Cheshire Calhoun

Bio

Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Bio

Cheshire Calhoun works in the areas of normative ethics, moral psychology, feminist philosophy, and lesbian and gay studies. Her publications include "Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet" (Oxford, 2000), two edited collections, "What is an Emotion?" (coedited with Robert C. Solomon, Oxford, 1984), "Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers" (Oxford, 2004), and essays on forgiveness, integrity, shame, common decency, and civility. She has been particularly interested in arguments for same-sex marriage rights in the U.S. Her most recent work centers on the temporal nature of agency and the necessary background conditions for taking an interest in one's own agency. That work includes essays on depression and demoralization, meaning in life, hope, and commitment. Two of her essays were judged by The Philosopher's Annual to be among the top ten essays to appear in print, "Changing One's Heart," in 1992 and "The Virtue of Civility,", in 2000.

Professional Service

Cheshire Calhoun edits the Oxford University Press series Studies in Feminist Philosophy. She is an associate editor for the journals Ethics . and, beginning July 2011, Ombudsperson for the American Philosophical Association. She has served as chair of the philosophy departments at Colby College and University of Kentucky and director of Women’s Studies at Colby College and the College of Charleston.