To the editor,

The St. Joe’s philosophy department is deeply committed to our institutional mission of promoting an “inclusive and diverse community that educates and cares for the whole person.” Our student Dumonde “Slam” Dunkley has good reason to be disappointed that we’ve not offered either African Philosophy or Philosophy of Race during his time here. We acknowledge the importance of these courses for our students and the need to bring them back into our rotation.  We are also committed to a diverse faculty, and regret having lost three tenured or tenure-track philosophers of color, hired away by competitor institutions. 

The department is excited about its new fall 2020 course, Reproducing Persons, which will be taught mainly from the theoretical framework of reproductive justice as developed by African-American feminist philosophers. Other fall 2020 General Education Program (GEP) offerings include: Asian Philosophies, Philosophy of Karl Marx, which will address anti-black racism in the U.S., multiple sections of Freedom, Citizenship, and Culture, featuring units on immigration, multiculturalism and social inequality, Philosophy of Liberation, a course based on the thought of twentieth-century Latin American philosophers and the Inside-Out course–cross-listed with English– which will examine how race, class and gender affect death and dying.

The department is proud of its many other contributions to diversity and inclusion. Our past and current faculty have helped to establish and then direct the Africana studies program, direct the gender studies program, host a conference on African-American philosopher Alain Locke, offer the first GEP First Year Seminar dedicated entirely to issues of race and racism, host visiting faculty from Zimbabwe and India, co-develop and teach in the Inside-Out program and, last fall, organize a lecture on the philosophy of race attended by approximately 100 members of the St. Joe’s community, mostly students.

Of course, like everyone at St. Joe’s, we are called to do more.  We accept that call and appreciate Slam’s efforts to remind us of it. 

On behalf of the St. Joe’s philosophy department,

James Boettcher, Chair