Claire Becerra is a Ph.D student in philosophy at Northwestern University, with interests in the philosophy of language, social epistemology, and the philosophy of education, all of which are informed by her indigeneity. She is a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, and currently splits time between Chicago, New York City, and Arizona.
What are you working on right now?
These days, I’m spending most of my time developing my dissertation, which applies a philosophical lens to indigenous land acknowledgments. Generally, I’m interested in helping us understand what we’re actually doing when we make these statements, and if that is a good thing.
For example, a plausible criticism is that these statements are shallow and merely pro forma: they are often practiced by large institutions only to virtue-signal, without a genuine attempt to maintain reparative relationships to indigenous communities that such a weighty commitment requires. In order to give teeth to such a criticism, my first chapter starts by introducing the idea that the force of land acknowledgments depends on their speaker. While indigenous land protocols can be used by indigenous speakers (among other things) as protest speech, institutional statements should be understood as responses to such protest speech. However, these institutional responses might be packaged or understood as initiating protest speech itself, and, in doing so, misfires, as the felicity conditions of protest speech are not met by the relevant speakers in an institutional capacity. I argue that this misfiring results in various forms of discursive injustice.
I’m also developing a chapter that captures the conversational nature of such statements. The idea is motivated by the thought that the focus on the performative nature of institutional land acknowledgements, though natural and understandable, actually obscures the way they are substantive responses within a historical chain of exchanges between indigenous groups and various colonial institutions. Recognition of a conversational element in these cases opens up another route to social and political assessment.
If you could have a one-hour conversation with any philosopher or historical figure from any time, who would you pick and what topic would you choose?
This is so hard, but because we just have an hour, and I suspect he’s someone who might not want to talk any longer than that, I would ask Gödel about his relationship with Einstein, and also Hilbert, if there is time. I’m fascinated by the social elements of intellectual relationships: between figures that we usually encounter in such impersonal and stuffy ways, and what was said within their conversations that we’ll never be privy to (okay, maybe I am interested in the more gossip-y parts of such conversations, and relationships). Runners up include Russell/Wittgenstein and Quine/Dennett.
What’s your poison? (Favorite drink.)
An espresso martini, especially at The Algonquin in NYC. Of the less poisonous variety: horchata, especially from Filiberto’s in Arizona.
What’s your most treasured memory?
A few summers ago, I visited my partner in Providence, where he was completing a postdoc. By luck/chance, the same week, a huge gathering of HP Lovecraft superfans had descended upon the city for their biennial festival, Necromicon. We decided to register, and what we soon realized was our merely lukewarm interest for Lovecraft/weird fiction turned into a deep appreciation. Among film showings and live performances of Lovecraft’s work, our favorite session was one of the keynotes, where, in an absolutely packed hotel ballroom, a panel of professionals presented their well-researched and well-argued views regarding the various evolutionary pressures that must have been exerted upon the monsters in the Lovecraftian universe, in order to produce such creatures. It was such a treat to experience a conference so different from the ones we were used to navigating in the philosophy world.
What are you most proud of in your professional life?
As an undergraduate, I attended two philosophy diversity institutes, and have returned as a graduate student at both: I’ve mentored a number of years at the Rutgers Institute for Diversity in Philosophy, and recently served as Teaching Fellow at PIKSI-Boston. At PIKSI, I got to lead a short seminar on indigenous language preservation, which was focused on how to pursue such projects while avoiding practices of appropriation and assumptions of linguistic determinism. Along the way, I got to introduce the group to one of my intellectual heroes, Tohono O’odham poet and linguist Ofelia Zepeda. The opportunity to expose new cohorts to work that is meaningful to me, and also learn from their unique experiences and insightful comments, was a lot of fun, and I’m continually grateful that I get to be a part of such a purposeful network of friends and scholars.
What is your favorite film of all time? (Or top 3). Why? To whom would you recommend them?
I love movies, and it’s too hard to do an “all-time” list, so below are some relatively recent picks.
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night: perfect for those like me who have never understood the appeal of the vampire genre, but can appreciate cinematography that captures an Iranian vampire-queen whose skateboard allows her chador to turn her into a beautiful, menacing silhouette. It’s just great.
- The Turin Horse: great for anyone who appreciates a bibliographic (and perhaps philosophical) nod to Nietzsche, and who wants/needs to reset their modern attention span, since it demands full emotional attention.
- Jodorowsky’s Dune: recommended for any fan of the Dune universe that is interested in the version before Lynch’s that was planned but never made, and appreciates the egomanical, unhinged-ness of an artist that explains why. (To spoil just one reason, Jodorowsky demanded the film be no less than 10 hours. He also admitted proudly that he never read the original book.)
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
Smrutipriya Pattnaik
Smrutipriya Pattnaik, is the Teaching Beat Editor at the American Philosophical Association Blog and Series Editor for the Syllabus Showcase Series. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida, and holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Indian Institute of Technology Indore. Her research focuses on utopian imagination and political thought in the context of modern crises. She is currently working on her first book, Politics, Utopia, and Social Imagination.
