.theme_title, .theme_title_b {background-position: 50% 50%; background-image: url(www.yoursite.com/image.jpg)}
    About Me
    Stacks Image 18


    Office: 305 A.B. Anderson Hall
    Office Phone: 218.726.7714
    Office Hours: 9:30am to 11:30am TR
    but Check my Calendar
    and use zoom: https://umn.zoom.us/my/schroer
    Email: jschroer@d.umn.edu
    Website:     www.d.umn.edu/~jschroer/

    I am an Associate Professor of Philosophy (and Cognitive Science and African and African-American Studies) in the Department of Geography and Philosophy. (If you have questions about those programs reach out to the Program Chairs of Philosophy or Cognitive Science or the director of AAAS; if you need a Department Head, email them here. Check the other tabs for more stuff. If you are enrolled in a class with me right now (or have been in the past) Canvas is where you want to go. If you are interested in inclusive pedagogy or anti-racist education check that “Projects” tab. If you are looking to meet up with me about something check my calendar and email me.
    Teaching
      Teaching Philosophy
      Student success is important to me. I recognize that there are *multiple* ways to learn and that this multiplicity should be acknowledged in the structure of university courses and the evaluation of their participants. Thus, I facilitate students registered in my courses to share their learning styles and comprehension requirements with me and I encourage more detailed discussions as needed during my office hours or at another arranged time, if necessary. Every student is entitled to a meaningful and stimulating learning experience.

      Students whose access needs aren’t being met (due to a disability or any other kind of challenge) are strongly encouraged to avail themselves of the services provided by the Office of Disability Services — http://www.d.umn.edu/disability-resources — (218) 726-6130. This office can help you whether you have long-term difficulties (like learning disabilities, cognitive obstacles, sensory deficits, or other chronic illnesses) as well as short-term ones (like injuries that interfere with your ability to take notes or attend class). Even if you don’t avail yourself of disability services, I strongly encourage you to contact me at jschroer@d.umn.edu if you have accessibility needs regarding my courses that aren’t being met.

      Any student who has difficulty affording groceries or accessing sufficient food to eat every day, or who lacks a safe and stable place to live, and believes this may affect their performance in the course, is urged to contact the Office of Student Life — vcsl@d.umn.edu — for support. Furthermore, please notify the me if you are comfortable in doing so. This will enable me to provide any resources that I may possess.
      Introductory Teaching
      While I have taught a variety of entry level courses — intro Logic, Ethics and Society, as well as a variation on UMD's Dialogue an Debate course — during my tenure at UMD, I have focused on Introduction to Philosophy and Critical Thinking.

      I have three goals in these classes: 1) Develop students appreciation of how ideas fit together; 2) foster students capacity to articulate when and why some ideas fit together better than others; 3) develop students capacity to articulate disagreements about those fit issues with each other.

      • Introduction to Philosophy
      • Critical Thinking
      Lately, I've become convinced that a key element in those goals is helping students appreciate why those skills are important and creating a context where students can comfortably practice those skills. Of late I have been working on creating robust communities of practice within my classes in order to meet that satisfy that second need.
      Intermediate Teaching
      • The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Horror
      • Existentialism and the Arts
      • Racial Cognition
      The intermediate level teaching I do is some of the most exciting teaching I do for a couple of reason. I designed or considerably reworked all three of these courses.

      The Existentialism and the Arts course has the longest history at UMD (it used to be called Existential Literature). I have enjoyed taking advantage of UMD's 8am slot during "Spring" term to set the tone for understanding philosophical inclinations to doubt the meaningfulness of life.

