a fundamentally Appalachian feminist
In her late biographical work, belonging, bell hooks wrote,
“As a black woman writing about Appalachia, I receive little notice. I can talk about race, gender, and class and be heard, but few listen when I speak on environmental issues and how rural black folks hold the earth sacred. Then, as a voice for Appalachia, Wendell Berry is heard. Suddenly, I listened to his words and learned. Fervently, he teaches me. But like a mighty giant, a goliath, as a Kentucky black female writer, I stand continually in his shadows. I am not considered a companion voice. We do not join together to speak our love for Kentucky, our hopes for earth free from exploitation.”
Building on my experience growing up in a small, Appalachian town and the wisdom of rural feminists like bell hooks, my philosophical work aims to to re-center marginalized rural voices to better understand the relationship between poverty and political extremism, as well as re-imagine and restore rural futurity.
methodology
I specialize in feminist philosophy, social and political philosophy, and applied ethics. My research aims to mediate theory, community and policy spaces, building bridges to support the translation of marginalized community wisdom of rural poverty and extremism into practical solutions.
Thus, in line with the tradition of feminist praxis-philosophy, my research is methodologically promiscuous, adopting different tools for different features of these complex problems.
My philosophical interests range from critical phenomenology and hermeneutics to non-ideal social epistemology, philosophy of education, (feminist non-violence) political theory, critical histories of philosophy, feminist pragmatism, care ethics and the philosophy of emotion.
I also draw on interdisciplinary resources in community-based participatory action research, sociology, ethnography, political science and moral psychology.
Publications
“Weaving Peace in Rural America: Jane Addams’ Participatory Path Beyond Rural Poverty and Extremism.” The Pluralist. 20 (1):29-40 (2025). DOI 10.5406/19446489.20.1.03. *Awarded the Addams Prize at the 2024 SAAP meeting.
“Facing Epistemic Uncertainty: A Response to The Philosophy Garden’s Pedagogical Approach to Conspiracy Theorizing.” with Ksenia Filatov. Philosophy of Education 80(1): 157-172. doi: 10.47925/80.1.157
“Elegiac Imagination: Reclaiming Rural Futurity through Grief.” (2025). Envisioning Democratic Futures. Clough Center Journal. 3: 148-153.
(forthcoming). “Constructing Sustainable Matrixes: Extending Cordova’s Philosophy of Education.” Edited volume on Cordova’s Indigenous Philosophy How It Is. Editors Joseph L. Miller, Janella Baxter, and Getty Lustila.
(forthcoming). “Resisting the Climate Injustice of Rural Extractive Economic Dependence: A Landscape Architect’s Reflections on AI.” Administrative theory and Praxis. Special Issue on Peace and Public Administration. Edited by Pat Shields.
(forthcoming). “How Philosophers Can Serve Climate Justice: Reflections on Rural Sustainability Attitudes and COP29.” Current Events in Public Philosophy Series. Blog of the APA.
Upcoming Talks
“Re-constructing the Rural Lifeworld with Elegiac Imagination Main Program. British Society for Phenomeology 2025 Conference, Lifeworlds in Crisis: Aplying Phenomenology. 27-29, August. University College Dublin. Dublin, Ireland.
“Militarism, Patriotism, and Rural Misogynistic Shame.” WOGAP 25th Anniversary Conference. MIT, June 12-15, 2025.
“Place-Based Grief, Elegiac Imagination and Futurity: The Hermeneutic Soul of bell hooks.” Part of Panel Discussion: “Dwelling in Conversation: The Promise and Peril of Rootedness” with Gregory Fried and Tara Rose Toth. Through Machination Toward Dwelling: Inceptive Thinking. 59th Annual Meeting of the Heidegger Circle. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. May 15th-18th, 2025.
“Petro-Masculinity as Affective Injustice” Workshop on Gender and Philosophy (WOGAP), MIT. May 6th, Boston, MA.
Comments on Karsten Struhl’s “Collective Trauma, Revenge. And Cycles of Violence: A Buddhist Approach to the Israeli-Palestinian Situation.” Sofphia Spring 2025 Meeting, SUNY Cortland, New York. May 2nd.
“Petro-Masculinity as Affective Injustice.” Emotion and Society Lab Doctoral Fellowship Works in Progress Session. Online. April 25th. In conversation with Mariana Ortega and Serene Khader.