Whitney Howell, Ph.D.

Dr. Howell joined the philosophy faculty at La Salle in 2014, after having held teaching positions at Loyola University Maryland, The University of Maine, and Stony Brook University. Her orientation as a researcher is rooted in the phenomenological tradition, which focuses on careful analyses of lived experience and its complex dimensions of meaning. Her research draws on this tradition to consider how environments facilitate the development of bodily and moral capacities. She is especially interested in how these capacities (or incapacities) show up in our habits and in our relations with others. Recent projects have focused more specifically on (1) urban environments and the distinctive material and social resources they offer their inhabitants and (2) the role of socio-cultural environments in shaping sexual desire and individuals’ approach to relationships. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed philosophy journals and edited volumes.

Dr. Howell teaches courses in the history of philosophy, as well as on special topics such as love & sexuality, habit, and existentialism. She also currently serves as Interim Director of the University Honors Program and as advisor for post-graduate fellowships, such as Fulbright.

Areas of Expertise

• 20^th century continental philosophy, especially phenomenology
• Philosophy of the city
• Philosophical psychology
• Philosophy of art

Education

• Ph.D. in Philosophy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
• BA in English Literature and Philosophy, summa cum laude, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN

Teaching

• HON 131: Ancient Philosophical Traditions
• HON 132: Modern & Contemporary Philosophy
• PHL 151: The Examined Life
• PHL 152: Ethics & the Good Life
• PHL 206: Social & Political Philosophy
• PHL 222: Love & Human Sexuality
• PHL 272: Health & Human Existence
• PHL 310: Existentialism
• PHL 329: Contemporary Philosophy
• PHL 371: Habit & Mental Health
• PHL 373: Discovering Dialogue (community-based learning course, cross-listed in Education)
• PHL 374: The Bodily Experience of Power (cross-listed in Women’s Studies)
• PHL 375: Philosophy for Children

Publications

• “Eros as Initiation: Russon on Desire, Culture, and Responsibility,” in Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy2 (Fall 2023): 46-65
• “Perception, Thought, and Error in Aristotle’s De Anima,” in Aristotle on Human Nature: The Animal with Logos, edited by Gregory Kirk and Joseph Arel, pp. 68-80. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023
• “The Insight of Dispossession: Examining the Phenomenological and Political Significance of Merleau-Ponty’s Account of the Spatial Level,” in Normality, Abnormality, and Pathology in Merleau-Ponty, edited by Susan Bredlau and Talia Welsh, pp. 141-164. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2022
• “Necessary but Insufficient: Merleau-Ponty and the Ethics of Anonymity in Interpersonal Life,” Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy2 (Fall 2020): 168-190
• “Anonymity and Diversity: A Phenomenology of Self-Formation in Urban Culture,” Topoi https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-018-9605-x, published online 16 January 2019 / in print April 2021
• “The Environmental Conditions of Agency: John Dewey and Jane Jacobs on Diversity and the Modern Urban Landscape,” Journal of Speculative Philosophy2 (2018): 263-287
• “Questioning the Material of Meaning: Merleau-Ponty, Adorno, and Beckett on the Dynamic Character of Expression,” in Phenomenology and the Arts, edited by Peter Costello and Licia Carlson, pp. 177-192. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016
• “Learning and the Development of Meaning: Husserl and Merleau-Ponty on the Temporality of Perception and Habit,” The Southern Journal of Philosophy3 (September 2015): 311-337

Presentations

• “Eros and Beauty in the Palinode,” Toronto Summer Seminar in Philosophy: Sexuality and Language in Plato’s Phaedrus, Toronto, ON / June 14, 2023
• “Caring for the Reality of Others: Russon on Intimate and Political Life,” SPEP 60: The 60^th Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX / October 13, 2022
• “Aristotle on Pleasure,” Toronto Summer Seminar in Philosophy: Aristotle on Persuasion and Virtue, Toronto, ON / June 3, 2022
• “Culture, Conversion, and the Limits of Modern Individualism,” John Russon: Phenomenology as Critique, An International Online Conference hosted by Eastern Michigan University and The University of Maine, Zoom / December 11, 2021
• “Two Domains of Interpersonal Life: Intimacy and Economics,” John Russon: Psychology, Politics, and Philosophy, An International Online Conference hosted by Eastern Michigan University and The University of Maine, Zoom / August 15, 2021
• “Ibn Khaldûn on Sedentary Culture,” Toronto Summer Seminar in Philosophy: “Desert Courage and Urban Craft: Character and Culture in The Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldûn,” Toronto, ON / June 13, 2019
• “The Insight of Dispossession: Merleau-Ponty on the Spatial Level,” International Merleau-Ponty Circle, “The Normal and the Abnormal,” University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN / November 10, 2018
• “Sartre on the Collective, Seriality, and the Conditions of Freedom,” Toronto Summer Seminar in Philosophy: “Sartre: Scarcity and Seriality (Critique of Dialectical Reason I),” Toronto, ON / June 15, 2018
• “Dewey on Impulse, Habit, and the Conditions of Social Change,” Workshop on “Habituation and Human Development: Aristotle, Dewey, and Merleau-Ponty,” Institute for the History of Philosophy, Emory University, Atlanta, GA / June 9, 2017
• “The Aims of Desire: Cities and the Nature of Moral Development,” Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ / October 5, 2017
• “Urban Diversity and the “I can”: Merleau-Ponty on Anonymity in Experience and Expression,” International Merleau-Ponty Circle, “The Significance of Place,” University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM / November 2-4, 2017
• “Environmental Consciousness: Cities as Material Conditions of Existential Health,” Philosophy of the City Conference, November 17-19, 2016, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA / November 18, 2016
• “The Environmental Conditions of Agency: John Dewey and Jane Jacobs on Diversity and the Urban Landscape,” Duluth Philosophy Colloquium, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN / November 11, 2016
• “Hegel on Painting,” Toronto Summer Seminar in Philosophy: “Hegel and the System of the Arts,” June 7-14, 2015, Toronto, ON / June 10, 2015
• “Discerning the Temporality of Perception and Habit: Phenomenological Insights into the Structure of Learning,” American Philosophical Association – 2014 Eastern Division Meeting, Philadelphia, PA / December 28, 2014
• “Apprehending Two-ness: Perception, Thought, and Error in Aristotle’s On the Soul,” The Animal with Logos: Aristotle on Human Nature, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ / April 19, 2014