      Racial Cognition and the Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Horror (film) are new courses in UMD's new Liberal Education Category: Theorizing Race, Power, and Justice. The goal of these courses is to facilitate students appreciation of the complex ways that racial ideology is conveyed and maintained in our culture. I really enjoy helping students creatively engage with these tough subjects.
      Upper-Level Teaching
      The largest variety of teaching that I've done at UMD is at the upper-level. While I've taught Aesthetics and Values and Technology, Ethical Theory, Philosophy of Race & Racism, Current, Social/Political Philosophy, and the Philosophy Seminar are the courses that I am still teaching regularly. These courses fulfill the upper-level writing requirement and so I include a variety of writing assignments as well as a research project.
      • Current Social Political Philosophy
      • Ethical Theory
      • Philosophy of Race & Racism
      • Philosophy Seminar

      Lately, however, I have been focused on supporting students agency in their education. I work with students at the beginning of the semester to identify what success will look like for them. I have done group "contracts" as well as individual contracts. My intention is to foster students defining their expectations to make them more invested in the project of engaging earnestly in "difficult conversations".
      Honor Teaching and Honors and Graduate Mentorship
      Courses for the Honors Program

      The Ethics of Callout Culture
      I have greatly enjoyed teaching for UMD's Honor's Program. In that context, faculty are encouraged to engage unique pedagogical strategies and to really challenge students. While the Callout Culture class has really changed — as the cultural landscape of calling out has changed — it remains fundamentally an opportunity for students to think deeply about the trickier parts of living in community with people who are imperfect and to critically reflect on the shortcomings in how we do that now.

      The most satisfying teaching I've done is mentoring students through independent research for Departmental Honors in Philosophy. The philosophy and cognitive science programs offer students the opportunity to work for up to two semesters on a research project of their choosing. Working with a mentor on either an original research project or on the development of a project from a previous class, students develop a greater appreciation of what longer form serious research writing is like. Once they've completed the written project, they defend the project before the program faculty and their peers. Seeing folks develop and crystallize complex ideas is just about the best thing going as far as I'm concerned.
      Mentoring Students for Departmental Honors in Philosophy
      • Honor’s Thesis - “Midwest Aversion to Conflict: The Trap of Being “Too Nice” to Be Racist” with Bennett Mullozzi (Defended Spring 2024)
      • Honor’s Thesis - “Whose Problem is Picasso? An Analysis of Art Institutions’ Responsibility to Create a More Accurate Artistic Cannon” with Erin Cain (Defended Spring 2023)
      • Honor’s Thesis - “Kierkegaard Meets Feminism: Can There Be a Proper Knight of Faith Today?” With Sophia Stone (Defended Spring 2023)
      • Independent Research - “It’s Just a Joke: The Challenges of Racist Humor” with James Galke (Fall 2021 - Spring 2022)
      • Honor’s Thesis - “Are We Patient-Centered Yet? A Phenomenological Assessment of the Patient-Centered Medicine Movement” with Aleksander Holleran (Defended Spring 2019)
      • Honor’s Thesis - “The Vicious Disciplinary Super Cycle: The Systematic Maintenance of Violence Through Femininity” with Samantha Woller (Defended Spring 2018)
      • Honor’s Thesis - “Language Games, Racial Slurs, and Charlie Sheen (tentative title)” with Trevor Winger (Defended Spring 2017).
      • Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) - “From URL to IRL: How TERFs expose the singularity of the internet and real life” with April Emig (Fall 2016 - Spring 2016)
      • Honor’s Thesis - “The Devil or the Corpus Callosum: A genealogy and critique of transphobia in radical feminist ideology” with April Emig (Defended Spring 2015)
    Research
      Publications
      Edited Volumes

      • 2023, Hypatia, special issue “Intersectional Epistemologies: The Ethics and Politics of Epistemic Practice.” Co-edited with Gaile Pohlhaus. Fall 2023.
      • 2022, Mississippi Quarterly, 74 (1). Special issue “Mass Incarceration in the US South.” Co-edited with Katie Owens-Murphy. Spring 2022.
      • 2020, Microaggressions and Philosophy. Routledge. Co-edited with Lauren Freeman.

