Dana Rognlie

I am visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wabash College. My research and teaching interests include feminist philosophy, Continental philosophy, ancient Greek philosophy, and philosophy of race.

My work draws on existential phenomenology in conversation with contemporary anti-racist feminism and critical trauma theory to develop ethical resources for approaching socio-political questions of domination and liberation. A primary area of concern is sexual violence within the neoliberal academy.

"Repeating Her Autonomy: Beauvoir, Kierkegaard, and Women's Liberation" (Hypatia) argues that freedom entails courageous repetitions: retaking one’s self after losing it, say, to motherhood, traumatic disintegration, or one’s projects. In a current paper, "The Smiles of of Hélène: On Complicity and Resistance in the Policed Academy," I place Beauvoir in conversation with abolitionist feminism and betrayal trauma theory to meditate on “institutional courage” in campus sexual violence prevention and response. These works form the basis of a book manuscript tentatively titled "Repetitions of Freedom."

My other related project traces Socrates' pursuit of "Andreia" (“Courage” and “Manliness”) as dramatically set throughout the Peloponnesian War in Plato’s dialogues. In a working-paper titled "The Socratic Hunt for 'Manliness,'" I contextualize his recollective, wisdom-loving, gender-inclusive account of the Form as an antidote to the traumatizing and trauma-denying ideals of victory-loving imperial masculinity.