...

In this special collaborative episode, Haley and Olivia speak with Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril, a philosopher and podcaster who produces and hosts the Philosophy Casting Call podcast. Philosophy Casting Call shines a spotlight on thinkers, topics, and themes that are underrepresented in academic philosophy, which listeners will recognize as a mission dear to our own podcast as well. We highly recommend giving Philosophy Casting Call (and Élaina’s other podcasts) a listen! While our conversation...

In this episode, Haley Brennan speaks with Elliott Chen, New Narratives Post-Doc and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Xavier University starting Fall 2022, about his work on two early modern women philosophers of science: Émilie du Châtelet and Laura Bassi. We talk about du Châtelet’s arguments against essential gravity and Newtonian attraction, and Bassi’s experiments with electricity. We talk about why it is worth taking on projects on figures like Bassi, how you get going on this kind...

In this episode, Haley Brennan speaks with Dalitso Ruwe, Assistant Professor of Black Political Thought at Queen’s University, about his project of locating and understanding genealogies of Black and African philosophy. We talk about 18th century ontological and Biblical arguments against slavery, the relationship between practical and intellectual revolutions, and what it means to disrupt a system. We also discuss the value of each person’s own philosophical genealogy, and how to find...

In this episode, Haley Brennan talks with Kathryn Sophia Belle, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Penn State University and founder of the Collegium of Black Women Philosophers, about Black Feminist critiques of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. We talk about her upcoming book on the topic, with chapters on Claudia Jones, Lorraine Hansberry, Maria Stewart, Anna Julia Cooper, and Audre Lorde among others. We also talk about the philosophical-historical origins of the concept of...

In this episode, Olivia Branscum speaks with Nic Bommarito, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. We discuss the French philosopher Simone Weil (1909-1943), focusing especially on what she has to teach us about the moral value of attention and the true uses of education. Nic and I also talk about his work in Tibetan Buddhist thought and his experiences studying figures and traditions that have been excluded from mainstream histories of philosophy.

In this episode, Olivia Branscum speaks with Nastassja Pugliese, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. We talk about the life, work, and reception of the nineteenth-century Brazilian philosopher, Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta (born Dionísia Gonçalves Pinto in 1810). Nastassja and I talk about Nísia’s philosophy of education, her enlightenment critique of slavery and colonialism, and the common misconception that Nísia translated the work of Mary...

In this episode, Haley Brennan talks with Alison Stone, professor in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University. We discuss the work of British women philosophers of the 19th century, including Frances Power Cobbe, Ada Lovelace, and Harriet Martineau. We cover a range of topics that these philosophers worked on, including animal rights, feminism, ethics, and philosophy of mind. In addition to these topics, we talk about the correspondence that these woman had...

In this episode, Olivia Branscum speaks with Professor Gary Ostertag, Affiliated Associate Professor at the City University of New York and Chair of the philosophy department at Nassau Community College. We discuss the life, context, and achievements of Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones, an early analytic philosopher who was working at the same time as people like Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell. Gary and Olivia also talk about the positive philosophical value of writing about other people’s...

In this episode, Haley Brennan talks with Chike Jeffers, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University and Canada Research Chair in Africana Philosophy, about the history of Africana Philosophy. We talk about the work of, and what it is like to work on, figures including Anna Julia Cooper, W.E.B Du Bois, Edward Blyden, and Léopold Senghor. In the course of talking about these figures, we discuss the value of language to philosophy, identity, and culture, connections between the...

In this episode, Haley Brennan talks with Dalia Nassar, senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. We discuss the works of several German women philosophers in the late 18th and 19th centuries, including Germaine de Staël, Rosa Luxemburg, and Karoline von Günderrode. The women we discuss wrote on a wide range of topics: idealism, phenomenology, feminism, labour movements, workers’ rights, socialism, and environmental ethics. In addition to these topics, we...

In this episode, Olivia Branscum talks with Christina Van Dyke, professor emerita of philosophy at Calvin University, about women philosophers in the medieval Latin west. We discuss the contemplative and mystical traditions of philosophy in the middle ages, which focused on an engaged, practical search for truth rather than the abstract arguments that dominated other philosophical traditions. Many women medieval philosophers – such as Julian of Norwich, Angela Foligno, Catherine of Siena,...

In this episode, Haley Brennan talks with Sergio Gallegos Ordorica, an assistant professor at John Jay College, about the Mexican philosopher Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. We talk about how Sergio became interested in studying Sor Juana as a philosopher, how that study can be complicated by a background in analytic philosophy, some of Sor Juana’s views on love, shame, and the self, and how her identity as a Mexican women shaped her philosophy, including her views on how philosophy can be done...

Haley Brennan talks with Sergio Gallegos Ordorica, an assistant professor at John Jay College, about the Mexican philosopher Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Topics include: how Sergio became interested in studying Sor Juana as a philosopher, how that study can be complicated by a background in analytic philosophy, some of Sor Juana’s views on love, shame, and the self, and how her identity as a Mexican women shaped her philosophy, including her views on how philosophy can be done absent...

Welcome to New Voices, a podcast from the Extending New Narratives in the History of Philosophy project! There will be a new episode every month, starting June 2021.