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Philosophy Department

Debra Bergoffen, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
and Women's Studies
M.A. Graduate Coordinator

Contact Information:
Office: Robinson Hall B457
Email: dbergoff@gmu.edu
Phone: 703 993-1294

Office Hours:
By appointment

Spring 2008 Courses:

On academic leave

Areas of Interest:
Professor Bergoffen received her Ph.D. from Georgetown University. She teaches courses in existentialism, phenomenology, and feminist theory, including seminars in various figures in these traditions. She received the College of Arts and Sciences Award for Scholarship, the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Faculty Award, and the University Teaching Excellence Award.

Dr. Bergoffen works within the context of the continental philosophical and multi disciplinary feminist traditions, to explore issues at the intersections of epistemology, ethics, and politics. Her book, The Philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir: Gendered Phenomenologies, Erotic Generosities. New York: SUNY Press, 1997, details the significance of Beauvoir’s singular philosophical voice and examines the impact of her thinking on contemporary philosophical theory and current feminist thought.

Her most recent articles include: How Rape Became a Crime Against Humanity: History of an Error, Modernity and the Problem of Evil, ed. Alan D. Schrift (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005) pp.66-89, Introduction: Pyrrhus and Cineas. Simone de Beauvoir: Philosophical Writings, ed. Margaret S Simons (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004) pp.79-87, Engaging Nietzsche’s Women: Ofelia Schutte and the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, Hypatia, vol.19.no.3, summer 04, pp.157-168, Simone de Beauvoir, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html August, 2004, Failed Friendship, Forgotten Genealogies: Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Rigaray Bulletin de la Societe Americaine de Philosophie de Langue Francaise . Vol XIII. No 21 Spring 2003.p.16-31.

Her current research draws on theories of embodiment and the work of Beauvoir, Nietzsche, Lacan, Merleau-Ponty and Irigaray to probe the ways in which U.N. Tribunal judgments in the wake of the enocides in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, direct us to revisit our concepts of humanity, human dignity, the body, women’s rights and human rights.