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. (2024). nothing and infinity Black Life’s Response to Ontological Terror. Critical Philosophy of Race, 12(2), 382-400. https://doi.org/10.5325/critphilrace.12.2.0382
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