Quill Kukla (previously known as Rebecca Kukla) is a Canadian and American philosopher. They are a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University and the Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. In 2020 and 2021, they were Humboldt Research Scholar at Leibniz University Hannover.[1] They are known for their work in bioethics, analytic epistemology, philosophy of language, and feminist philosophy.[2]

Quill R. Kukla
Born
Rebecca Kukla

Alma materUniversity of Pittsburgh
Occupations
  • Philosopher
  • geographer
EraContemporary philosophy
SchoolPittsburgh school, Standpoint theory
InstitutionsGeorgetown University
Doctoral advisorJohn Haugeland
Main interests

Biography

edit

Kukla received their bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Toronto in 1990 and their PhD in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, where their supervisor was John Haugeland.[3] Kukla held various academic appointments in the United States and Canada before taking up their current post at Georgetown; these include Johns Hopkins University, Queen's University at Kingston, Carleton University (where they held a tenured appointment), and the University of South Florida. At the latter, they were professor in both the Department of Philosophy and in the School of Medicine.[3] Kukla is editor-in-chief of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal and former editor-in-chief of Public Affairs Quarterly.[citation needed] They were formerly co-coordinator of the Feminist Approaches to Bioethics network.[citation needed] They completed a master's degree in geography at Hunter College in 2019.[citation needed]

Kukla has been interviewed about their work in various venues, including 3:AM,[4] The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Slate, and Quartz. Their work on historical, cultural, and political attitudes towards bodies, especially those of mothers and pregnant women—found in their 2005 book, Mass Hysteria: Medicine, Culture, and Mothers' Bodies—has led to their being interviewed and authoring media articles on topics including the culture of pregnancy,[5][6] sexual fetishes,[7] and attitudes towards race and obesity.[8] They are a vocal defender of women, ethnic minorities, and other minorities, especially in academia, and have been interviewed in the media on this topic.[9][10]

Kukla additionally competes in powerlifting, and they have won national and state-level medals in the discipline.[11]

Publications

edit

Books

Edited books

  • R. Kukla, ed. Aesthetics and Cognition in Kant's Critical Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
  • J. Arras, R. Kukla, and E. Fenton, ed. The Routledge Companion to Bioethics (Routledge, 2012)

Dissertation Rebecca Kukla, Conformity, Creativity, and the Social Constitution of the Subject (Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh: 1995).[12]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Visiting scholars at the Institute of Philosophy". philos.uni-hannover.de.
  2. ^ "Rebecca Kukla, PhD – the Kennedy Institute of Ethics".[dead link]
  3. ^ a b "CV" (PDF). kennedyinstitute.georgetown.edu. 2014. Archived version.
  4. ^ "The relentless naturalist". 3ammagazine.com. May 27, 2013.
  5. ^ "Are all women born to be mothers?". washingtonpost.com. August 31, 2012.
  6. ^ "How "Pickles and Ice Cream" Became the Iconic "Crazy" Snack for Pregnant Women". slate.com. April 18, 2018.
  7. ^ "Inside the Lactation Fetish That Imagines Women as Cows". vice.com. April 24, 2018.
  8. ^ "Eric Garner and the Value of Black Obese Bodies". huffingtonpost.com. December 17, 2014.
  9. ^ "One spreadsheet reveals the horrifying ubiquity of sexual harassment in academia". qz.com. December 12, 2017.
  10. ^ "Worried About a Bleak Future, Climate Change Activists Hesitant to Have Kids". npr.org. August 28, 2016.
  11. ^ "Lifting Database".
  12. ^ Kukla, Rebecca (1995). Conformity, Creativity, and the Social Constitution of the Subject (PhD thesis). University of Pittsburgh.