UMass Boston

Philosophy of law, social and political philosophy, contemporary French philosophy, Caribbean philosophy, Philosophy of race

PhD, University of Toulouse, II (France), 1996

• “On Doing Philosophy: Territory, discipline and practices” in Philosophy by Women: 22 Philosophers reflect on Philosophy and Its Value, Elly Vintiadis (Ed.), Routledge, 2020
• “Imaginary and Real Strangers: Constructing and Reconstructing the Human in Human Rights Discourse and Instruments” in Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights, History, Politics, Practice, Rajini Srikanth and Elora Halim Chowdhury (Eds), Routledge, 2018
• “In Defense of Ethical Politics of Memory: Slavery, Work of Memory and Memory Laws” in A Stain on Our Past: Slavery and Memory, Abdoulaye Gueye & Johann Michel (Eds.), Africa World Press, 2017
• “Beyond Négritude and Créolité: On Creolizing the Citizenship Contract” in Creolizing Rousseau, Jane Gordon and Neil Roberts (Eds.), Rowman & Littefield International, London, 2014
• “Pouvoir Post-Colonial” [Post-Colonial Power] in Dictionnaire Historique et Critique d Racisme [Critical and Historical Dictionary of Racism], Sous la direction de Pierre André Taguieff [Pierre André Taguieff (Ed.)], Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, May 2013
• «Travail d’histoire, travail de mémoire: la République à l’épreuve de son devenir » [Work of History, Work of Memory: The Republic on trial] in Histoire de la Colonisation: Réhabilitation, Falsifications et Instrumentalisations [The History of Colonization: Rehabilitation, Instrumentalism and Falsification], Sébastien Jahan, Alain Ruscio, Eds, Paris, Les Indes Savantes, November 2007. pp. 23-37
• “Ongoing Diaspora: The Case of the French Caribbean”, Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales (REMI) [European Journal of International Migrations]; 2006 (22) 1 pp. 35-57
• “Race and the Politics of Citizenship: the Conflict over jus soli and jus sanguinis”, International Studies in Philosophy, Issue 38.2, 2006, pp. 123-139
• Citoyenneté et sujétion aux Antilles francophones, post-esclavage et aspiration démocratique [Citizenship and subjection in the Francophone Antilles, post-slavery and democratic demand]. Paris, L’Harmattan, 1997

My initial research interest focused on liberal democratic theory and its failure to appreciate the impact of slavery and its legacy. I argued that correctly articulating such impact would contribute to a better understanding of state membership and citizenship practices.

More recently my research has concentrated on rethinking the links between race and political membership in general and citizenship in particular through the ‘geopolitics of globality.’ I explore the ways in which conceptualizations of belonging, membership and citizenship have been both imagined and institutionalized in racial terms. I am also interested in connecting these conceptualizations with politics of collective memory considering a range of past oppressions in liberal democracies and emerging democracies.

Concern for the autonomy and sovereignty of the individual leads me to expand my concerns beyond the relation between individual and society, turning to analysis of human rights in trans-national context. I am currently exploring the limits of the universal human rights framework by investigating its rational foundation and carefully considering if and how human rights can be used to set a moral limit to pluralism.

I am the director of the program of study in philosophy and law.

Online

“Transnational Political Responsibility and Global Structural Social Injustice:" Commentary on Iris Marion Young’s “Responsibility and Global Labor Justice." The Symposia on Gender, Race and Philosophy, Spring 07 [Download]

Courses Taught

• Philosophy of Law; Rights
• Justice and Differences
• Introduction to Philosophy
• Contemporary Moral and Social problems