Dana Rognlie

I am Teaching Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Old Dominion University and president of the International Simone de Beauvoir Society. 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. A forthcoming co-authored paper, "Aspasia's Silence: A Feminist Staging of Plato's Symposium," provides a feminist phenomenological reading of the dialogue. By attending to myth, gesture, humor, and dramatic silence, we suggest Aspasia's presence at the famous banquet and consider the implications of reading Symposium as a repository of Aspasian philosophy.