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Visiting Fellow, 2017 – 2018

Susan James

Professor of Philosophy Birkbeck, University of London

Biography

Photo by Erielle Bakkum

Susan James is a professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. She is a founder of the London Spinoza Circle (based at Birkbeck) and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Susan James' recent research has focused on seventeenth-century philosophy, particularly the work of Margaret Cavendish and Spinoza, and ranges over seventeenth-century metaphysics, epistemology, psychology, ethics, gender and politics. Her latest book, Spinoza on Learning to Live Together (2020) is about how these areas of knowledge contribute to the overall philosophical project of living well. Historical research within philosophy, as she practices it, is both a way of recovering past points of view, and a way of examining contemporary philosophical problems. Her discussions of early modern texts aim to do justice to the contexts in which they were written, while also contributing to current debates, particularly in political and social philosophy, the philosophy of gender and the philosophy of art.

For more on her research and publications, please visit her profile page.