William Paris
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy
William Paris is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy. He received a PhD in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University in 2018, and has served as the Frank B. Weeks Visiting Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Wesleyan University. From 2018-2020, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University.
Paris’s research interests are in Africana philosophy, philosophy of race, political philosophy and critical theory. He seeks to demonstrate how the work of Africana scholars can lead to a deeper understanding of contemporary conflicts. His manuscript Black Critical Theory and the Epistemology of Utopia argues that utopia is an essential precondition for political critique and generating knowledge. He has recently published an article titled "'Socialism or Barbarism?: C.L.R. James and the Politics of Hope and Utopia" in HA: The Journal of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities.