Education

Teaching

Programs

Programs

• Philosophy BA
• Women's and Gender Studies BA

Research

Research Interests

• Ethics
• History of Women Philosophers
• Feminist Theory
• Philosophy and Literature

Professor Catherine Villanueva Gardner specializes in feminist philosophy, especially ethics, epistemology, and the retrieval of forgotten historical women philosophers. This latter retrieval of excluded philosophers from the canon is both an historical project and a social justice project. Gardner is currently working on retrieving neglected or marginalized African-American women philosophers from the nineteenth century, in particular Frances E.W. Harper, who began her activist work in New Bedford, MA. Gardner’s most recent book (PSU Press, 2012) explores whether there is a distinctive feminist approach to the history of philosophy. Gardner has also published two other books in feminist history of philosophy and multiple articles in journals and edited collections.