Linda Martín Alcoff

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}} {{Infobox philosopher | honorific_prefix = | name = Linda Martín Alcoff | native_name =  | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | other_names = Linda Alcoff | birth_name =  | birth_date = 1955-07-25 | birth_place = Panama | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | residence = | home_town = | spouse = | partner = | education = {{hlist | Georgia State University (BA, MA) | Brown University (PhD)}} | alma_mater = | notable_works =  | awards = | signature = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | era = Contemporary philosophy | region = Western philosophy | school_tradition = {{hlist | Continental philosophy | feminist philosophy}} | institutions = {{hlist | Hunter College | CUNY Graduate Center}} | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year =  | doctoral_advisor = Ernest Sosa | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | main_interests = {{hlist | Social epistemology | feminist philosophy | philosophy of gender and race | Foucault}} | notable_ideas = | influences =  | influenced =  | website =  }}

'''Linda Martín Alcoff''' is a Panamanian American philosopher and professor of philosophy at Hunter College, City University of New York. Alcoff specializes in social epistemology, feminist philosophy, philosophy of race, decolonial theory and continental philosophy, especially the work of Michel Foucault.<ref name="CUNY">{{Cite web |title=CUNY Graduate Center Faculty Bio |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Philosophy/Faculty-Bios/Linda-Martin-Alcoff |publisher=City University of New York |accessdate=June 21, 2020}}</ref> She has authored or edited more than a dozen books, including ''Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self'' (2006), ''The Future of Whiteness'' (2015), and ''Rape and Resistance'' (2018). Her public philosophy writing has been published in The Guardian and The New York Times.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Guardian Author Page |url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/linda-mart-n-alcoff |website=The Guardian |accessdate=June 22, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=NYTimes Opinionator Author Page |url=https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/linda-martin-alcoff/ |website=The New York Times |date=February 4, 2015 |accessdate=June 22, 2020}}</ref>

Alcoff has called for greater inclusion of historically underrepresented groups in philosophy. She notes that philosophers from these groups have created new fields of inquiry, including feminist philosophy, critical race theory, Latino philosophy, and LGBTQ philosophy.<ref name="Mann">{{Cite journal |last=Mann |first=Bonnie |year=2013 |title=Three White Men Walk into a Bar |journal=Radical Philosophy Review |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=733–746 |doi=10.5840/radphilrev201316354}}</ref><ref name="CHE">{{Cite journal |last=Wilson |first=Robin |date=January 18, 2013 |title=Women Challenge Male Philosophers to Make Room in Unfriendly Field |url=http://www.chronicle.com/article/Female-Philosophers-Shake-Up/136629/ |journal=Chronicle of Higher Education |volume=59 |issue=19 |pages=A1–A6}}</ref> From 2012 to 2013, she served as president of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division.<ref name="APApast">{{Cite web |title=APA Divisional Presidents & Addresses |url=http://www.apaonline.org/?page=presidents |publisher=American Philosophical Association |accessdate=February 22, 2014}}</ref> In February 2018 she was appointed president of the board of directors of Hypatia, Inc., the non-profit corporation that owns the feminist philosophy journal ''Hypatia''.<ref name="search23Feb2018">{{Cite web |date=February 23, 2018 |title=Announcement from Hypatia's Board of Directors and Task Force Co-Chairs |url=http://hypatiaphilosophy.org/announcements/announcement-hypatias-board-directors-task-force-co-chairs/ |url-status=live |publisher=Hypatia |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301164503/http://hypatiaphilosophy.org/announcements/announcement-hypatias-board-directors-task-force-co-chairs/ |archivedate=March 1, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Weinberg24July2017">{{Cite news |last=Weinberg |first=Justin |date=July 24, 2017 |title=Hypatia's Associate Editors Resign |work=Daily Nous |url=http://dailynous.com/2017/07/24/hypatias-associate-editors-resign/}}</ref>

