Licia Carlson - Providence College

LICIA CARLSON, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Philosophy Department (401) 865-1357
Siena 126
acarlso1@providence.edu
Providence College
Providence, RI 02918
EDUCATION
1998 Ph.D. Philosophy, University of Toronto
Dissertation: Mindful Subjects: Rethinking Cognitive Disability
(Ian Hacking, Supervisor)
1993 M.A. Philosophy, University of Toronto
1992 B.A. Philosophy/Music, Vassar College
RESEARCH AREAS
Applied ethics, 20 th century French philosophy, Philosophy of Medicine
Ethics, Feminist Philosophy, Philosophy of Music
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Associate Professor of Philosophy (2011-present)
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Providence College (2009-2011)
Lecturer, Harvard Writing Program, Harvard University (2005-2009)
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Seattle University (1999-2004)
Instructor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (1999)
Instructor, University of Toronto (1996-98)
PUBLICATIONS
Books
The Faces of Intellectual Disability: Philosophical Reflections, Indiana University Press, 2009.
Cognitive Disability and Its Challenge to Moral Philosophy, eds. Licia Carlson and Eva
Kittay, Wiley-Blackwell Press, 2010.

Articles /Book Chapters
“Expanding Boundaries: Intellectual Disability and Feminist Disability Studies”, in
Disability Studies: Critical Issues and Future Developments, eds. Matthew Wappett and
Katrina Arndt, forthcoming.
“Are You My Mother? Finding the Self in (M)others” in ed. Peter Costello, Philosophy in
Children’s Literature, Lanham: Lexington Books, 2012, pp. 63-81.
“Who’s the Expert? Rethinking Authority in Light of Intellectual Disability,” Journal
of Intellectual Disability Research, Vol, 54, Supp. 1, March 2010, pp. 58-65.
“Philosophers of Intellectual Disability: A Taxonomy” in Metaphilosophy, Special
Issue: “Cognitive Disability and its Challenge to Moral Philosophy” (eds. Licia
Carlson and Eva Feder Kittay), 2009.
“The Human as Just an Other Animal: Madness, Disability and Foucault’s Bestiary”
in eds. Christian Lotz and Corinne Painter, Phenomenology and the Non-Human Animal,
Springer, 2007, pp. 117-133.
“Docile Bodies, Docile Minds: Foucauldian Reflections on Mental Retardation,” in
ed. Shelley Tremain, Foucault and the Government of Disability, University of Michigan
Press, 2005.
“Rethinking Normalcy, Normalization and Cognitive Disability” in eds. Sandra
Harding and Robert Figueroa, Science and Other Cultures: Issues in the Philosophy of Science
and Technology, Routledge, 2003, pp. 154-171.
“The Morality of Prenatal Testing and Selective Abortion: Clarifying the Expressivist
Objection,” in eds. Lisa S. Parker and Rachel A. Ankeny, Mutating Concepts, Evolving
Disciplines: Genetics, Medicine, and Society in the Philosophy and Medicine series, Kluwer,
2002, pp. 191-213.
“Cognitive Ableism and Disability Studies: Feminist Reflections on the History of
Mental Retardation,” in Hypatia: Special Issue on Feminism and Disability, Part I,
Vol. 16 (4), Fall 2001, pp. 124-146.
Review of ed. Margaret Urban Walker, Mother Time: Women, Aging, and Ethics, in the
APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy, Fall, 2000.
“Beyond Bioethics: Philosophy and Disability Studies,” in Disability Studies Quarterly,
Vol. 17, no. 4, 1997. (Blind peer review)

CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS
“Beyond the Philosopher’s Nightmare: Disability, Music, and Flourishing,” Honors
Exploration Seminar, Misericordia University, February 2012.
“Where Did you Buy Those Genes? The Ethics of Personal Genomics”, presented at
the Phi Sigma Tau Induction Ceremony, Providence College, April, 2011.
“Philosophical Prosthesis: Toward and Ethic of Inclusion,” Eastern Division
Meeting, American Philosophical Association, Boston, MA, December, 2010.
“Gender, Disability, and the Dynamics of Institutionalization”, presented at
Unspeakable: Disability, History, Identity and Rights, University of Washington, Seattle
WA, March 2011.
“Do Philosophers Need Music Therapy? On the Relationship Between Ethics and
Aesthetics”, presented at the Philosophy Department Lecture Series, Seattle
University, March 2011.
“Who’s Afraid of Being Human? The Animalization of Disability,” presented at the
Institute for the Humanities, University of Illinois Chicago, October 13, 2010.
“Rethinking Suffering in the Face of Intellectual Disability,” The
Begando/Traub/Byfield Medical Humanities Lecture, presented at the University of
Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, October 12, 2010.
“Quality of Life Considerations in Philosophical Context” presented to the Response
Shift Think Tank, Harvard Faculty Club, September, 2010.
“Music and Intellectual Disability: Philosophical Themes and Variations” presented
at the Symposium on Music and Disability, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY,
January, 2010.
“Early Disabled Lives: Philosophical Quandaries,” presented at Born Too Soon, a
conference hosted by the Castang Foundation, Royal Society of Medicine, London,
UK, November, 2009.
“Music, Philosophy and Intellectual Disability” presented at the Rhode Island
Philosophical Society Annual Meeting, Bryant University, Oct. 2009.
“Who’s the Expert? Moral Authority and Responsibility” presented at Counterpoint: A
Roundtable on Intellectual Disability, University of Nottingham, UK, April 2009
“Philosophy and Intellectual Disability: A Feminist Approach” presented at
Workshop on Gender and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge MA, April 2009.

“Unmasking Intellectual Disability in Philosophical Discourse,” presented at the
conference Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral Philosophy, SUNY Stony Brook
(Manhattan Campus), Sept. 18-20, 2008. (Co-organizer)
“In Search of Vanishing Persons: Cognitive Disability and the Problem of Agency,”
presented at the APA Eastern Division Meeting, December, 2007.
“Cognitive Dissonances,” presented at the annual meeting of Feminist Ethics and
Social Theory, Clearwater, FL, Sept. 2007.
“Quality of Life for the Severely Disabled,” presented at the Bioethics Center,
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, July 2007.
“Cognitive Dissonances,” presented at the Society for Disability Studies Annual
Conference, Seattle, WA, May 2007.
“Unmasking Philosophical Faces of Cognitive Disability,” presented at Smith
College, Northhampton, MA, March 31, 2005.
“Problematizing Disability Within and Beyond the Foucauldian Text,” presented at
the Pacific Division meeting of the APA in March 25, 2005.
“The Place of the human in Bioethical Discourse” presented at Long Island
University, Nov. 10, 2004.
“The Desire for Sameness and the Politics of Difference,” presented at the Ninth
Annual Philosophy Club Conference, Seattle University, April, 2004.
“Humanizing Feminist Discourse about Cognitive Disability,” presented as part of
the SWIP panel, “A Feminist Conversation About Cognitive Disability” at the
Pacific APA Division Meeting, Pasadena CA, March 2004.
“Disability Rights and Physician Assisted Suicide,” presented at the Arts and
Sciences Professors Talk, Seattle University, November, 2003.
“Ecofeminism and Feminist Disability Theory: A Critical Dialogue,” presented at the
Society for Women in Philosophy Pacific Division Meeting, University of Oregon,
November, 2003.
“Disability Rights and Physician Assisted Suicide,” presented at the “Killing With
Consent” Series, Seattle University, October, 2003.
“Hearing Platonic Music: A Theme With Variations,” presented at the Seventh
Annual Philosophy Club Conference, “Is Ancient Philosophy Still Relevant?” Seattle
University, May 2002.
“Normalization and Cognitive Disability,” presented at the Eastern Division meeting
of the American Philosophical Association (Dec. 2001) as part of “Philosophical

