Kelly Gawel (she/they) is a feminist philosopher and activist living in New York. Her political and intellectual work centers on radical care, social reproduction and embodied ethics. She is completing her Ph.D. at The New School and teaches philosophy and gender studies at Hunter College and Pratt Institute.
What excites you about philosophy?
Perhaps what excites me most about philosophy is its capacity for generating excitement itself. Philosophy’s ability to provoke deep and visionary thinking is very exciting—this is what drew me to it in the first place. In this regard, I love how bell hooks talks about the importance of excitement in engaged and radical learning: for hooks, being critical is only part of the picture. She shows that learning (or the kind of learning I’m interested in!) also has to be exciting and empowering, especially when we collectively face such urgent social and political problems. It is important to feel that we have the capacity to undergo and enact change. Excitement is an affective correlate of such empowerment, and the feeling of excitement can also empower.
I think the primal excitement, the desire for wisdom and truth, which makes us fall in love with philosophy is important to remember and emphasize, especially as the discipline is undergoing necessary reckonings around structural injustices. The feeling of excitement can, and should, play a motivating role in transforming the cultures and practices of philosophical inquiry, and how we bring it to bear on the crises of our times.
What topic do you think is neglected in philosophy?
Care. I am partial, because care is my obsession and the topic that I work on. To start with, the fact that care is so under-explored in philosophy makes it all the more important to honor the powerful traditions that do take care to be an essential philosophical concern—from feminist care ethics to Black and Latina feminism, to ecology and Marxist feminism. As these traditions have taught, philosophically centering care changes how we think about philosophy’s key methods and domains of inquiry. For example, it means that relationships rather than individuals become the primary ontological, ethical, political and epistemic starting point.
The neglect and even dismissal of care as a philosophical issue reveals blindspots in philosophy’s methods and self-conceptions. One takeaway from this is that a philosophical engagement with care requires some changes in how we do philosophy. I think this has deep implications, for example, in terms of how we practice diversity, equity, and inclusion. Really digging into the politics and ethics of care reveals that addressing the racist, heteropatriarchal, ableist, colonial ways that institutional logics and practices are structured requires more than just procedural change. Building a genuinely diverse, equitable, and inclusive discipline requires deep structural changes (I think radical ones—and I share the despair of many in genuinely wondering whether institutions such as private universities are amenable to reform, though perhaps I shouldn’t say this as I am actively on the job market!) It also requires cultivating welcoming cultures that celebrate, foster, and equitably distribute skills of care.
What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
Following a sense of calling and purpose in my work. I’m very fortunate to have had mentors who encouraged me to find work I could live in. It continues to be a struggle, including financially: I come from a working class and non-traditional academic background, and I really feel the stakes of my choices. But I’m proud that I’m doing my best to live in accordance with what I care about and what I believe to be possible.
A big part of this is teaching. I feel a powerful sense of vocation when students tell me that I’ve helped them live in accordance with their own values and dreams.
Name a trait, skill or characteristic that you have that others may not know about.
I identify as neurodivergent. This is something I’ve only recently come out about, and I’m deeply grateful to the neurodiversity movement for their work in making it safer and more culturally welcome to do so. Part of this is realizing that much of what I have to offer in my writing, teaching, and activism comes from my sensitivity, my awkwardness, my intense and obsessive mind. It feels good to begin to accept and even embrace this.
What are your goals and aspirations outside work?
My life goal is to start a school of radical care. I hold that collectively developing politicized caring skills is (and has always been) a necessary component of social justice organizing. My philosophical work on care is ultimately about laying a theoretical foundation that both politically centers these skills, and develops critiques of care’s structural exploitation and devaluation—including the effects of this devaluation on the lived intimacies of so many caring relations. My biggest dream is to form an institution dedicated to embodied ethical and political education that begins from these assumptions.
Where is your favorite place you have ever traveled and why?
I once went to a very remote part of the jungle in Chiapas, Mexico. Witnessing the glorious explosion of life there changed me. The creativity and expressiveness of the ecosystem completely blew me away. It also made me acutely aware of the gravity and stakes of the ecological crises we face.
Which super power would you like to have?
Telepathy, but only in a container of enthusiastic consent!
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.
