Curriculum Vitae

Kris F. Sealey, PhD
Professor

Department of Philosophy

Penn State University
Email: kfs12@psu.edu
Sparks 201


2021 – present
Professor
Department of Philosophy
Fairfield University

2013 – 2021
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Fairfield University

2007-2013
Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
Fairfield University

2006-2007
Visiting Instructor
Department of Philosophy
Fairfield University

2001-2007
University of Memphis
Ph.D. in Philosophy, May. 2007
M.A. in Philosophy May 2005

1997-2001
Spelman College, Atlanta GA
B.S. in Mathematics (Cum Laude)

Continental Philosophy, Social & Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Race, Decolonial Philosophy

Creolizing the Nation, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL. September 15, 2020

Moments of Disruption: Levinas, Sartre, and the Question of Transcendence, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, December 2013

Creolization and Playful Sabotage at the Brink of Politics in Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance”, in Decolonizing American Philosophy, ed. Corey McCall & Phillip McReynolds, SUNY Press (January 2021)

“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, Philosophy World Democracy, April 2021

“Where Does the Canon Go When We Historicize It?”, Symposium response, “Why Historicize the Canon?” Journal of World Philosophies 5, Summer 2020, 121 – 176

“Pain and Play: Building Coalitions toward Decolonizing Philosophy”, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Volume 57 (Spindel Supplement), December 2019, 90 – 106

“Being for Racialized Others”, chapter in 50 Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology, ed. Gail Weiss, Ann V. Murphy & Gayle Salaman, Northwestern University Press, October 2019, 31 – 38

“Transracialism and White Allyship: A Response to Rebecca Tuvel”, Philosophy Today, Volume 62 (1), Winter 2018, 35 – 53

“Resisting the Logic of Ambivalence: Bad Faith as Subversive, Anti-colonial Practice”, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Spring 2018, 33(2), 163-177

“The Composite Community: Thinking Through Fanon’s Critique of a Narrow Nationalism”, Critical Philosophy of Race, Volume 6 (1), 2018, 26-57

“Levinas and the Critical Philosophy of Race”, chapter contribution in the Oxford Handbook on Levinas, ed. Michael Morgan, Oxford University Press, January 2018, 635 – 655

“The Stakes of Continental Feminism”, in philoSOPHIA: A Journal of Continental Feminism, Volume 7 (1), June 2017, 165 – 170

“Decolonial Options in Melville’s Moby Dick”, in Melville Among the Philosophers, ed. Corey McCall & Tom Nurmi, Lexington Books, September 2017, 149 – 167

“Power as (or in) Vulnerability: Fanon and Levinas on an Ethical Politics”, Listening: Journal of Communication Ethics, Religion and Culture, Winter 2015, 38 – 45

“The ‘Face’ of the ‘Il y a’: Levinas and Blanchot on Impersonal Existence”, Continental Philosophy Review, 46(3), October 2013, 431 – 448

“Nationalism and Ethnicity: An Overview”, Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, 2nd  edition, 2013

Levinas, Sartre and the Question of Solidarity”, Levinas Studies, an Annual Review, Volume 7, September 2012, Ed. John E. Drabinski, 147 – 166

Desire as Disruption”, Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory, Volume 11(3), Fall 2011, Ed. Carl Raschke. 30 – 36

The Primacy of Disruption in Levinas’ Account of Transcendence”, Research in Phenomenology, Volume 40 (3), 2010, 363 – 377

Finding Levinasian Passivity in Sartre’s Description of Shame”, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, Volume 41(3), May 2010, 274 – 286

“Levinas’ Early Account of Transcendence: Locating Alterity in the Il y a, Levinas Studies, An Annual Review, Volume 5, October 2010, 99 – 116

Decolonizing Dialectics and Fanon’s Future Imperfect”, review essay for George Ciccariello-Maher, Decolonizing Dialectics, Duke University Press, Durham, 2017, in Hypatia Reviews Online, Spring 2020

Sunken Places and Zones of Non-being: Black Life in White Imaginaries”, review essay of George Yancy, Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race in America, Rowman & Littlefield, 2nd ed.(2017) in Educational Philosophy and Theory, in Educational Philosophy and Theory, Volume 50 (13), October 2018, 1290-1292

Review essay of White Self-Criticality beyond Anti-racism; How does it Feel to Be a White Problem, ed. George Yancy, Lexington Books, 2015, in Hypatia Reviews Online, September 2016

