Join 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Romanell Professor Naomi Zack at Lehman College of The City University of New York (CUNY) to hear this prolific author and scholar deliver a series of lectures on the philosophy of intersectionality. This is an in-person rescheduled event that was postponed in March 2020 due to COVID. Guests who are not students, faculty or staff must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test administered within 7 days of the event in order to attend. To attend this event virtually, click here to register.

12–12:30 p.m.: Welcome and Introductions

12:30–1:45 p.m.: What Is Intersectionality?

2–3:15 p.m.: Problems with Intersectionality and Solutions

3:30–5 p.m.: Intersectionality, Ethics and Higher Education

5-6 p.m.: Closing Reception (East Dining Room)

Location: Lovinger Theatre, Lehman College

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments and light fare will be served at each reception.

Naomi Zack received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University. She joined the Philosophy Department at Lehman College, CUNY, in Fall 2019. Zack’s newest book is The American Tragedy of COVID-19: Social and Political Crises of 2020 (March 2021). Related recent books are: Progressive Anonymity: From Identity Politics to Evidence-Based Government (November 2020); Reviving the Social Compact: Inclusive Citizenship in an Age of Extreme Politics, (October 2018); The Theory of Applicative Justice: An Empirical Pragmatic Approach to Correcting Racial Injustice (2016); White Privilege and Black Rights: The Injustice of US Police Racial Profiling and Homicide (2015) and The Ethics and Mores of Race: Equality after the History of Philosophy (2011, 2015). Additional monographs include: Ethics for Disaster (2009, 2010), Inclusive Feminism: A Third Wave Theory of Women’s Commonality (2005), the short textbook, Thinking About Race, 1998, 2006); Bachelors of Science: 17th Century Identity Then and Now (1996); Philosophy of Science and Race (2002); Race and Mixed Race (1993); an edited 51-contributor Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race (January, 2017). In progress is Progressive Anonymity: From Identity Politics to Evidence-based Government. Zack is the winner of the 2019-20 PBK Romanell lectureship in philosophy.

Zack has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses at the University at Albany, SUNY and the University of Oregon, including ethics, existentialism, newly designed courses on disaster and homelessness, as well as seminars on race, early modern philosophers, the history of political and moral philosophy, and twentieth century analytic philosophy. Zack generally considers herself a common-sense philosopher, able to engage both abstract and real world problems with methods from a plurality of traditions. Her early work on race focused on the biological emptiness of human racial categories and the conundrum of mixed-race identities (especially black and white mixed race). Since 2010, Zack’s work on race has been more broadly concerned with concrete injustice and abstract theories of injustice that extend beyond race. Recent interviews about her critique of white privilege discourse include: PhilosophyTalk.org, “White Privilege and Racial Justice,” Feb. 14, 2016; Interview about critique of white privilege discourse on PRI, “To the Best of Our Knowledge,” Oct. 17, 2015; “What ‘White Privilege’ Really Means,” Interview by George Yancy in The New York Times, Opinionator, Stone, Nov. 5, 2014.

About the Romanell-Phi Beta Kappa Professorship

The Romanell-Phi Beta Kappa Professorship is awarded annually to scholars in the field of philosophy, without restriction to any one school of philosophical thought. The professorship recognizes not only distinguished achievement but also the recipient’s contribution or potential contribution to public understanding of philosophy. Established in 1983, the endowment honors Patrick Romanell (ΦBK, Brooklyn College), H.Y. Benedict Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas, El Paso, and his wife Edna Romanell.