Jacqueline Scott
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
How did studying ethnic and racial issues contribute to developing our own careers?
I was drawn to Philosophy as a discipline whose focus is on the “Art of Living”—the analysis of what it means to create a meaningful life—while I was getting my BA at Spelman College (an HBCU). For those with marginalized identities, we are forced to be particularly inventive because there are few viable options for truly meaningful lives offered to us by mainstream society.
For me, Philosophy and life on the social margins have always been intertwined. Since my junior year in college, I have wanted to introduce students to the tools offered by Philosophy for their Art(s) of Living, and to center the experiences of people of color in this theoretical work. I focus my classes, research and non-profit work on how racial and ethnic identities (mal)function in the US and how we might construct healthier ones in order to have healthier individuals and communities.
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
How did studying ethnic and racial issues contribute to developing our own careers?
I was drawn to Philosophy as a discipline whose focus is on the “Art of Living”—the analysis of what it means to create a meaningful life—while I was getting my BA at Spelman College (an HBCU). For those with marginalized identities, we are forced to be particularly inventive because there are few viable options for truly meaningful lives offered to us by mainstream society.
For me, Philosophy and life on the social margins have always been intertwined. Since my junior year in college, I have wanted to introduce students to the tools offered by Philosophy for their Art(s) of Living, and to center the experiences of people of color in this theoretical work. I focus my classes, research and non-profit work on how racial and ethnic identities (mal)function in the US and how we might construct healthier ones in order to have healthier individuals and communities.