      Journal Articles and Book Chapters

      • 2023, “The Ethics of Microaggression: A Radical Intervention in a Conventional Framework”. Analysis.
      • 2020, “The Message in the Microaggression: Epistemic Oppression at the Intersection of Disability and Race” In Microaggressions and Philosophy edited by Lauren Freeman and Jeanine Weekes Schroer: Routledge.
      • 2018, “Putting psychology before metaphysics in moral responsibility: Reactive attitudes and a ‘gut feeling’ that can trigger and justify them.” Philosophical Psychology 32(3): 357-387. [Early Access: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09515089.2018.1555800] Coauthored with Robert Schroer.
      • 2017, "For the Love of the Feminist Killjoy: Solving Philosophy’s Woman White Male Problem." in Surviving Sexism in Academia: Strategies for Feminist Leadership edited by Kirsti C. Cole and Holly Hassel: Routledge. Coauthored with Melissa M. Kozma.
      • 2015, “Giving Them Something They Can Feel: On the Strategy of Scientizing the Phenomenology of Race and Racism.” Knowledge Cultures 3(1).
      • 2014, "Getting the Story Right: A Reductionist Narrative Account of Personal Identity." Philosophical Studies 171(3) Coauthored with Robert Schroer.
      • 2014, “Purposeful Nonsense, Intersectionality, and the Mission to Save Black Babies.” In Why Race and Gender Still Matter: An Intersectional Approach, edited by Namita Goswami, Maeve O’Donavan, and Lisa Yount.: Pickering & Chatto. Coauthored with Melissa M. Kozma
      • 2013, “The Terrifying Tale of the Philosophical Mammy” The Black Scholar 43(4).
      • 2013, “Two Potential Problem with Philosophical Intuition” Philosophia 41(4) Coauthored with Robert Schroer.
      • 2012, “Campus as Community: A Better Approach to Sexual Harassment Policy” in American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Feminist Philosophy 11(2).
      • 2010, “Arthur Ashe: Philosopher in Motion” in Tennis and Philosophy: What the Racket is All About. David Baggett, editor. The University Press of Kentucky.  
      • 2007, “Fighting Imperviousness with Vulnerability: Teaching in a Climate of Conservatism.” Teaching Philosophy 30(2): 185-200.
      Invited Presentations
      • “Critical Race Theory (and Wokeness) Is Coming to Get You! On Metaphysical Quieting” presented at College of St. Scholastica, Duluth MN, March 28, 2023.
      • “Critical Race Theory Is Coming to Get You! Trying to Steel Man Anti-CRT Sentiment” presented at Arizona State University (remotely), October 21, 2022
      • Microaggression and the Reproduction of White Supremacist Culture” presented virtually as the Keynote at the annual Utah Valley University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference, April 13, 2021.
      • “Know ‘Dis: Strategizing Around White Supremacist Epistemologies” presented at University Research Ethics Week, Univesity of Minnesota, March 1, 2021.
      • “Race, Grace and Intractable Moral Problems” presented at the University of Minnesota Morris, February 27, 2019.
      • “Difficult Dialogue - ‘White Feminism’ and ‘Grace’”, FEAST 2019, Clearwater Beach FL, October 4, 2019.
      • “Access Denied: Sex, Booze, and Title IX.” Faculty Keynote for the Third Annual Undergraduate Women’s Conference at Metropolitan State University Denver, Colorado, April 15, 2018.
      • “Privilege, Vulnerability, and Risk: Strategies for Intersectional Analysis in this Challenging Time.” Keynote for Duquesne Women in Philosophy Conference, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, April 7, 2018.
      • “The Worst Greatest Gift: Confederate Monuments Concretizing of Concrete-Relations-With-Others” for Invited Session on Aesthetics of Monuments and Monumentality at the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, San Diego, CA, March 29, 2018.
      • “Allies, Accomplices and Other Nonsense: Rethinking #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen” Invited Session on Intersectionality and Solidarity at the Easter Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Savannah GA, January 3 - 6, 2018.
      • “Understanding Racial Slurs and Conceptualizing Racism” invited Session on the Philosophy of Race at the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Seattle WA, April 13, 2017.
      • “Toxic Masculinity, Stereotype Threat, and Resilience” at the 2017 Philosophy Desert Workshop, Moab UT, March 25, 2017.