Dirty Consciences and Runaway Selves: Anti-racism’s Tragic Hero”, review essay of The Creolizing Subject: Race, Reason and the Politics of Purity, Michael Monahan, Fordham University Press, May 2011, in Critical Philosophy of Race, Volume 1(1), January 2013, 219 – 228

Review of Phenomenologies of the Stranger, Between Hostility and Hospitality, ed. Richard Kearney and Kascha Semonovitch, Fordham University Press, 2011 in Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, July 2012, 138 – 142

“Roots and Routes: Negotiations Between Creolizing and Indigenous Identities and in the Americas”

““Then” and “Now” of Mangrove Time: The Temporality of Lived Blackness in Octavia Butler’s Kindred”, special issue of Chiasma International on “Critical Phenomenology after Merleau-Ponty” (anticipated 2022)

Author Meets Critics, Creolizing the Nation, Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA), April 2021

Conversation on Creolizing the Nation, Center for Ethics, University of Toronto, February 2021

Gathering Feminist Voices in the Time of Covid-19, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, January 2021

Conversation on Creolization the Nation, “Chats on the Past”, Westport Historical Society for History and Culture, January 2021

MLK keynote address, Fairfield Preparatory School, Fairfield CT, January 2021

Author Meets Critics, Creolizing the Nation, American Philosophical Association (APA) Eastern Division conference, January 2021

BLM Futures, Society for Phenomenological and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) special panel at the APA Eastern Division conference, January 2021

“A poetics and politics of community otherwise”: Book conversation on Creolizing the Nation, Loyola University, Chicago, November 2020

Podcast, The Political Theory Review, hosted by Jeffry Church: Book conversation on Creolizing the Nation

Conversation on Creolizing the Nation, The University of Memphis and Northwestern University Press, October 2020

“Creolizing the Nation”, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, April 2020 (invited, canceled due to COVID-19)

“Roots and Rhizomes: Negotiations Between Creolizing and Indigenous Identities and in the Americas”, Caribbean Philosophical Association, The University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix, April 2020

“Community for Opaque Futures: Relationality in Édouard Glissant and Maria Lugones”, keynote at Pace University, New York, NY, April 2019 (invited)

“Subjectivity Otherwise: Intersections between Creolization and Latina Feminism”, Conference on Black Women Philosophers, CUNY Graduate Center, March 2019 (invited)

“Resistance as Play: Creolization and the Poetics of Subversion”, Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, LGBTQ Advocacy panel, October 2018, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA (invited)

“Pain and Play: Building Coalitions toward Decolonizing Philosophy”, Spindel Conference, September 2018, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN (invited)

Creolization as Playful Contestation and Belonging Subversively”, Caribbean Philosophical Association, June 2018, Dakar, Senegal

World-traveling, Becoming-other and Building Social Justice Coalitions”, keynote address, Race and Mission: Critical Encounters, April 2018, Fairfield University, Fairfield CT (invited)

Identity and Difference in the Nation”, Collegium of Black Women Philosophers, November 2017, Pennsylvania State University, State College PA

Fanon and the Possibility of Liberatory Creolizing Futures”, Symposium on Decolonization in Comparative Context, October 2017, Amherst College, Amherst MA (invited)

Creole Comportments of Belonging”, Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, October 2017, Memphis TN

Home-making and the Process of Creolization”, Caribbean Philosophical Association, June 2017, New York NY

This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land: Identity, Difference and the Nation”, keynote address, April 2017, James Madison University (invited)

Tagged Bodies and Accented Speech: Reflections on an Encounter with a ‘Narrow Nationalism’”, panel on “Race and Bodies”, Stony Brook, Department of Philosophy, Long Island, NY, May 2016 (invited)

“The Composite Community: Thinking Through Fanon’s Critique of a Narrow Nationalism”, Society for the Study of Africana Philosophy, New York, NY, April 2016 (invited)

A Critical Cosmopolitanism in Melville’s Moby Dick”, keynote address, Spelman College, Department of Philosophy, Atlanta, GA, April 2016

Decolonial Options in Melville’s Moby Dick”, Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, University of Oregon, March 2016

Resisting the Logic of Ambivalence: Bad Faith as Subversive, Anti-colonial Practice”, Collegium of Black Women Philosophers, The Pennsylvania State University, April 2015

