Ellie Anderson

Assistant Professor of Philosophy
ellie.anderson@pomona.edu
Office:
Pearsons Hall
201B

With Pomona Since: 2020
Ellie Anderson
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  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Ellie Anderson specializes in continental European philosophy, with emphasis on 20th-century French philosophy and feminist theory. Her research focuses on relational theories of selfhood, the philosophy of love, and sexual ethics. Her article 鈥淗ermeneutic Labor: The Gendered Burden of Interpretation in Intimate Relationships Between Women and Men鈥 was one of Hypatia's top-read articles in 2023 and 2024, and her work has been featured in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Slate and more. She is currently completing a monograph on the phenomenology of selfhood and a series of articles on sexual ethics and love, as well as preparing a book critically analyzing self-care and self-objectification in contemporary life.

    Anderson is co-host of Overthink podcast and YouTube channel, a top .5% podcast worldwide with over 5 million views on YouTube that relates the history of philosophy to contemporary culture. Her work with Overthink is regularly assigned in college classrooms nationwide. She is also the host of the Crash Course series on political theory.

    A vocal advocate for philosophical pluralism, including continental philosophy and global traditions, Anderson received her Ph.D. from Emory University in 2016. She serves on the editorial board of Continental Philosophy Review and the outreach committee for the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP). Anderson鈥檚 work in public philosophy has been supported by the Marc Sanders Foundation鈥檚 Philosophy in the Media Fellowship, the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good's Signature Course Fellowship, and Wig and Hahn grants at 色中色. Prior to joining Pomona in 2020, she taught at Pitzer College, Scripps College and Muhlenberg College. She received the Wig Distinguished Professor Award at Pomona in 2024.

    You can find Overthink on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok at @overthink_pod and on the website overthinkpodcast.com. Anderson is on Instagram and Twitter at @ellieanderphd, and you can find more about her work at ellieandersonphd.com.

    Research Interests

    • Feminist Theory
    • Selfhood and Personal Identity
    • Phenomenology 
    • Philosophy of Love
    • Sexual Ethics

    Areas of Expertise

    • Phenomenology
    • Existentialism
    • Poststructuralism
    • Feminist Theory
    • Philosophy of Race
  • Work

    Work

    鈥淧henomenology and Existentialism,鈥 in Encyclopedia of Phenomenology, ed. Ted Toadvine and Nicolas de Warren. New York: Springer (forthcoming).

    鈥淪exuality as a Theme in Phenomenology,鈥 in Encyclopedia of Phenomenology, ed. Ted Toadvine and Nicolas de Warren. New York: Springer (forthcoming).

    鈥淏eauvoir on Non-Monogamy in Loving Relationships,鈥 in the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Existentialism, ed. Kevin Aho. New York: Routledge, 2024.

    鈥淗ermeneutic Labor: The Gendered Burden of Interpretation in Intimate Relationships Between Women and Men.鈥 Hypatia 38: 177-197, 2023.

     podcast

    鈥淭he Ethical Significance of Being an Erotic Object,鈥 co-written with Caleb Ward. The Palgrave Handbook of Sexual Ethics, ed. David Boonin (2022).

    鈥淓rotic Love and Marriage in Beauvoir鈥檚 The Second Sex,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Le Deuxi猫me Sexe Seventy Years On, ed. Pauline Henry-Tierney and Julia Bullock (2023).

    鈥淨uestions to Jacques Derrida鈥 and 鈥淥celle comme pas un,鈥 by Jacques Derrida, co-translated with Philippe Lynes, in Thinking What Comes, ed. Geoffrey Bennington and Kas Saghafi (forthcoming).

    "Phenomenology and the Ethics of Love." Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy, 2021.

    "Sartre's Affective Turn: Shame as Recognition in 'The Look." Philosophy Today, 65:3, Summer 2021. 

    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, co-written with Cynthia Willett and Diana Tietjen Meyers. First published July 2015; updated February 2020.

    Unmute podcast, episode 51, interviewed by host Myisha Cherry:

    American Philosophical Association (APA) Women in Philosophy blog, April 23. 

    "From Existential Alterity to Ethical Reciprocity: Beauvoir's Alternative to Levinas." Continental Philosophy Review, 52:2, 2019, 171-189.

    鈥Abraham鈥檚 Melancholy,鈥 by Jacques Derrida, co-translated with Philippe Lynes, Oxford Literary Review, 39:2, 153-188.

    "Autoeroticism: Rethinking Self-Love with Derrida and Irigaray.鈥 PhaenEx: Journal of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, 12:1, Spring/Summer 2017, 53-70. 

    鈥淭he Other (Woman): Limits of Knowledge in Beauvoir鈥檚 Ethics of Reciprocity,鈥&苍产蝉辫;The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 28:3, 380-388, 2014.
     

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D., Philosophy, Emory University

    Master of Arts, Philosophy, Emory University

    Bachelor of Arts, optima, Philosophy, Trinity College

  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    • Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good Signature Course Fellow, 2024-25
    • Wig Distinguished Professor Award, 色中色, 2024
    • Wig Teaching Innovation Grant, 色中色, 2021, 2022, 2023
    • Hahn Teaching with Technology Grant, 色中色, 2021
    • Marc Sanders Foundation Philosophy in the Media Fellow in Podcasting, 2021-22
    • Piedmont TATTO Fellowship in Sustainability, Teaching, and Curriculum, Emory University, 2015
    • Arts & Sciences Fellowship, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, 2011-2016
    • Phi Beta Kappa, 2010
    • President's Fellow of Philosophy, Trinity College, 2010

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Claremont, CA 91711

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