Rebecca Tuvel
Rebecca Tuvel
Rebecca Tuvel is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennesee.
Early Life & Education
Tuvel was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario.
She completed undergraduate studies at McGill University where she wrote her thesis on Spinoza and feminist theories of psychological oppression.
Tuvel completed a PhD with a concentration in feminism, animal ethics and social-political philosophy at Vanderbilt University in 2014. [1]
Career
Tuvel teaches Social-Political Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, Philosophy of Race, Feminist Philosophy, Introduction to Philosophy, and upper-level courses in Applied Ethics.
Tuvel recently taught a topics course on the Ethics of Captivity.
In this course, students analyzed different justifications for keeping humans in prison and animals in zoos, factory farms, and as pets in our homes.
Tuvel's research lies at the intersection of critical race, feminist and animal ethics.
Her writings consider several ways in which animals, women and racially subordinated groups are oppressed, how this oppression often overlaps and how it serves to maintain erroneous and harmful conceptions of humanity.
Uniting these lines of research is an underlying concern to theorize justice for oppressed groups.
Tuvel is currently writing a book on the ethics of changing race.
She takes up the case of former NAACP chapter head Rachel Dolezal and her attempted transition from a white to black racial identity. This case gained popularity at the same time that Caitlyn Jenner graced the cover of Vanity Fair, signaling a growing acceptance of transgender identity. Yet criticisms of Dolezal for misrepresenting her true race indicate a widespread social perception that it is neither possible nor permissible to change one’s race the way it might be to change one’s sex. Against this view, Tuvel argues that the considerations that support transgenderism extend to transracialism. [1]
Hypatia transracialism controversy
Tuvel has met with much criticism for her defense of Dolezal, causing a major controversy on campus.
[0]A paper that shared research from her book entitled "In Defense of Transracialism" was published in March 2017 in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy.
Criticism came in the form of an "Open Letter to Hypatia" with signatures from leading professors — the top names listed are Elise Springer of Wesleyan University, Alexis Shotwell of Carleton University (who is listed as the point of contact), Dilek Huseyinzadegan of Emory University, Lori Gruen of Wesleyan, and Shannon Winnubst of Ohio State University.