      Select Peer Reviewed Presentations
      • “Enabling a Framework for Conceptualizing Disability Microaggressions: On “‘I Can Help You Die Peacefully’…But ‘I Wanted to Live’: Disability Microaggressions in Medicine.” Comment at the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association Conference, New York, New York, January 9, 2025.
      • “Reconsidering ‘Fragility’: What Nonsense Can Do For You?” (with Melissa M. Kozma and Megan T. Mitchell”) panel discussion at the Society for Analytic Feminism session at the Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Kansas City MO, March 4, 2017.
      • "Do we have to choose between good sex and consensual sex?"", Seminar on Contested Sexual Consent, University of Connecticut - Public Discourse Project, Storrs, Connecticut, United States. (September 11, 2016).
      • “The ‘Bully’ Narrative: How Creating Precarity Becomes Child’s Play” presented at the 36th Annual National Women’s Studies Association, Milwaukee, WI, November 14, 2015.
      • “Integrity Privilege: The Hows and Whys of Who Gets to be a Social Justice Hero” presented at the 112th Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, St. Louis, MO, February 19, 2015.
      • “Bullies, Trolls, & #Feminism” presented at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 14, 2014.
      • “Dangerous Discourse: Stereotype Threat, and Social Oppression” presented at the Minnesota Philosophical Society. St. Catherine University, St. Paul MN, October 27, 2012.
      • “Dangerous Discourse, Stereotype Threat, and the Phenomenology of Social Oppression” presented at the 3rd Society for Analytical Feminism Meeting, Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, October 5, 2012.
      • “Nonsense as Discourse: The Continuing Importance of Critical Race and Feminist Analysis” presented at Women in Philosophy: Why Race and Gender Still Matter , Society for Women in Philosophy Eastern Division Conference. Notre Dame of Maryland University, Baltimore MD, April 28, 2012.
      Current Research
      Coming soon!
    Outreach
      Community Leadership
      • PRESENT - 2017, Chair of the Board of Directors for the nonprofit Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault (PAVSA). (I joined the board in 2017 and was elected to Chair of the Board in July of 2019. As Board Chair, I have participated in an Intercultural Leadership Development Training with the Executive Director and the staff; we participated in a fundraising workshop through GiveMN we revised the organizations bylaws; we redesigned the Executive Director’s evaluation process; we integrated strategic planning more thoroughly into our yearly processes and have meaningfully achieved several of the goals; obviously much of my tenure as Chair has occurred during the global pandemic.)
      • PRESENT - 2020, Founding Member and Board Chair of Black Liberation Lab (BLL) (Shortly after the Murder of George Floyd, I began working with a small group of Black folk in the Twin Ports — Duluth MN, Superior WI, and surrounds — to form a nonprofit. Our goal was to form an organization that would facilitate for the Black community that was focused on self-help, accountability and healing from trauma all through a lens of creativity, self-reflection, and restorative justice. We imagined a uniquely collaborative organization that would bring together Black folks across difference like age, gender expression and identity, sexuality and ability. We have since won a Northland Foundation Grant for $20,000 co-authored by me and the Executive Director, Breanna Ellison and won the opportunity to participate in an organizational development training series by WeGovern.)
      • 2023-2022, Duluth African Heritage Commission - Whose purpose is to ensure that the views of the African Heritage community are incorporated in the decision making, future planning, and stewardship of the city of Duluth, and to act as a guide in the development of public policy, planning and services, so that the African Heritage community is adequately represented in these processes.
      • 2023-2022, Leadership Duluth, 2022-23 - is a comprehensive leadership development program by the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce aimed at showing participants how their leadership can create opportunities within a business and cultivate a bustling economy, bringing heightened value to their workplace and becoming active community participants.
