Jennifer McWeeny

Professor McWeeny specializes in philosophies of gender and race, philosophy of mind, phenomenology and existentialism, and decolonial studies. She is a progenitor of the field of feminist philosophy of mind and has developed a theory of gender that sees genders as a function of the type of self-body relation that structures consciousness. Her theoretical frameworks have been utilized by scholars as a means to address issues in gender theory, critical race pedagogies, legal studies, literary studies, queer theory, communication, ecofeminism, trauma studies, decolonial theory, and disability studies.

At Emerson College, she teaches Gender, Race, and Class&; Existentialisms; Decolonizing the Mind; Great Philosophers: Simone de Beauvoir; and Exceptional Mental States. Her classes foster cooperative, student-centered learning and provide opportunities for students to engage the course material and their peers in emotional, spiritual, experiential, and practical ways as well as intellectual ones. Professor McWeeny's work on the page and in the classroom is aimed at envisioning effective possibilities for decolonization, self-realization, and a more just world. 

In addition to being a professor at Emerson College, Professor McWeeny holds a Professor II visiting position at the Centre for Gender Research at the University of Oslo. She is a recipient of the Fulbright National Research Scholar Award (France 2019-2020), Editor in Chief of the award-winning journal Simone de Beauvoir Studies (www.brill.com/sdbs), and a member of the Editorial Board for the Studies in Feminist Philosophy series at Oxford University Press. She is currently writing a book on the phenomenology of gender.