Jacki Alvarez is a Philosophy professor at Merced College and in Prison through Rising
Scholars. The preponderance of their work focuses on Feminist Ethics, Social Ontology, and Social and Political Philosophy. They are currently concerned with the interrelations of identity politics, justice, and ethics in the states gender-segregated spaces.
What excites you about philosophy?
I often say to students that Philosophy ruined my life at first, but it also helped me re-shape my life into one that had meaning. Philosophy can be uncomfortable, and that is how we grow. It isn’t the spaces that we feel safest that challenge us, it is the ones that we feel uncertain about that force us to re-think our inherited beliefs. The philosophical canon is so vast that I will be in pursuit of learning for my lifetime, and that is exciting!
What are you most proud of in your professional life?
Being a principal writer on the training resources for future educators who will teach inside of CDCR prisons in collaboration with the ASCCC and Mellon Foundation. This was an opportunity to meet with people across the state, share ideas, and meet new people who have a vested interest in political and social commitments to education and prison reform. It was an opportunity afforded to me to reflect on my motivations and think about ways that we can help create a better vetting process and to make resources readily available across the state.
Where would you go in a time machine?
First, I would go visit people I know now but when they were a child. I think it would be cool to see people I know now as kids and get to hang out with our younger selves. I would like to have tea or lunch with Hannah Arendt, or Olympe de Gouge. I might try to convince Empedocles not to jump into the volcano, and from there just hop throughout different centuries and countries and try to go to school with people from the oldest of schools to the newer ones. If I can exhaust myself of being a student, I would then travel in and throughout the future by decade seeing what it gets like every ten years from now.
What do you like to do outside work?
Okay, so I have a group of amazing friends who like to karaoke—not in public, but at our
houses. We organize a day, have great food, and sing all sorts of genres and songs together while smiling and loving life. I sing quite terribly, but it feels so good to do it. I am most proud of my rendition of Daddy Yankee’s “Lo Que Paso, Paso” and Sia’s “Unstoppable.”
What is your favorite book of all time? (Or top 3). Why? To whom would you recommend them?
Living a Feminist Life by Sarah Ahmed, this book resonated and continues to resonate with me as a person in Academia who understands the consequences of such work as someone on the margins and who works alongside populations in the margins. I would recommend this book to anyone who seeks solidarity and who embraces being a feminist killjoy.
What would your childhood self say if someone told you that you would grow up to be a philosopher?
I’m pretty sure my younger self would cry and say I don’t want to be that—I was born to
DANCE!
What’s your top tip or advice for APA members reading this?
If you are in a position of power, be the mentor you wish you had. Help develop people into the people they were meant to be and try not to perpetuate the harm you might have sustained in Philosophy.
This section of the APA Blog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little better. We’re including profiles of APA members that spotlight what captures their interest not only inside the office, but also outside of it. We’d love for you to be a part of it, so please contact us via the interview nomination form here to nominate yourself or a friend.
Smrutipriya Pattnaik
Smrutipriya Pattnaik, Ph.D. in Social and Political Philosophy from IIT Indore, India serves as the Teaching Beat and Work/Life Balance editor for the APA Blog. Her research delves into utopia, social imagination, and politics, with a focus on the aftermath of socialist experiments on Liberal-Capitalist-Democratic societies. Currently authoring "Politics, Utopia, and Social Imagination."
