ABOUT WILLOW
Willow Verkerk is a Lecturer in Continental Philosophy and Social Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. She was previously a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Gendered Mimesis Project at KU Leuven, a Lecturer in Modern European Philosophy at CRMEP, Kingston University, and an Associate Lecturer in Philosophy at St. Mary's University.
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Willow is a passionate teacher who works within and outside of the academy to change the legacy of philosophical thinking. She specialises in modern and contemporary European philosophy with an expertise in feminist critique. Her recent talks have concentrated on the topics of gender identity, intellectual and cultural legacy, friendship, resistance, and the practice of changing values.
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In addition to her academic pursuits, Willow is working on two popular book projects, Talking with Women and On Femininity and Its Falsehoods.
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Appointments
Teaching and Writing Interests
The Philosophy of Love and Friendship
-from antiquity to present day, in the history of ideas and in popular culture
2017-2018
St. Mary' s University
Associate Lecturer in Philosophy
Gender Identity
-in philosophy, queer theory, feminism, transgender theory, psychoanalysis, and popular culture
19th and 20th century European Philosophy
-especially Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, Adorno, Bataille, Merleau-Ponty, Fanon, Foucault, Derrida, Beauvoir, and Irigaray
2021- 2024
KU Leuven
Postdoctoral Researcher with the Gendered Mimesis Project
2016-2017
Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University
Lecturer in Modern European Philosophy
Activism and Resistance
-theoretical and practical ideas from feminist, Marxist, and anarchist thinking, and from everyday life
2021- present; 2019-2021
University of British Columbia
Lecturer in Continental Philosohy and Socal Philosophy; Sessional Instructor