Biography
Sonia Kruks taught Political Theory in the Politics Department from 1990 until her retirement in 2019. Her teaching areas included the History of European Political Theory, Contemporary Continental Political Theory, and Feminist Theory, as well as topical classes on theories of power and theories of democracy.
Her research has long concerned political aspects of the work of the French existentialist thinkers, including Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Marcel, Fanon, and Simone de Beauvoir. Her more recent work focuses on the intersections of existentialism with feminist theory, especially through the work of Simone de Beauvoir. Books include: Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity (Oxford); Retrieving Experience: Subjectivity and Recognition in Feminist Politics (Cornell); Situation and Human Existence: Freedom, Subjectivity and Society (Routledge); and The Political Philosophy of Merleau-Ponty (Routledge).
Since retiring she continues to explore the work of Simone de Beauvoir, but now with a focus on Beauvoir's writings about old age. Recent publications include “Alterity and Intersectionality: Reflections on Old Age in the Time of COVD-19, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, vol. 37, 2022 and “Old Age and the Question of Authenticity,” in Beauvoir and Politics: A Toolkit, ed. L. Schoonheim and K.Vintges. (London: Routledge, 2024).
She serves on the Advisory Board of Simone de Beauvoir Studies and the Editorial Board of Sartre Studies: An International Journal of Existentialism and Contemporary Culture.