Commentary, “Anamnesia: Remembrance and Resistance in Benjamin and Fanon”, Colloquium on Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Race, American Philosophical Association Central Division, St. Louis, MO, February, 2015 (invited)

Book panel, Moments of Disruption: Levinas, Sartre and the Question of Transcendence, Collegium of Black Women Philosophers, Diverse Lineages in Existentialism, St. Louis, MO, June 2014

“Levinas and Fanon on the Ethics of Nationalism”, Caribbean Philosophical Association, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, July 19 – 21, 2012

“Power as (or in) Vulnerability: Levinas and Fanon on the question of an ethical politics”, Collegium of Black Women Philosophers, The Pennsylvania State University, April 2012

Dirty Consciences and Runaway Selves: Anti-racism’s Tragic Heroes”, book panel on Michael Monahan’s The Creolizing Subject: Race, Reason and the Politics of Purity, Caribbean Philosophical Association, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, July 19 – 21, 2012 (invited)

On Diaspora and Displacement: the question of identity in Paul Gilroy and Emmanuel Levinas”, Keynote address, Ida B. Wells Philosophy Conference, The University of Memphis, Memphis TN, October 30 – 31, 2011 (invited)

Sartre and Levinas on the Question of Solidarity”, Caribbean Philosophical Association, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, September 29 – October 1, 2011

Levinas, Sartre and the Question of (Black) Solidarity”, North American Levinas Society, Texas A & M University, May 1 – 3, 2011

“Desire as Disruption”, book panel on Drew Dalton’s Longing for the Other: Levinas and Metaphysical Desire, North American Levinas Society, Texas A & M University, May 1 – 3, 2011 (invited)

Taking Seriously the Play of the il y a: Levinas on Excess, Interruption and the Face”, Collegium of Black Women Philosophers, The Pennsylvania State University, April 2011

Moderator for panel discussion: “Gospel to Jazz to Hip-Hop”, Fairfield County Youthful Expressions – A Day of Spoken Word, sponsored by The City of Stamford and Black Connecticut, The University of Connecticut, Stamford, CT. February 2011

Negritude as an Authentic Response within Sartre’s Ontology”, Can We Talk? Building Bridges between the Humanities and Social Sciences, Duke University, Durham NC, March 2010 (invited)

Finding Levinasian Passivity in Sartre’s Descriptions of Shame”, North American Sartre Society, The University of Memphis, November 2009

“The State of Faculty Diversity in the U.S. in the 21st Century”, MURAP Alumni panel, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, July 2009 (invited)

“Which is Holier, the Sacred or the Il y a: Levinas’ Need for Suffering in Transcendence”, North American Levinas Society, Seattle University, September 2008

Created Freedom as Incarnate Freedom in Emmanuel Levinas”. North Eastern Seminar of Continental Philosophers, St Anselm College, April 2008

Commentary on “Some Kinda Racist”: Re-Actualizing Hegel for the Politics of Difference?”, Sybol Cook Anderson, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Collegium of Black Women Philosophers, Vanderbilt University, October 2007 (invited)

Positionality in Sartrean Consciousness”, North American Sartre Society, Fordham University, October 2006

Commentary on “Sartre and the Objects of Consciousness”, Matt Massey, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee Philosophical Association, Vanderbilt University, November 2004 (invited)

Commentary on “Tolerance and Reconciliation”, Leonard Harris, Purdue University. Mid-south Philosophy Conference, University of Memphis, February 2004 (invited)

Commentary on “What is Internalized Racism”, Brian Thomas, University of North Carolina, Tennessee Philosophical Association, Vanderbilt University, October 2003

“The Role of Transcendence in Relations with Others in Sartre and Levinas”. North American Sartre Society, Purdue University, September 2003

Course Design
HR 3301: Philosophy of Hip Hop
PH 267: (De)Colonizing the Human
PH 360: Critical Race Theory
PH209 (A): Existentialism
BL 101/PJ 101: Black Lives Matter (in collaboration with other faculty)
Fairfield University 75th Anniversary Seminar (faculty consultant)
‘Curricular development on Social Justice’ (Magis Core Curriculum Revision)

Teaching experience
Questions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Critical Race Theory
Questions in Modern Philosophy
Social & Political Philosophy
Introduction to Philosophy
Existentialism
HR 100, Ideas that Shaped the West
HR 300, International Migration through Literature, Film and News Media
HR 200, (De)Colonizing the Human,
75 Anniversary Seminar, (consulting faculty)
Black Lives Matter
PH 267, (De)Colonizing the Human
HR 3301, Philosophy of Hip Hop: Beats, Rhymes and Life

