Prof. Dr. phil. Karen Adkins

• Social Epistemology

• Recent Continental Philosophy

• Feminist Theory

• Political Philosophy
• Nineteenth Century Philosophy
• Eighteenth Century Philosophy

Book:

• Knowledge Underground: Gossip, Hypocrisy, Power. Palgrave Macmillan (2017).

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters/Articles:

• Grassi, E., Hedar, A., Adkins, K., Sakulich, J., and Caulk, S. “From Resistance to Innovation: Involving Stakeholders to Advance the Assessment Process in Higher Education.” International Handbook of Evaluation and Assessment in Education, Springer, forthcoming.
• “Speaking in the Air: Private Friendships and Public Dialogue.” Revue d’etudes Benthamiennes 28 (2025). https://doi.org/10.4000/15cd2
• “Mentoring the First Big Project: Two Pages at a Time.” In Innovations in Teaching Philosophy: A Toolkit for the 21st-Century Classroom. Ed. Brynn Welch. Bloomsbury Press (2025). Invited chapter.
• “The Banality of Sexual Violence.” In The Philosophy of Sexual Violence, Georgi Gardiner and Micol Bez, eds. Routledge. Forthcoming.
• “Carving Up Community.” In Philosophy of the City, vol. 1(1): 71 - 83 (2023).
• “Sometimes It IS Worse Being Talked About: Epistemic Credibility and Social Capital.” In Speculative Endeavours: Managing Knowledge and Capital in the Long Nineteenth Century. Eds. Katrin Horn and Karin Hoepker. Manchester University Press, (2025).
• “De-Centering the Professor (Not by Design).” In The Art of Teaching Philosophy: Reflective Values and Concrete Practices. Ed. Brynn Welch. Bloomsbury Press (2024), pp. 13 - 22. Invited chapter.
• “Building Autonomy and Trust in the Introductory Classroom: Team Discussion and Analysis Assignments.” With Rebecca Vartabedian. In APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy, 22(2): 2 - 8 (Spring 2023).
• “‘We Will March Side By Side and Demand a Bigger Table’: Rage as Dignity Claim.” In The Politics of Negative Emotions, ed. Dan Degerman. Bristol University Press: 31 - 53 (2023).
• “Online Shaming’s Invisible Harms.” In Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Media Ethics, ed. Carl Fox and Joe Saunders. Routledge: 319 - 329 (2024). Invited chapter.
• “Policing the Gendered Economy of Care,” Social Philosophy Today 37 (2021).
• “Exit Only: Harms From Silencing Employee Voice,” JCOM 19(5): 1 - 18 (2020).
• “‘We Will March Side By Side and Demand a Bigger Table’: Rage as Dignity Claim,” Global Discourse (2019). ISSN 2043-7897, https://doi.org/10.1332/204378919X15746664403506
• “Gaslighting by Crowd,” Social Philosophy Today 35: 75 - 87 (2019).
• “Gossip as Ecological Discourse,” in McHugh and Doucet, eds. Thinking Ecologically, Thinking Responsibly: The Legacies of Lorraine Code. SUNY Press: 73 - 92 (2021).
• “‘I Can’t Go Back’: The Reimagination of Space in Feminist Westerns,” Contemporary Cowboys: Reimagining in American Archetype in Popular Culture, ed. Clint Jones. Lexington Books: 123 - 144 (2023).
• “When Shaming is Shameful: Double Standards in Online Shame Backlashes,” Hypatia 34:1 (2019), 76 - 97.
• “Productive Alienation via Service Learning.” Teaching Philosophy 41:3 (2018), 217 - 238.
• (with Abigail Gosselin) “Learning from the Labs: Reimagining Ethics Instruction.”   Expositions: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities 7:1 (2013).
• “The Erasure of Empowered Gossip in Academia.”  Nouvelle Revue Synergies Canada 7 (2014).
• “Against (Simple) Efficiency.”  Philosophy in the Contemporary World 17:2 (2010), 58 – 67.
• “The Real Dirt: Gossip and Feminist Epistemology.”  Social Epistemology 16:3 (2002), 215 - 232. 

Non Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters/Articles:

• “The Epistemology of Socializing: A Review of Kathryn Waddington’s Gossip, Organization and Work.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 12(6): 35 - 38 (2023).
• “The Inadequacy of Choice Language in Migration Debates,” Social Philosophy Today 38 (2022).
• “The Value of Community,” Conversations Magazine (Spring 2021).
• “Exploiting the Vulnerable: Comments on Yvonne Chiu, Conspiring with the Enemy,” Social Philosophy Today 37 (2021).
• “Comments on Rahel Jaeggi, Critique of Forms of Life,” Social Philosophy Today 36 (2020).
• “We Need More Transitional Justice: Comments on Colleen Murphy, The Conceptual Foundations of Transitional Justice,” Social Philosophy Today 35 (2019).
• “Comments on Tommie Shelby, Dark Ghettos,” Social Philosophy Today 34, 182 - 184 (2018).
• “The Challenge of Making Good Logical Arguments,” with Ron DiSanto. Conversations Magazine (September 2017).
• “Eichmann in Albuquerque.” In Philosophy and Breaking Bad, eds. Kevin Decker and David Koepsell.  Palgrave MacMillan (2017).
• “Bringing Home the Bacon.” In The Good Wife and Philosophy. Arp, Bob and Belzer-Jaray, Kimberly, eds. Blackwell(2013).
• “The Liberating Arts.”  Regis University Magazine 20:1 (Fall 2011), 16 – 17.
• “Knowing What We Cannot: Gossip and Rumor in Sweden.” In The Girl with the Aristotle Tattoo: Philosophy and the Novels of Stieg Larsson. Bronson, Erik (ed.), Blackwell (2011).
• “Humanity is a Prejudice.” In What Philosophy Can Tell You About Your Dog, ed. Steven Hales. Open Court (2008).

