New MALAS Seminar: PHIL 506/MALAS 600A: 20th Century Continental Philosophy Professor Marie Draz, Assistant Professor, Philosophy

PHIL 506/MALAS 600A: 20th Century Continental Philosophy

Professor Marie Draz, Assistant Professor, Philosophy

The label “Continental philosophy” is often applied to 19th and 20th century European philosophy. As an umbrella term for a disparate set of ideas and texts, Continental philosophy is associated with philosophical movements such as phenomenology, existentialism, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and critical theory. In this course, we will begin with one of the major 19th century touchstones for later Continental philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche. We will take up Nietzsche’s influential account of truth and lies as well as his attention to how philosophy is historically and culturally situated.

Click to enlarge

We will then move into the 20th century through an examination of selected texts by Michel Foucault, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Simone de Beauvoir on issues ranging from genealogy and power to recognition and identity formation. These texts will be put into conversation with short contemporary readings (Ann Stoler, Lisa Guenther, Lewis Gordon, Ralph Ellison, Kathryn Gines) that raise critical questions about history and power. Finally, we will explore how Continental philosophy has traveled beyond Europe by reading two of the thinkers most associated with 20th century continental philosophy: Frantz Fanon and Judith Butler. Their work both draws on and critiques the figures and traditions of continental philosophy through questions about race, colonialism, gender, violence, and the concept of the human. 

Marie Draz, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor | Phone: (619) 594-5249 | Office: AL-429 | Email: mdraz@sdsu.edu

Dr. Marie Draz works in the areas of social and political philosophy, applied ethics, Continental philosophy, feminist philosophy, theories of race and gender, and LGBTQ studies. Her current research examines how ideas about biological sex are maintained through state institutions (e.g. identity documents, the census, and sex-segregated institutions) and the impact of this control on people’s lives. In her recent published work, she has explored the relationship between this state administration of gender and theories of race, colonialism, and time. Dr. Draz has also served as a teaching assistant for the Philosophy in a Key Summer Institute Program and a mentor for The Job Candidate Mentoring Program in Philosophy; she is committed to working with members of groups currently underrepresented in philosophy. She is affiliated faculty with SDSU’s LGBT Studies Program, Women’s Studies Department, and LGBTQ research consortium.