Olivia Custer

Before joining A.U.P. as a Lecturer fall 2023, Professor Custer taught a wide array of courses in philosophy, critical theory, human rights and literature at a number of institutions, both in France and in the US (notably at Bard College and the University of California at Berkeley).

Her research interests gravitate around the question of how to take up Kant’s philosophical legacy in a world grappling with the complex consequences of the Enlightenment. This involves both revisiting Kant’s work to articulate the multiple strands of his thought and identifying the Kantian references used to frame contemporary issues in moral and political philosophy. She has, for instance, extensively explored the Kantian resonances in the work of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. Interrogating the blind spots of the Kantian account of subjectivity has led her to engage with sexual politics and the philosophically fraught question of human-animal relations.