I'm a philosopher and feminist theorist. I think a lot about the values that orient feminist politics. Much of my work begins from questions that arise in the lives of women of color and women in the global South.
I am currently finishing a trade book entitled Faux Feminism: Why We Fall for White Feminism and How We Can Stop (Beacon 2024). I argue in it that white feminism, and other feminisms for the few such as neoliberal and “girlboss” and colonial feminism, are united by a single underlying value: individual freedom. Feminism is a movement against inequality, and seeing this is the key to real liberation. Inquiries about this book can be directed to my agent, Markus Hoffman at Regal Hoffman and Associates.
My most recent book, Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic (Oxford University Press 2018) asks what values should guide transnational feminist solidarity. I argue that feminism respect cultural and religious differences and acknowledge the legacy of imperialism without surrendering its core ethical commitment to opposing oppression. Some of the arguments I develop in the book are condensed for a popular audience in this piece I wrote for The New York Times. You can also read a review of the book in the Australian Review of Books here.
My work on adaptive preferences, including my first book Adaptive Preferences and Women’s Empowerment (Oxford University Press 2011) is about women's autonomy and agency in cross-cultural contexts and under conditions of coloniality. It develops a framework for responding to choices made by oppressed and deprived people that perpetuate their own oppression and deprivation. You can read more about the practical implications of this work for gender and development practice here and here. You can read more about my underlying theory of autonomy here.
My areas of research within philosophy include ethics and moral psychology, political philosophy, and feminist philosophy. I also work in the interdisciplinary fields of development ethics and global, decolonial and postcolonial feminisms. Some of the transnational practices I have analyzed in this work include microcredit, household divisions of labor, and commercial gestational surrogacy.
I hold the Jay Newman Chair in Philosophy of Culture at Brooklyn College and am Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Gender Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.
My pronouns are she/her, and I pronounce my last name [KAW]-der.
You can download my cv here.
I am currently finishing a trade book entitled Faux Feminism: Why We Fall for White Feminism and How We Can Stop (Beacon 2024). I argue in it that white feminism, and other feminisms for the few such as neoliberal and “girlboss” and colonial feminism, are united by a single underlying value: individual freedom. Feminism is a movement against inequality, and seeing this is the key to real liberation. Inquiries about this book can be directed to my agent, Markus Hoffman at Regal Hoffman and Associates.
My most recent book, Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic (Oxford University Press 2018) asks what values should guide transnational feminist solidarity. I argue that feminism respect cultural and religious differences and acknowledge the legacy of imperialism without surrendering its core ethical commitment to opposing oppression. Some of the arguments I develop in the book are condensed for a popular audience in this piece I wrote for The New York Times. You can also read a review of the book in the Australian Review of Books here.
My work on adaptive preferences, including my first book Adaptive Preferences and Women’s Empowerment (Oxford University Press 2011) is about women's autonomy and agency in cross-cultural contexts and under conditions of coloniality. It develops a framework for responding to choices made by oppressed and deprived people that perpetuate their own oppression and deprivation. You can read more about the practical implications of this work for gender and development practice here and here. You can read more about my underlying theory of autonomy here.
My areas of research within philosophy include ethics and moral psychology, political philosophy, and feminist philosophy. I also work in the interdisciplinary fields of development ethics and global, decolonial and postcolonial feminisms. Some of the transnational practices I have analyzed in this work include microcredit, household divisions of labor, and commercial gestational surrogacy.
I hold the Jay Newman Chair in Philosophy of Culture at Brooklyn College and am Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Gender Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.
My pronouns are she/her, and I pronounce my last name [KAW]-der.
You can download my cv here.