Amia Srinivasan (born 20 December 1984) is a philosopher. Since January 2020, she has been Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest universit ...

Early life and education

Srinivasan was born on 20 December 1984 in Bahrain to Indian parents and later lived in Taiwan, Singapore, New York, and London. She studied for an

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

degree in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Som ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

(BA) degree ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'' in 2007. This was followed by

postgraduate Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil) and

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

(DPhil) degrees as a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world ...

at Corpus Christi College,

. Her BPhil was completed in 2009 with a thesis titled "Armchair Philosophy & Experimental Philosophy"; this was supervised by John Hawthorne. She completed her DPhil in 2014 with a thesis titled ''The Fragile Estate: Essays on Luminosity, Normativity and Metaphilosophy'': her doctoral supervisors were John Hawthorne and Timothy Williamson.

Academic career

In 2009, she was elected as a prize fellow at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of ...

. In 2015, she was appointed as a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct res ...

in philosophy at University College London (UCL). In 2016, she was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for the project "At the Depths of Believing". She has held visiting fellowships at the University of California, Los Angeles,

, and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. In October 2018, Srinivasan joined

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pr ...

as a

tutorial A tutorial, in education, is a method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of a learning process. More interactive and specific than a book or a lecture, a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complete ...

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

in philosophy. She was additionally an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is ...

of philosophy in the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford from 2018 to 2019. In September 2019, she was announced as the next Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at

: she took up the appointment on 1 January 2020. She is the first woman and the first person of color to occupy this position. She is an associate editor of the philosophy journal ''

Mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various ...

'' and a contributing editor of the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

''. In 2021, Srinivasan published a collection of essays titled '' The Right to Sex''.

Bibliography

* * Online version is titled "Who lost the sex wars?".

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Srinivasan, Amia 1984 births 21st-century American essayists 21st-century Indian philosophers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American philosophers Academics of University College London Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford American people of Indian descent American Rhodes Scholars American women essayists Analytic philosophers Chichele Professors of Social and Political Theory Connecticut Democrats Cultural critics Epistemologists Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Lecturers Living people Metaphilosophers Metaphysicians Metaphysics writers The New Yorker people Ontologists Philosophers of social science Philosophy academics Philosophy teachers Philosophy writers Political philosophers Social critics Social philosophers Yale University alumni American women academics 21st-century American women writers Fellows of St John's College, Oxford