Professor
Ph.D., Princeton University, 1983
Appointed at UMass, 1995

Member of the UMass Advisory Board for the Center for Renaissance Studies
Member of the UMass Board for the Interdisciplinary Seminar in the Humanities & Arts (ISHA)           
Advisor for the UMass Women's Studies Graduate Certificate Program

Other Teaching Appointments:

Amherst College (1999; 2000)
Harvard University (1991)
The Graduate Center, CUNY (1985-95)
Queens College, CUNY (1983-95)
Notre Dame University (1980-83)

Areas of Interest:

History of early modern philosophy, with a focus on metaphysics, natural philosophy and philosophical theology, including the contributions of 17th- and 18th-century women philosophers; history of feminist philosophical thought

Current Research:

I am currently editing a book with Marcy Lascano (California State University, Long Beach): Feminist History of Philosophy: The Recovery and Evaluation of Women’s Philosophical Thought (Dordrecht: Springer, forthcoming).  I am also writing a chapter on “The Equality of the Sexes and the Role of Women in Society” for a forthcoming handbook of early modern philosophy.  Finally, I continue to work on Seventeenth-Century Women Philosophers: Metaphysics and Method, which will provide detailed studies of the philosophical methodologies of a number of women philosophers, together with analyses of their contributions to the main metaphysical debates of the seventeenth century.

Selected Publications:

“Mary Astell on the Causation of Sensation,” in Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith, ed. William Kolbrener and Michal Michelson (Aldershhot/Butlington, VT: Ashgate Press, 2007).

"Justifying the Inclusion of Women in Our Histories of Philosophy: The Case of Marie de Gournay," in Guide to Feminist Philosophy, ed. Linda Alcoff and Eva Kittay (Oxford/Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 2006).

Early Modern Philosophy: Mind, Matter, and Metaphysics, ed. Christia Mercer and Eileen O'Neill (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).  A collection of essays by Michael Ayers, Jonathan Bennett, Janet Broughton, Vere Chappell, Edwin Curley, Lisa Downing, Michael Friedman, Daniel Garber, Douglas Jesseph, Louis Loeb, Beatrice Longuenesse, Robert Sleigh, Catherine Wilson, and Roger Woolhouse.

"Women Philosophers and the History of Philosophy,” Australian Journal of French Studies XL, 3 (2003): 257-74.  A special issue of the journal devoted to the work of Michèle Le Doeuff, ed. Margaret Sankey and Jean Fornasiero.

"Contributiones de Margaret Wilson a la historia de la filosofía moderna,[Margaret Wilson’s Contributions to the History of Philosophy]" in Homenaje a Margaret Wilson, ed. Laura Benítez and José A. Robles (Mexico: Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas de la UNAM, 2002).

Margaret Cavendish, Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, ed. Eileen O’Neill (Cambridge/NY: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

"Women Cartesians, 'Feminine Philosophy,' and Historical Exclusion," in Feminist Interpretations of Descartes, ed. Susan Bordo (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999).

"Disappearing Ink: Early Modern Women Philosophers and Their Fate in History," in Philosophy in a Feminist Voice, ed. Janet Kourany (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).

"Influxus Physicus," in Causation in Early Modern Philosophy, ed. Steven Nadler (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993).

"Mind-Body Interaction and Metaphysical Consistency:  A Defense of Descartes," Journal of the History of Philosophy, XXV, 2 (April, 1987): 227-45.  Reprinted in Essays on Early Modern Philosophers: René Descartes, vol. I, Part II,  ed. Vere Chappell (New York: Garland Press, 1992).