==Early life and education== Alcoff was born in Panama,<ref name=YancyAlcoff/> the younger of two daughters to an Irish mother, Laura, and Panamanian father, Miguel Angel Martín, who met while studying at Florida State University.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Alcoff|first1=Linda Martin|title=The Future of Whiteness|date=2015|publisher=Polity Press|location=Cambridge and Malden|pages=30–31, 34}}</ref> Her father became a professor of history at the Universidad de Panama.<ref>Alcoff, Linda Martín (2006). ''Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self''. Oxford University Press. pp. vii, 8.</ref> When her parents separated, Alcoff moved with her mother and sister to Florida when she was three.<ref name="YancyAlcoff">{{cite news|last1=Yancy|first1=George|last2=Alcoff|first2=Linda Martín|title=Philosophy's Lost Body and Soul|url=https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/philosophys-lost-body-and-soul/|work=The New York Times|date=February 4, 2015}}</ref> In 1980 she earned a BA with honors in philosophy from Georgia State University and in 1983 an MA, also in philosophy. She did her doctoral work at Brown University, completing her dissertation under the direction of Ernest Sosa, Martha Nussbaum, and Richard Schmitt and receiving her PhD in 1987.<ref name=CV/>

==Career== ===Positions held=== After spending a year as assistant professor of philosophy at Kalamazoo College, Alcoff moved to Syracuse University, where she taught for the next ten years. She was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 1995 and full professor in 1999. She held visiting positions at Cornell University (1994–1995), Aarhus University (November 1999), Florida Atlantic University (Fall 2000), and Brown University (Spring 2001). She took a position as professor of philosophy and women's studies at Stony Brook University in 2002. In 2009 she became professor of philosophy at Hunter College and the City University of New York Graduate Center.<ref name="CV">{{cite web|last=Alcoff|first=Linda Martín|title=Curriculum Vitae|url=http://www.alcoff.com/curriculum-vitae|publisher=alcoff.com|access-date=February 23, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129195111/http://www.alcoff.com/curriculum-vitae|archive-date=January 29, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Alcoff has long advocated for diversifying the discipline of philosophy. To help address these issues, with Paul Taylor and William Wilkerson, she started the "Pluralist's Guide to Philosophy".<ref name="Pluralist">{{cite web|title=Pluralist Guide to Philosophy Home|url=https://sites.psu.edu/pluralistsguide/|accessdate=June 21, 2020|archive-date=March 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314081419/https://sites.psu.edu/pluralistsguide/|url-status=dead}}</ref> From 2010 to 2013 Alcoff was joint editor-in-chief, with Ann Cudd, of the feminist philosophy journal ''Hypatia''.<ref name="editorialboardMarch2018">{{cite web|title=Editorial board|work=hypatia |url=http://hypatiaphilosophy.org/about/editorialboard/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301224919/http://hypatiaphilosophy.org/about/editorialboard/|archivedate=March 1, 2018|date=March 1, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> She served on its board of associate editors during the Hypatia transracialism controversy in 2017.<ref name="Brubaker18May2017">Brubaker, Roger (May 18, 2017). [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/opinion/the-uproar-over-transracialism.html "The Uproar Over 'Transracialism'"]. ''The New York Times''.</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Alcoff|first1=Linda Martin|title=Here's my take.|url=https://www.facebook.com/lsalcoff/posts/10156108465053047|via=Facebook|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20170515200503/https://www.facebook.com/lsalcoff/posts/10156108465053047|archivedate=May 15, 2017|date=May 4, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=May 2022}} The journal's management subsequently established a task force to resolve the journal's governance issues; Alcoff became president of the board of directors of Hypatia, Inc., in February 2018.<ref name=search23Feb2018/><ref name=Weinberg24July2017/>

===Research=== Alcoff has written widely on subjects including Foucault, sexual violence, the politics of epistemology, gender and race identity, and Latino issues.<ref name=CV/> She has authored four books: ''Real Knowing: New Versions of Coherence Theory'' (1996), ''Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self'' (2006), ''The Future of Whiteness'' (2015), and ''Rape and Resistance'' (2018).<ref name=CV/> She has also edited ten volumes, written scores of peer-reviewed articles, and contributed a large number of book and encyclopedia chapters and entries.<ref name=CV/> According to Google Scholar, her most widely read article, "The Problem of Speaking for Others" (1991) in ''Cultural Critique'', has been cited nearly 3000 times.<ref name=GSc>{{cite web|title=Google Scholar|url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8bOBag4AAAAJ|access-date=June 21, 2020}}</ref>

''Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self'' attempted to offer a unified account of social identity by bridging her previous work in epistemology, metaphysics, and the politics of ethnicity, race, and gender.<ref name="ndpr1">{{cite journal|last=Sundstrom|first=Ronald|title=Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self (Review)|url=http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/visible-identities-race-gender-and-the-self/|journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews|date=June 22, 2006}}</ref> In it, Alcoff suggested that geographic location has significant implications for social identity above and beyond those conveyed by other contributors to identity (although she does not view such implications as deterministic).<ref name=ndpr1/>

In "The Problem of Speaking for Others", Alcoff analyzes problems of representation that accompany the practice of speaking for others, using social epistemological concepts such as social location and social identity. She suggests "four sets of interrogatory practices" to guide acts of speaking for others across social positions: First, one's own impetus to speak should be interrogated to ensure it is not motivated by a "desire for mastery and domination". Second, one ought to recognize the significance of location and context, especially the connections between our locations and our words and how transporting words to another social location will shift their meaning. Third, she emphasizes accountability and responsibility to those whose views are to be represented; one ought to remain open to criticism. Fourth, it is crucial to recognize the possible and real effects of words on the discursive and material context of those represented.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Alcoff |first1=Linda |date=Winter 1991–1992 |title=The Problem of Speaking for Others |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1354221 |journal=Cultural Critique |volume=20 |issue=20 |pages=5–32 |doi=10.2307/1354221 |jstor=1354221 |access-date=June 14, 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Awards and recognitions== Alcoff has received several honors and awards, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Oslo in September 2011, and the Caribbean Philosophical Association's Frantz Fanon Prize for 2009 for her book ''Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self''. She was recognized as a Distinguished Woman in Philosophy by the Society for Women in Philosophy in 2005, and she held the Meredith Professorship for Excellence in Teaching at Syracuse University from 1995 to 1998.<ref name=CV/> In 2023, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for her work in philosophy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amacad.org/new-members-2023 |title=New Members |author= |date= |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |publisher= |access-date=2023-04-23 |quote=}}</ref>

==Selected works== *{{cite book|last1=Alcoff|first1=Linda Martín|title=Real Knowing: New Versions of the Coherence Theory|url=https://archive.org/details/realknowingnewve00alco|url-access=registration|date=1996|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780801430473 }} *{{cite book | last = Alcoff | first = Linda | contribution = Cultural feminism versus post-structuralism: the identity crisis in feminist theory | editor-last1 = Nicholson | editor-first1 = Linda | title = The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory | pages = 330–355 | publisher = Routledge | location = New York | year = 1997 | isbn = 9780415917612}} *Alcoff, Linda Martín (2006). ''Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self''. Oxford University Press. * {{cite book | last1 = Alcoff | first1 = Linda | last2 = Kittay | first2 = Eva | author-link2 = Eva Kittay | title = The Blackwell Guide to Feminist Philosophy | publisher = Blackwell Publishing | location = Malden, MA, and Oxford | year = 2007 | isbn = 9780631224273 }} *{{cite book|last1=Alcoff|first1=Linda Martín|title=The Future of Whiteness|date=2015|publisher=Polity Press|location=Cambridge and Malden, MA}} *{{cite book|last1=Alcoff|first1=Linda Martín|title=Rape and Resistance|date=2018|publisher=Polity Press | isbn = 9780745691916}}

==References== {{Reflist|26em}}

==External links== *[http://www.alcoff.com Linda Martín Alcoff's webpage] *[http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/philosophy/faculty/full-time-faculty/alcoff-1 Linda Martin Alcoff's Hunter College page] *[http://web.gc.cuny.edu/philosophy/people/alcoff.html Linda Marin Alcoff's CUNY Graduate Center page] *[https://library.brown.edu/collatoz/info.php?id=406/ Linda Martín Alcoff Papers] – [https://web.archive.org/web/20180227094212/https://www.brown.edu/research/pembroke-center/archives/feminist-theory-archive Pembroke Center Archives] {{Feminism}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcoff, Linda Martin}} Category:American women philosophers Category:Syracuse University faculty Category:Brown University faculty Category:Hunter College faculty Category:Feminist studies scholars Category:Living people Category:American feminists Category:Philosophers from New York (state) Category:Philosophers from Rhode Island Category:Presidents of the American Philosophical Association Category:Panamanian emigrants to the United States Category:20th-century American philosophers Category:21st-century American philosophers Category:20th-century American women Category:21st-century American women writers Category:Social epistemologists Category:21st-century American women educators Category:21st-century American educators Category:1955 births