Jennifer Eagan, PhD Faculty Profile

Photo of Jennifer Eagan

Jennifer  Eagan, PhD

Professor of Philosophy and Public Affairs & Administration

Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION: Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy, Feminism, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Kant, Critical Theory, Foucault and Butler, Philosophy and Ethics in Public Administration 

AREAS OF COMPETENCE: History of Philosophy, Existentialism, Phenomenology, Plato, Metaphysics, Modern Philosophy

  • Ph.D. in Philosophy, Duquesne University, 1999
  • BA in Philosophy and American Studies, Mary Washington College, 1991

Not teaching this semester.

“When We Can’t Handle the Truth: Occupy, “Dangerous Speech,” and Public Administration,” co-authored with Thomas Catlaw, forthcoming in Administrative Theory & Praxis.

“The California Faculty Association: Keeping Racial and Economic Justice at the Forefront” forthcoming in The Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Volume 11, Article 7, 2020. 

"I wish that I knew that I would need to engage in activism to protect the university" in Reflections on Academic Lives: Identities, Struggles, and Triumphs in Graduate School and Beyond, eds. Staci Zavattaro and Shannon Orr. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming 2017.  

“Ethics and Philosophy” in Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance, ed. Ali Farazmand.  Springer International. Forthcoming 2016. 

“Withholding the Red Ink: Occupy, Foucault, and the Administration of Bodies” Administrative Theory & Praxis, Volume 36, Number 2, June 2014. 

“Foreclosure and Dispossession: The Case for a Feminist Critical Theory for Public Administration,” International Journal of Organizational Theory and Behavior, 17, (1), 2014 (forthcoming).

“Tools and Toys: Theory as Practical Play” co-written with Ryvenna Lewis, Administrative Theory & Praxis, 34 (3), September 2012.

Book Review (solicited), Whenever Two or More Are Gathered: Relationship as the Heart of Ethical Discourse by Michael M. Harmon and O.C. McSwite, Administrative Theory & Praxis, Volume 34, Number 3, September 2012.

“Genealogy and Subjects: How Narratives Become Incarnate”, Administrative Theory & Praxis, 33 (3), September 2011.

“The Deformation of Decentered Subjects: Foucault and Postmodern Public Administration” International Journal of Organizational Theory and Behavior, 12 (1), February 2009.

“Is Authoritative Public Administration Separable from Authoritarianism?” Administrative Theory & Praxis, 29 (1), March 2007.

“Enforced Homogeneity or Mutual Difference?: Luce Irigaray, the War on Terrorism, and International Peace”, in Philosophical Perspectives on the War on Terror, Rodopi Press, 2007.  35-46.

“Who Are We Dealing With? Re-visioning Citizen Subjects from a Feminist Perspective” Administrative Theory & Praxis, 28 (3), September 2006.

“Unfreedom, Suffering, and the Culture Industry: What Adorno Can Contribute to a Feminist Ethics” in Feminist Interpretations of Theodor Adorno, Edited by Renee Heberle, Penn State University Press, 2006.  277-299.

“The Feminist Desire for a Primordial Place, or Why Feminist Philosophers Avoid the Issue of Globalization”, Globalization 5 (2), 2005. http://globalization.icaap.org/content/v5.2/eagan.html

“Denaturing Fixed Identities: A Project for Feminist Public Administration Practice” Administrative Theory & Praxis, 27 (2), June 2005.

“Consensus Democracy”, “Deliberative Democracy”, “Media Freedom”, “Multiculturalism”, and “Trust” in Encyclopedia of Governance, edited by Mark Bevir (Lead Editor), Chris Ansell, Naomi Choi, Colin Hay, Andy Smith, Rorden Wilkinson, and Lisa Zanetti, Sage Publications, 2006.

"Philosophers and the Holocaust: Mediating Public Disputes" International Studies in Philosophy, XXIX/1, Winter 1997.

Book Review (solicited), Jean-François Lyotard Jean-Francois Lyotard’s Postmodern Fables, Translated by George Van Abbeele, International Studies in Philosophy, Volume XXXV, Number 1, 2003.

Book Review (solicited), Feminist Interpretations of Martin Heidegger, Edited by Nancy J. Holland and Patricia Huntington, Philosophy in Review, Volume 22, Number 5, October 2002.

Book Review (solicited), Enigmas: Essays on Sarah Kofman, Edited by Penelope Deutscher and Kelly Oliver”, Hypatia, Summer 2002.

Panel Presenter “Toward a Prefigurative Public Administration: Learning from Social Movements” presented at the 32th Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference hosted by University of Colorado Denver, May-June 2019

“Dissociation and Disenchantment as Sources of Creativity” presented at the 31th Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference hosted by Cleveland State University, May-June 2018.