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• “Continuous Social Disintegration.” International Social Ontology Society, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, July 21 - 24, 2026.
• “#MeToo But Not Them: Institutional Betrayal, Open Secrets, and Whisper Campaigns.” “Gender, Authority, and Trust in the United States,” Heidelberg Center for American Studies, July 10 - 11, 2026.
• “Collective Shamelessness and Political Violence.” International Social Ontology Society, Duke University, July 22 - 25, 2024.
• “The Limits of Moral Repair Theory for Racial Reparations Work.” 40th International Social Philosophy Conference, University of Portland, July 13 - 15, 2023.
• “Meet Them Where they Are, But Where Are the Faculty?” Humanities for our Times: New Perspectives on Humanistic Approaches, Ethics, and Social Change. Colorado College, June 14 - 17, 2023.
• “Shifting the Paradigm on ‘Private’ Employee Harassment.” Rethinking Privacy After the Pandemic. University of Bonn, September 15 - 16, 2022.
• “Private Government as Epistemic Failure.” Institutional Epistemology Workshop. TiNT: University of Helsinki, June 20 - 21, 2022.
• “‘I Can’t Go Back’: The Reimagination of Space in Feminist Westerns.” FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, October 21, 2020. Invited lecture (cancelled, COVID).
• “Who’s Afraid of Tabloid Gossip?” Speculative Endeavors: Cultures of Knowledge and Capital in the Long 19th Century. Universität Bayreuth, October 22 - 24, 2021 (via Zoom). Invited speaker.
• “Carving Up Community,” North American Society for Social Philosophy Annual Conference, University of San Francisco, July 2019.
• “Gaslighting by Crowd,” North American Society for Social Philosophy Annual Conference, Oakland University, July 20, 2018.
• “The Value of Place: Alienation in Service Learning.” American Philosophical Association (Pacific Meeting), Seattle, April 2017.
• “Teaching Justice Through Service Learning.”  Panel presentation with Abigail Gosselin and Jason Taylor.  North American Society for Social Philosophy Annual Conference, William Jewell University, July 16, 2015.
• “The Erasure of Empowered Gossip in Academia.”  Gossip: An Interdisciplinary Conference.  University of Guelph, May 12.
• “The Limitations of Appiah’s Honor Theory for Feminism.”  North American Society for Social Philosophy Annual Conference, Marquette University, July 23, 2011.
• “Gender Bubble: Desperate Housewives’ Minimal Critique of Feminine Domesticity.”  Feminism and Pop Culture: Feminist and Women’s Studies Association Conference, Newcastle University, June 25, 2007.
• “Integrated Humanities Teaching and Learning in the Core Curriculum: an NEH Project at Regis University.” Panel presentation with Mark Bruhn and Dan Clayton. Integrative Learning: Creating Opportunities to Connect. Network for Academic Renewal Conference. American Association of Colleges and Universities. Denver, October 21, 2005.
• “Not the One and the Many: Civil Religion, Citizenship and the Common Good.”  Regis University Faculty Lecture of the Year, October 29, 2004.
• “Integrated Learning in the Humanities.” Panel presentation with Mark Bruhn and Dan Clayton. Hawaii International Conference on Arts and the Humanities. January 11, 2004.
• “Gossip and Feminist Epistemology.” University of Colorado-Denver Philosophy Speaker Series. Invited Speaker. September 15, 2001.
• “Publicize the Private and Privatize the Public: Durée and the Problem of Privacy.”  Beyond Good and Evil:100 Years of Mass Culture. Carnegie Mellon University, September 26, 2000.
• “The Real Dirt: Why Gossip Isn’t ‘Just for Women’ Anymore.” Second Biennial Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) Conference. University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, November 10, 1999.
• “Dirty Laundry: Gossip’s Class Bias.” Class, Identity and Nation: fourth Biennial Conference of the Center for Working Class Studies. Youngstown State University, June 10, 1999.
• “(Social) Scientific Practice and Scientific Realism.” Purpose on the Brain: Perceptions of Teleology in Religion and Science. John Templeton Foundation Conference: Regis University, March 28, 1998.
• “Poison Pens: Gossip’s Viral Knowledge.” Dirt: An Interdisciplinary Conference.  Center for Literary and Cultural Studies, Harvard University.  March 16 - 17, 1996.