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Photograph of Ellen Feder

Ellen Feder Professor Philosophy and Religion

Additional Positions at AU
Chair, Department of Philosophy and Religion
Internship Advisor
Degrees
PhD, SUNY Stony Brook; BA, Wesleyan University

Bio
Ellen K. Feder is the William Fraser McDowell Professor of Philosophy and Social Policy. She works at the intersection of contemporary continental philosophy and feminist and critical race theory, particularly as these relate to matters of social policy. Family Bonds: Genealogies of Race and Gender applies Foucault's method to thinking about the intersecting "production" of race and gender, that is, how these categories are intelligible as categories, together with the way they come to make sense of us. Her current project, tentatively entitled Disturbing Bodies, extends the analysis to contemporary medical management of "intersex" bodies. Dr. Feder's recent work has been published in the Hastings Center Report, GLQ, and The Lancet. Dr. Feder has also participated in a task force charged with making recommendations about the current diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder for the forthcoming edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
See Also
Department of Philosophy and Religion
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Partnerships & Affiliations

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Research Interests

Contemporary continental philosophy, social and political philosophy, ethics, feminist theory, and critical race theory.

Work In Progress

Disturbing Bodies, book-length project on ethics and intersex

Selected Publications

  • Family Bonds: Genealogies of Race and Gender, Oxford University Press, 2007
  • A Passion for Wisdom: Readings in Western Philosophy on Love and Desire (with Karmen MacKendrick and Sybol Cook), Prentice Hall, 2004
  • The Subject of Care: Feminist Perspectives on Dependency (with Eva Feder Kittay), Rowman and Littlefield, 2002
  • Derrida and Feminism: Recasting the Question of Woman (with Mary C. Rawlinson and Emily Zakin), Routledge, 1997