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Philosophy

The IU Bloomington Libraries' Philosophy collection supports research and teaching in all branches of philosophy.

Introduction

In honor of Pride Month, we have crafted a resource guide centered on queer philosophers and philosophies. We want to highlight LGBTQ+ thinkers and their work, and celebrate the tremendous impact and contribution to the field of philosophy. These thinkers represent only a handful of the many important queer philosophers of history and today, and we hope you'll continue to learn and explore beyond the scholars and lineages of thought we've highlighted here.

Further Reading and Exploration

Next Steps

As with many of these national commemorations, one month is never enough time to fully honor and celebrate the history and culture of marginalized communities, let alone heal the legacies (and ongoing reality) of harm they've experienced. We recognize that there is much more to be done, and that the work of realizing justice won't soon be over. But nevertheless, we keep trying, contributing how we can and building upon the efforts of those who came before us, and we continue to learn from and with one another.

If you'd like to engage more deeply with Pride Month, IU Libraries have created a number of interrelated resources and features to provide more holistic coverage of this celebration. You'll find those, below:

Prominent Queer Philosophers

A selection of Queer philosophers, along with a summary of their research areas and interests:

  • Henry D. Abelove - history of sex in the modern era, gay and lesbian studies, queer theory
  • Sara Ahmed - feminist theory, lesbian feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post-colonialism, affect theory
  • Gloria E. Anzaldúa - feminist theory, queer theory, marginalized cultures
  • Kwame Anthony Appiah - New York University; ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of race, probability and decision theory
  • Alexandre Baril - University of Ottawa; feminist/gender theory, trans theory, disability/mad/crip theory, suicide and critical suicidology, assisted suicide and medical assistance in dying (MAID), linguistic minorities, feminist philosophy and ethics, aging and dementia, sociology of the body/health/social movements, social work and diversity
  • Roland Barthes - literary semiotics, semiotics of photography, comics semiotics, literary theory, narratology, linguistics; influenced development of structuralism, anthropology, literary theory, and post-structuralism
  • C.D. Broad - Cambridge University; metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of mind, logic
  • Wendy Brown - University of California, Berkeley; continental philosophy, critical theory, feminism, queer theory, postmodernism, post-structuralism, critical legal studies, democracy, sovereignty, citizenship, rights, gender, identity, power, discourse, liberalism, neoliberalism, tolerance, psychoanalysis, state, law, secularism, critique
  • Judith Butler - feminist theory, political philosophy, ethics, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, discourse, embodiment, sexuality, gender studies, queer theory, Jewish philosophy
  • Sophia Grace Chappell - Open University; moral philosophy, ethics, identity, gender role theory
  • Frances Power Cobbe - Kantian ethics, theism, and intuitionism, animal rights, aesthetics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion
  • John Corvino - Wayne State University; ethics, applied ethics, LGBTQ studies, early modern philosophy, David Hume
  • Angela Davis - political philosophy, feminist theory
  • Michel Foucault - ethics, historical epistemology, history of ideas, philosophy of literature, philosophy of technology, political philosophy
  • Jack Halberstam - Columbia University; queer theory, feminist theory
  • Guy Hocquenghem - queer theory, continental philosophy
  • bell hooks - Berea College; feminist theory, intersectionality, race, social class, gender, art, history, sexuality, mass media
  • David Hull - Northwestern University; philosophy of biology, species-as-individuals, evolutionary interactors
  • Alain LeRoy Locke - philosophy of race, value theory, pluralism, relativism, aesthetics
  • María Lugones - Binghamton University, La Escuela Popular Norteña; feminist theory, race, decolonial feminism, Latino philosophy
  • Timothy Morton - Rice University; metaphysics, realism, ecocriticism, object-oriented ontology
  • Paul B. Preciado - sexuality, gender identity, history of technology
  • Alan Turing - logic, mathematics, cryptanalysis, computer science, mathematical and theoretical biology
  • Gianni Vattimo - ethics, political philosophy
  • Susan Sontag - cultural critic; metaphysics, ethics, Greek philosophy, Continental philosophy, and theology
  • Leo Bersani - queer theory, literary criticism
  • Tim Dean - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - queer theory, poetry and poetics, psychoanalysis, literary and cultural theory
  • David M. Halperin - University of Michigan; queer theory
  • José Esteban Muñoz - queer theory, race and affect studies, performance studies, cultural studies, critical theory
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein - logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language
  • Michael Warner - Yale University; queer theory, social theory, literary criticism

Books

Scholarly Work