I am a philosophy PhD student at the University of British Columbia. My primary research addresses issues at the intersection of feminist philosophy, social ontology, and existentialism. In my dissertation, I examine two related questions in feminist philosophy: how to best understand the target of feminism, and how oppression affects the authenticity of individuals.
Research
Please reach out if you would like to see a draft.
Work in Progress
Womanhood as An Existential Dilemma
A substantial portion of work in contemporary feminist philosophy is on the nature of womanhood. However, these accounts of womanhood are often not designed and equipped to account for women’s experience of gender oppression from the perspective of individual women, including their struggles to be at peace with their womanhood, to lead meaningful lives, and to develop meaningful interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships, etc. In other words, by focusing on the question of “who counts as a woman”, these accounts often neglect the equally important question of “what it is like to be a woman”. Drawing from Beauvoir’s discussion of femininity, I argue for an existential account of womanhood, i.e., to be a woman is to have a relation to femininity through which one’s existentially apt subjectivity is curbed. By providing a systematic analysis of how women can relate to femininity, I aim to shed light on women’s experience of gendered oppression from the perspective of individuals as existential subjects.
The Target of Feminism: Toward an Account of Gender Oppression
Trans-inclusive feminists and gender-critical feminists disagree on the target of feminism: trans-inclusive feminists think that feminism targets not only the oppression of women but also other kinds of gender oppression, such as transphobia, whereas gender-critical feminists argue that feminism should only battle the oppression of females. I argue that it is mistaken to think that feminism should only be about the oppression of females since the oppression of females and the oppression of trans people are produced by the same ideology, namely dominant gender ideology. I consider the objection that it is possible to separate the misogynistic part of dominant gender ideology that is responsible for the oppression of females from the transphobic part that is responsible for the oppression of trans and genderqueer individuals. My reply is that although in theory, they may be separable, in practice, they mutually reinforc one another and are both necessary for the production of the oppression of females and the oppression of trans and genderqueer individuals.
Public Philosophy
Tradwife Aesthetic: When Being the Beauvoirian Other Reemerges as a Social Media Trend
(forthcoming in Blog of the APA Women in Philosophy Series)
In this blog article, I examine the experience of being a tradwife through a Beauvoirian lens and raise some moral and political concerns with being a tradwife, as well as some responses to these concerns, without conclusively settling whether it is morally impermissible all things considered.
Talks
Selected Recent and Upcoming Talks
July 22-25, 2024
“On How Not to Distinguish Systems of Injustices”
Social Ontology 2024, Durham, North Carolina
July 11-13, 2024
“Being ‘the man’ does not make one free: a neo-Beauvoirian analysis of toxic masculinity”
North American Society for Social Philosophy 41st Annual Conference, Omaha, Nebraska
​
Jan 15-18, 2024
“Gender Ideology as Two-Tier Gender Norms”
APA Eastern Division, New York, New York
​
May 29 - June 1, 2023
“On Femininity: What Is It? Why Do We Need It?”
Canadian Philosophical Association 2023 Congress, Toronto, Ontario
​
Mar 25-26, 2023
“Must We Start With Gender? Theorizing Gender Oppression”
Critical Social Ontology Workshop, Virtual
Comments
Oct 20-22, 2023
Comments on “A Pragmatic Field Guide for Distinguishing Conditional Threats and Offers” by Scott Anderson and “Epistemic Resistance and Objectification: Considerations for Sexual Agency and the Harm of Pornography” by Miriam Khan
Western Canadian Philosophical Association & Canadian Society for Environmental Philosophy 2023 meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia
Address
Philosophy Department,
Buchanan Hall,
University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, BC