University Service Handbook Committees
  • Member, University Advancement Committee, Fall 2019 – Spring 2022
  • Member, joint subcommittee on Non-Tenure Track Faculty Teaching Evaluation Formation (FDEC-subcommittee), Fall 2017 – Spring 2018
  • Member, FDEC, Fall 2015 – Spring 2018
  • Chair, Faculty Athletics Committee, Spring 2013
  • Member, Faculty Athletics Committee , Fall 2012 – Spring 2015
  • Admissions and Scholarships Committee, Fall 2008 – Spring 2011
Center for Academic Excellence
  • Director of Curriculum Development, Center for Academic Excellence, Fall 2017 – Spring 2018
  • Faculty Liason, Center for Academic Excellence, Spring 2017
Ad Hoc Service
  • Coordinator for ‘Social Justice’ element of Magis Core, Fall 2018 - present
  • Outside member, Search committee for ‘African American’ History search, Fall 2018 – Spring 2019
  • Chair, Task force on Free Speech, Fall 2017 - present
  • Outside member, Search committee for ‘Special Education’ GradEd search, Spring 2017
  • Member, Curricular development for social justice (working group for Core Curriculum Revision), Summer 2016 - present
  • Co-chair, Martin Luther King Planning Celebration committee, Fall 2013 – Spring 2015
  • Member, Martin Luther King Planning Celebration committee, Spring 2013 - present
  • Member, Arts, Culture and Community Engagement, Fall 2012 –Spring 2013
  • Orientation Facilitator, Summer 2011, 2012
  • Panel on Mission and Identity, Spring 2012
  • Critical Race Theory course listed with the ‘Diversity and Social Justice’ living and learning community
  • Social/Political Philosophy course listed with the ‘Diversity and Social Justice’ living and learning community
  • “Existentialism” course listed with ‘Ignation’ Residential College
  • “(De)Colonizing the Human” course listed with ‘Service for Social Justice’ Residential College
  • Open forum dialogue with Residential College, “Practicing Power: How and Why we Become Who We Are”, Fall 2019 (invited)
College Service
  • Associate Director, Humanities Institute, Fall 2019 – Spring 2021
  • Member, CAS Strategic Planning working group, Spring – Fall 2019
  • Black Studies program, Director, Fall 2019 – present
  • Member, CAS Strategic Planning Committee, Spring 2019 – present
  • Black Studies program, Co-director, Fall 2018 – Spring 2019
  • Member, Hiring committee for CAS Dean search, Spring 2017
  • Member, Arts and Sciences Planning Committee, Fall 2015 – present
  • Peace and Justice Studies program, Director, Fall 2012 – Spring 2017; Co-director, Fall 2017 – Spring 2018; Fall 2011- Spring2012
  • Faculty judge for ‘Poetry for Peace’ competition (open to Fairfield/Bridgeport elementary schools), Spring 2012, Spring 2015, Spring 2018
  • “Communities in Action Summit”, Spring 2010, Peace and Justice Studies Program, Fairfield University
  • Faculty coordinator for student-sponsored event, “Take Back the Night”, Fairfield University, Spring 2010 – Spring 2013
  • “Year of Activism”, 2009-2010, Peace and Justice Studies Program, Fairfield University, co- applicant for Humanities InstituteGrant
  • Organized campus visit by Tim Wise, “Living Diversity at Fairfield University: Conversations with Tim Wise”, March 22-24, 2009 (sponsored by the Humanities Institute Grant)
  • Steering Committee Member, Peace and Justice Studies Program, Fairfield University, Spring 2008 – Fall 2012
  • PH 10 instructor for Academic Immersion Summer Program, Fairfield University, Summer 2008 – Summer 2010
  • Black Studies Program, Steering Committee member, Fall 2007 – present
  • ‘First Year Experience’, Community Associate, Fall 2010, Fall 2012
Department Service
  • ‘Admitted Student Open House’, mock philosophy class, Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2018
  • Program Review, served on ‘Comparative Positions’ committee, Spring 2010
  • Summer workshop on Capstone development, June 2015
  • Member, Ethics Symposium planning committee, Spring 2019- Fall 2020
Community Service
  • Invited interviewee with St. Luke’s School (New Canaan) 9th grade students, Community Service project on racism, January 2019
  • Black History Month panel, Westhill High School, Stamford, CT, Spring 2018
  • Executive Board member, Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestra, August 2017 – December 2017
  • Moderator for panel discussion, “Spoken Word: Blues to Gospel to Hip-hop”, A Day of Spoken Word, sponsored by The City of Stamford and Black CT for ‘Black History Month’ celebration (2010)
  • Mock philosophy class for Yale-Bridgeport GEAR UP Partnership Program, May 2015
Professional Service Philosophy in a Key Summer Institute (PIKSI)
  • Director, June 2017 – June 2021
  • Member, Managerial board, June 2016- June 2017
  • Member, Advisory board, September 2015 – June 2016
Service in professional journals/university presses
  • Member, Editorial Board, Levinas Studies: An Annual Review, Spring 2019 – present
  • Hypatia transition task force, member, November 2017 – present
  • Co-editor, Reasonings, October 2017 – present
  • Book Review Editor, Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, Fall 2012 – present
  • Article referee, Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, Fall 2019
  • Article referee, Ethics, Fall 2019
  • Article referee, Radical Philosophy Review, Fall 2019
  • Article referee, Journal of Philosophical Research, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2013
  • Article referee, Continental Philosophy Review, Spring 2015
  • Article referee, Critical Philosophy of Race, Summer 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2019
  • Article referee, Hypatia, September 2016, September 2017, September 2018
  • Article referee, New Political Science, March 2017
  • Book proposal reviewer for SUNY Press, June 2018
  • Book proposal reviewer for Rowman & Littlefield, July 2017
  • Book proposal reviewer for Bloomsbury, March 2016 , May 2017
Service in scholarly communities
  • Member, Committee on Inclusiveness in the Profession for the American Philosophical Association, July 2018 – June 2021
  • Member, Book Selection Advisory Committee for the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Fall 2016 – Fall 2018
  • Member, Secretariat of the Caribbean Philosophical Association, June 2015 – June 2018
  • Chair, Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity for the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Fall 2014 – Fall 2015
  • Member, Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity for the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Fall 2012- Fall 2015
Miscellaneous
  • Dissertation Committee Member, Theodra Bane, 4th year doctoral candidate, Villanova University, October 2017 - present
  • Primary Investigator, Planning grant on a publication ethics for the Humanities, August 2017 – May 2018 (funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)
  • Invited speaker to Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy, Rutgers University, August 2017
  • Outside evaluator for Department of Philosophy, Sacred Heart University, January 2013