Explorations of Science, Technology and Diversity,” an APA project funded by the
National Science Foundation.
“Meditations on Madness: Foucault and the Panoptic Text,” presented at the annual
meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Oct. 2001.
Participation in the Nietzsche Symposium, St. Moritz, Switzerland, July 2001.
“Locating Disability: Diversity, Culture, and the Problem of Classification,”
presented at the First Annual Axer Conference: Liberal Education within the
Context of Multiculturalism and Curricular Diversity, Seattle University, March,
2001.
“Feminist Approaches to Cognitive Disability,” presented at the Institute for
Research on Women conference on Gender and Disability, Rutgers University,
March, 2001.
“Philosophy and Disability Studies,” presented to the Seattle University Women’s
Studies Colloquium, Oct. 2000.
“Diagnosing ‘Feeble-minded’ Women: Feminist Bioethical Lessons from the History
of Mental Retardation,” presented at the Feminist Approaches to Bioethics
Conference, Fifth World Congress of Bioethics, London UK, Sept. 2000.
Participant in the NEH Summer Institute on Disability Studies, San Francisco State
University, June-July, 2000.
“Meditations on Madness: Foucault and Descartes,” presented at the Philosophy
Conference: “The Theoretical Roots of Diversity,” Seattle University, May 2000.
“Disability Studies and Interdisciplinary Pedagogy,” presented at the Core
Symposium, Seattle University, March 2000.
“Can a Non-Disabled Woman Be a Feminist?” presented at the National Women’s
Studies Association meeting in Albuquerque, NM, June 1999.
“Ethical Issues in Death and Dying,” guest lecture, Dept. of Psychology, University
of Michigan, October 1998.
“’Feebleminded Women’: Lessons from the Past,” presented at the Society for
Disability Studies Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, May 1997.
“Foucault and the Panoptic Text,” presented at the Illinois Philosophical Association
Annual Meeting, University of Illinois at Edwardsville, October 1996.
“Foucault’s Histories,” presented at the Graduate Student Philosophy Forum,
University of Toronto, March 1996.

Coordinator of “Sound Thinking: A Music and Philosophy Symposium,” University
of Toronto, November 1995.
EDITORIAL WORK
SERVICE
Referee for Hypatia
Referee for Disability Studies Quarterly
Referee for International Journal of Feminist Bioethics
Providence College
PC School of Business Dean Search Committee (Spring 2012)
Philosophy Department 19 th Century Philosophy Search Committee (Fall, 2011)
Advisor to philosophy majors (2010-present)
Philosophy Department Core Curriculum Committee (2010-present)
Organizer, “Disability Discourses,” sponsored by CTE mini-grant (2010-present)
Providence College Institutional Review Board Committee (2010-present)
Faculty Evaluator, Providence College Wabash Writing Study (Summer 2011)
Father Cassidy Award in Moral Philosophy Selection Committee (2010-11)
Faculty participant, Major/Minor Fair, Oct. 2010
Faculty participant, Family Weekend, May 2010
Moderator, Undergraduate Philosophy Conference, Spring 2010
Committee on Revising the Philosophy Minor/Attracting Majors (2009-10)
Harvard University
Freshman Advisor (2007-08)
Citation Workshop Chair (2007)
Seattle University (1999-2003)
Seattle University Ethics Center Committee
Director/Organizer for New Core Faculty Forum
Women Studies Consulting Committee
Seattle University Curriculum Committee
Faculty member in the Academic Residential Community on Social Justice
Pre-major and major advisor
Premed/Pre-dental Advisory Committee
Philosophy Department Technology Committee
Selection Committee for Interdisciplinary Core Summer Seminars
Leader of university-wide Axer faculty reading group
Participation in departmental search and hiring process
Participation in two departmental faculty pro-seminars