Elizabeth Victor is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of Liberal Studies at William Paterson University. Her research explores how moral theory can provide conceptual tools to guide our actions and public policies. Her recent research focuses on the application of nonideal theory to bioethics, the concept of vulnerability in medical research, and queer bioethics.
What excites you about philosophy?
I am delighted to see how much more pluralistic philosophy is now, compared to even ten years ago. I am excited by how the discipline continues to evolve as the voices in philosophy become more diverse, and philosophers get better at centering the margin. On a more personal level, I find that philosophy allows you to grow as a theorist in a way that can be identity affirming. As an undergraduate, my exposure to philosophy was from a classically analytical perspective, and I did not realize how limited that viewpoint was until graduate school. As my exposure to different traditions and methodologies expanded, I found myself feeling torn between the analytic and continental camp until I understood this division to be a false dichotomy—why can’t we value both? I love bringing seemingly disparate schools of thought into conversation with one another, and I find it especially helpful in trying to make sense of complex ethical issues to use every tool at my disposal.
What do you like to do outside work?
I have never felt more at home than when my hands are in the dirt, or I am whipping up something divine in the kitchen. I love to cook, and I worked in all kinds of restaurants and a bakery when I was an undergrad. I also come from a long line of cooks (my grandfather owned several seafood restaurants and aunt married into managing a second-generation Sicilian restaurant that I worked at when I was in high school). My fondest memories were formed in the kitchen, or family cookouts, making delicious food, surrounded by the humans I love. It also helps to know that I am of Minorcan descent (we settled in St. Augustine, FL), and we have our own special family recipes dating back hundreds of years (and our own pepper, the datil pepper)! I also adore gardening — nurturing plants and caring for a garden is one of the ways I return to myself, or get out of myself, when I am too wrapped up in a philosophical thought or project. I have developed the beds around my home to have the major herbs one uses in the kitchen, and have burgeoning fruit trees (apples, persimmon, fig, and a cold-hearty pomegranate) that I can’t wait to see mature in the coming years. It is such a delight to go grab a handful of chives, fresh oregano, sage, thyme, etc. from the yard when you need it.
What would your childhood self say if someone told you that you would grow up to be a philosopher?
Well, first I would have to explain what it is a philosopher did. I would probably tell my childhood self that a philosopher asks questions that other people have not answered, or tries to find ways to answer questions that are hard to answer; a philosopher is never satisfied with the answer “because I told you so” or “that’s just the way it is!” I would like to think my childhood self would have loved the idea of this — she was always asking questions that got those baseless appeals to authority or tradition as a response. I bet I would have taken much delight in learning all the fallacies, probably in third grade when I could understand the beginnings of mathematical relationships. My parents would have hated a third grader deconstructing their arguments and telling them all the fallacies they are employing all the time.
What is your favorite holiday and why?
Thanksgiving, but now I have to unpack that because the history of American Thanksgiving is terrible. It helps to know that my birthday is during the week of Thanksgiving, my Dad’s birthday is a week before mine, and my partner’s, Emre Keskin, birthday is in-between the two. I also love to cook, and share my home with people I love (see above). For several years in graduate school, I would host Thanksgiving for the students that could not or did not want to go home. I cooked for 15-20 people each year and it was fantastic. Rebecca Kukla, my dissertation advisor, would buy the bird — we had ducklings one year, goose another, and pheasant another year — and since she is also a sommelier, she would bring wine to pair. I would spend days cooking, planning the dishes, making the desserts (and I make some amazing desserts). We would have dance parties, play rock band on the play station, and just enjoy each other’s company in the lovely Tampa weather. Our first year in our new home in New Jersey, Emre and I hosted our friends for a delightful Thanksgiving where we played Cards Against Humanity. Of course, one can’t do that every year! When life is too busy, Emre and I escape to some secluded location and cook up a storm for Thanksgiving weekend (and drink lots of delicious wine). Down South, Thanksgiving is just cooling off enough to enjoy evenings outside around a fire, and up North, you sometimes have snow or just a crisp day ready to be enjoyed with someone you love.
What advice do you wish someone had given you?
Try to carve out time for yourself. Academia has a way of sucking you in, and grad school is particularly good at training us up to spend all our time focused on academia and academics to the point where we feel guilty if we take a holiday or dedicate any significant time away from being ‘productive’. Being a whole person means nurturing the parts of ourselves that are nonmaterial. We need friendships, and hobbies, and we should not aim at being ‘productive’ all of the time. It has taken me years to figure this out, and I am still working on not feeling guilty when I put down the ‘work’. Also, everyone has imposter syndrome. From what I can tell, publications do not cure it, giving countless presentations does not cure it, being an invited speaker does not cure it, and from what I have been told, neither tenure nor being promoted to Full Professor cures it. It is not you, it is academia. You are great, and you have something to say — say it.
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.
Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.
