Episode 18 - Philosopher Serene Khader on Maintaining Hope in the Face of Oppression

Serene Khader may not be what you typically think of when you hear the word philosopher. She came into philosophy with the heart of an activist and an eye for public policy, interested in reconsidering the ways in which we think about, advocate for, and ultimately drive movements for justice forward. Serene talks with host Chloe Aftel about what exactly the job of a philosopher is, the role of philosophy in changing the lives of women from the global South and here in the United States, as well as how being inquisitive about our mental frameworks and assumptions may just be the key to achieving justice.

Highlights:

• Bridging the theoretical with the practical when philosophizing on social justice;
• What to take away from student protests and uprisings;
• How to engage with the political election cycle: a philosophical perspective married with immediate implications;
• A philosopher’s guide to dealing with despair and finding hope for the future

This episode aired before President Biden dropped out of the election.


Serene Khader is a philosopher and feminist theorist with areas of research including ethics and moral psychology, political philosophy, and feminist philosophy. She holds the Jay Newman Chair in Philosophy of Culture at Brooklyn College and teaches Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her upcoming trade book Faux Feminism: Why We Fall for White Feminism and How We Can Stop will be published by Beacon Press in 2024. Previous books include Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic (Oxford University Press 2018) and Adaptive Preferences and Women’s Empowerment (Oxford University Press 2011). You can find more of Serene’s work on her website.
Chloe Aftel (she/they) has spent her career exploring narratives of identity and belonging. She’s an established name in modern photography with work featured in The New York Times, Mother Jones, Playboy, Dazed & Confused, Vogue Germany, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue & more. Chloe has photographed victims of sexual violence, reported on Covid’s impact on the trans community, and gained access as the first reporter in the Covid wards of the West Coast’s hardest hit hospitals. She has covered underground abortion providers, the impact of gender pronouns on daily life, and clergy abuse. Her first book, “Outside and In Between,” is an award-winning anthology covering gender non-conforming people across America. Aftel is working on her next feature book on male bisexuality. 

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