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Erin McKenna Joins UO Philosophy Faculty

erin-mckennaThe Department of Philosophy welcomes Erin McKenna to a tenure-track position as Professor of Philosophy beginning in Fall 2016. Erin McKenna is the former Chair of Philosophy, former Chair of Women’s Studies, and former Chair of the Faculty at Pacific Lutheran University where she began teaching in 1992.

Erin McKenna specializes in feminist theory and American Pragmatism, focusing on issues of social and political philosophy. She has recently co-authored, along with Scott Pratt, American Philosophy: From Wounded Knee to the Present (Bloomsbury, April 2015). Her book Pets, People, and Pragmatism (Fordham UP, 2013) explores the history and ethical implications of humans’ relationships with other animal beings. She also co-edited a volume on this topic titled Animal Pragmatism: Rethinking Human Nonhuman Relationships (Indiana UP, 2004). Her book The Task of Utopia: A Pragmatist and Feminist Perspective (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001) focuses on the work of John Dewey. Some of her articles include “Pragmatism and Primates,” “Women, Power, and Meat,” “Feminism and Vegetarianism,” “The Occupied West Bank,” and “Some Reflections Concerning Feminist Pedagogy.” She has chapters in The Philosophy of the X Files (University Press of Kentucky, 2009) and Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy (Open Court, 2008). Erin McKenna also co-edited Jimmy Buffett and Philosophy for Open Court in 2009.

Her current project is a book on the ethics of human relationships with livestock.