      • 2022 - 2017, Junior League of Duluth (from 2017)
      • 2021 - 2019, Family Freedom Center - Facilitator Race Awareness Workshops (Since Fall 2019 I have been working as a leader and facilitator in FFC’s RA Workshops. We develop curricula for organizations to explore their effectiveness at facilitating inclusivity, diversity and equity within their organization.)
      • 2020 - 2019, Co-Director of the Twin Ports BIPOC Youth Summit, February 12 (with Terresa Moses) (This was an event that brought together about 150 school-age children, from 12-18, for a day of anti-racist education, community connection and creativity. We cultivated relationships with education specialists, school leadership, and teachers; did focus groups with students from 5 different schools. We recruited local artists, educators, and institutions to donate space, resources, labor and to run the sessions.)
      Antiracist Teaching and Outreach
      • “Why You Should Care about Black Horror!” for Nerd Nite, Duluth MN, October 4, 2024. 
      • “Theorizing Race, Power, and Justice Across the Disciplines” a pedagogy development for University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth MN, August 2022.
      • “Critical Race Theory: Exploring the Critical Framework” for the University of Minnesota System Diversity Community of Practice, Duluth MN, November 23, 2021.
      • “Wrestling with CRT: What It Is, What It Is Not, What It Will Be” for the League of Women Voters, Duluth MN, October 12, 2021.
      • “Becoming Authentic Allies” for St. Louis County, Duluth MN, September 23, 2021.
      • Co-Director of the Twin Ports BIPOC Youth Summit, February 12 (with Terresa Moses).
      • It's More Than That Podcast with Paula Pedersen, Duluth MN, May 15, 2019
      • Modes of Oppression, Training Workshop at NAACP, Duluth MN, August 7, 20192019 Inclusive Pedagogy, Faculty Development Day at Marshall School, Duluth MN, August 22, 2019.
      • "How to Be a Virtuous Teacher,” AAPT Inclusive Pedagogy Workshop, Harper College, Palatine IL, August 17, 2019.
      • “Cultural Competency: Anti-Oppression Education,” presented at MACAC Board Retreat at University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth MN, August 8, 2019.
      • “Anti-Racism in the US: What America Never Was", presented at TED at Teatro, Duluth MN, March 20, 2019 (with Jordan Moses and Paula Pedersen) (Educational Presentation based on my Scholarship).
      • Special Presentation on Ethics to ART 3933 at University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth MN for Terresa Moses, “Ethics for Graphic Designers,” February 25, 2019.
      • "Understanding Systemic Inequity", Gender Equity Roundtable, UMD Faculty Senate, Duluth, Minnesota, United States. (December 4, 2018).
      • "Microaggressions & Implicit Bias", SCSE Faculty Mentoring Workshop, SCSE Faculty Mentoring Group, Duluth, Minnesota, United States. (November 6, 2018).
      • "Framing Resistance Panel Discussion", Office of Diversity and Inclusion Speaker Series, UMD Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Duluth, Minnesota, United States. (September 12, 2018).
      • Special Presentation on Intersectional Approaches to Reproduction at St. Olaf College, Northfield MN for Kathryn Swanson’s “Race and Social Justice,” January 24, 2017. (Via Skype).
      • CLA Future Graduate Students Committee, Panelist. October 2016 Panelist for "The Value of Graduate Education”.
      • Special Presentation on Racism Basics and World Literature at Arkansas State University, Jonesboro AR for Kate Krueger’s “Women’s World Literature,” August 27, 2014. (Via Skype).
      • Special Presentation on Charles Mills’ The Racial Contract at College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota for Emily Esche’s “Human Nature”, October 31, 2013.
      In the Media
      I’ve been featured in the press a bit, especially lately. I have conflicting feelings about my engagements with the press. Usually, if someone wants my opinion it’s bad news — I am most often asked to talk about my expertise on race and racism, sometime sexual assault. Lately, the media has been engaging more seriously with questions about race, racism, and white supremacy so I’m pretty happy to participate.


      So you see what I mean about what a bummer I am when I show up in the media. Still it’s important to talk about and I’m grateful to do it.
Unicorn

Unicorn