Kaitlyn Creasy, assistant professor of philosophy at Cal State San Bernardino, has been selected for the American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

The primary purpose of the fellowship is to increase the number of women in tenure-track faculty positions and to promote equity for women in higher education, according to the AAUW website. It is designed to assist the candidate in obtaining tenure and further promotions by enabling her to spend a year pursuing independent research.

“My fellowship supports a research project in ethics and the philosophy of emotion on stubborn social emotions and their harms,” said Creasy, who has specific research interests in self-knowledge, the transformative potential of affectivity, and the socio-cultural mediation of affects.

For the project, Creasy will investigate a species of emotional recalcitrance: a phenomenon in which an individual’s emotional states stubbornly endure even in the face of beliefs that conflict with them.

“Specifically, I examine obstinately self-deprecating social emotions: negative self-regarding emotions, developed as the result of socially inculcated habits of feeling, that conflict with self-affirming, reflectively endorsed beliefs about oneself,” she said.

She argues that these emotions constitute a unique ethical harm, captured in three main points: 1) they disrupt an individual’s ability to self-determine; 2) they impede positive self-regard, which is critical for the pursuit of one’s own empowerment (whether it be personal or political); and 3) members of socially subordinated groups are more likely to experience these emotions and thus are especially at risk for their associated harms.

Creasy will take research leave during the 2021-22 academic year.

To learn more about the American Association of University Women, visit the AAUW website.