Biography
Dr. O’Byrn is a scholar of critical philosophy of race and Black American philosophy with research spanning 19th, 20th, and 21st century Western philosophy.
eobyrn[at]illinois[dot]edu
Research Interests
Existential Philosophy, Black Feminist Philosophies, Frederick Douglass, Race/Racism, Black American Intellectual Histories, Humanism/Anti-Humanism, Media Representation, Antiblackness, Empowerment.
Education
- The Pennsylvania State University, Ph.D., Philosophy, 2019
- Concordia College, B.A. Philosophy, 2012
Grants
- 2021 Public Works Grant from Carleton College: Black Minnesota in the 1800s and 1900s
Courses Taught
SPRING 2023 AFRO 226 - Black Women Contemporary US Society
SPRING 2023 AFRO 378 - Race and Revolutions
FALL 2022 AFRO 224 - Studies in Black Television
FALL 2022 AFRO 227 - Humanist Perspectives of Afro-American Experience [Black Humanism]
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, African American Studies
Assistant Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Recent Publications
O'Byrn, E. (2023). Simone de Beauvoir, Analogy, Intersectionality, and Expanding Philosophy: An Interview with Kathryn Sophia Belle. Hypatia, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1017/hyp.2023.8
O’Byrn, E. (2022). Reading Angela Davis Beyond the Critique of Sartre. Sartre Studies International, 28(2), 17-41. https://doi.org/10.3167/ssi.2022.280203
O’Byrn, E. (2022). Review: L.R. Gordon's Fear of Black Consciousness. Philosophical Quarterly, 72(4), 1061–1063. Article pqac019. https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqac019
Belle, K. S., & O'Byrn, E. E. (2021). Anti-Racism and Existential Philosophy: An interview with Kathryn Sophia Bell. Sartre Studies International, 27(2), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.3167/ssi.2021.270202
Neal, A. S., Barber, M., & O’Byrn, E. (2020). Thurman’s Philosophical De-Mystified Mysticism: Author Meets Critics: Anthony Sean Neal, Author of Howard Thurman’s Philosophical Mysticism Meets Critics Michael Barber and Eddie O’Byrn. The Acorn, 20(1/2), 5-21. https://doi.org/10.5840/acorn202192014