German – reading proficient
French – reading proficient

AWARDS
  • Robert E. Wall Faculty Award, Spring 2019
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Vision Award, Spring 2018
  • George E. Lang, Jr. Award, Spring 2018
  • Faculty fellow, Humanities Institute Seminar, Fall 2015 – Spring 2017
  • James Madison University CAS Visiting Scholar April, 2017
  • Service Learning Course Development Grant, Fairfield University, Spring 2014
  • College of Arts and Sciences ‘Distinguished Teacher of the Year’, Fairfield University, Spring 2012
  • Anna Julia Cooper Fellow, The Pennsylvania State University, January 2010
  • Diversity Fellow, University of Memphis, 2001-2006
  • Chris Spindell Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, Summer 2006
  • Hillary Johnson Memorial Graduate Student Instructor Award, Spring 2005, Spring 2006
GRANTS
External
  • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Planning grant on publication ethics for the humanities, Spring 2018 (funded)
  • NEH Research Fellowship, Falls 2018 – Spring 2019 (not funded)
  • NEH Summer Stipend, Summer 2017 (not funded)
Internal
  • Summer Research Stipend, Fairfield University, Summer 2016 (funded)
  • Pre-tenure Research Leave, Fairfield University, Spring 2010 (funded)
  • Humanities Institute Grant, Fairfield University, Fall 2009 (funded)

American Philosophical Association
North American Sartre Society
North American Levinas Society
Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Collegium of Black Women Philosophers
Caribbean Philosophical Association
Society of Young Black Philosophers
Society of Women in Philosophy (New York)

Curriculum Vitae

Kris F. Sealey, PhD
Associate Professor

Department of Philosophy
Phone: 203-254-4000, x 3020

Fairfield University
Email: ksealey@fairfield.edu
305 Donnarumma Hall

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