“Movement-Driven Public Administration: An Approach to Subvert Inverted Totalitarianism?” presented at the 29th Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference hosted by University of Texas, San Antonio, May 2016.

 “When We Can’t Handle the Truth: Public Administration, Occupy, and Dangerous Speech” co-authored with Thomas Catlaw, presented at the American Society for Public Administration’s 77th Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington, March 2016.

 “Insider Agonism: Public Sector Unions as Defenders of the Public Sphere” presented at the 28th Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference hosted by University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, May 2015.

 “Reason’s Failure to Capture: The Case for an Activist Public Administration” presented at the 27th Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference hosted by the Florida International University, Miami, FL, May 2014.

 “Being a Good Animal: Expanding Our Political Imaginations” presented at the “Animal Philosophy” presented at a panel hosted by the UC Davis Interdisciplinary Animal Studies Group, May 2014.

"Resistant Bodies and Biopower: How PA Can Further (or Hinder) Bodily Forms of Resistance” presented at the 25th Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference hosted by the University of Texas at Brownsville and Stephen F. Austin State University, South Padre Island, Texas, May 2012.

 “Giving an Account of Oneself as a Subject-Citizen-Administrator: Problems of Ethics, Politics, and Discourse” presented at the 24th Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference hosted by Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, May 2011.

 “Toward a Feminist Critical Theory for PA” presented at the 23rd Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference, University of Nebraska at Omaha, May 2010.

 “The Nature of Foreclosure: PA, Marcuse, and Feminist Possibilities” presented at the 22nd Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference, Kentucky State University, May 2009. 

 “The Sovereignty of Art?: Problems of Public Art Administration” presented at the annual Radical Philosophy Association Conference, San Francisco State University, November 2008.

 “The Body Politic Now: Bodies at the Margins” presented at 21st Annual Public Administration Theory Network Conference, Virginia Commonwealth University, May 2008.

 “The De-formation of Decentered Subjects: Foucault and Postmodern Public Administration” presented at the “Anti-Essentialism in Public Administration” Conference, Florida Atlantic University, March 2007.

 “The De-formation of Decentered Subjects: Foucault and Postmodern Public Administration” presented at the 19th Annual meeting of the Public Administration Theory Network, Olympia, Washington, February 2006.

 “The Nature of Suffering in Social Context” presented at the Consumnes River College Second Annual Intersegmental Interdisciplinary Philosophy Conference, November 4­5, 2004.

 “The Sovereignty of Art?: Problems of Public Art Administration” presented at the 2004 Public Administration Theory Network Conference, University of Omaha, Nebraska, June 2004.

 “Surfacing: A Feminist Desire for a Primordial Place” presented at the conference “Empire and Imperial Culture”, California State University, Stanislaus, February 2004.

 “Enforced Homogeneity or Mutual Difference: Luce Irigaray, the War on Terrorism, and International Peace” presented at the meeting of Concerned Philosophers for Peace, Pacific University, October 2003.

 “Unsovereign Subjects: Creating More Inclusive Political Communities” presented at Thirteenth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference, Binghamton University, April 2003.

 “Adorno, Judith Butler, and the Nature of Suffering” presented at the 2002 Pacific Division Meeting of the Society for Women in Philosophy, San Jose State University, November 2002.

 “Social Justice and Personal Freedom” presented at California State University, Hayward’s conference “Terror and Justice: A Conference of Bay Area Academics Responding to the Events of 9/11”, May 2002.

 “The Nature of Discipline: Sport, Gender, and Sexuality” presented at the Twelfth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference, Binghamton University, April 2002.

 “Where Does Democracy Begin? Rethinking the Basis of Democracy in the Face of Violence” presented at the 2001 Pacific Division Meeting of the Society for Women in Philosophy, San Jose State University, November 2001.

 “Beginning to Become One’s Own Body: Foucault, Feminism, and Sport” presented at the International Association for Philosophy and Literature Conference, Spelman College, May 2001.

 “Is a Postmodern Deliberative Democracy Possible?” presented at the Eleventh Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference, Binghamton University, April 2001.

Co-organizer of California State University, Hayward’s conference “Toward a Philosophy of Public Administration” in honor of Professor Jong S. Jun’s retirement, May 12, 2000.  Respondent to Dr. Terrence Kelly’s paper at this conference.

 “Kant and the Sense-Time of Fiction” presented at the Tenth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference at Binghamton University, April 2000.

 “What Can Feminist Theories Contribute to Theories of Public Administration?: An Argument Against Dualism and Essentialism” presented at the Thirteenth Annual Conference of the Public Administration Theory Network Conference, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, January 2000.

 “Irigaray’s Sensible Transcendental and the Sense of Wonder” presented at the Ninth International Philosophical Seminar on the topic of Luce Irigaray’s An Ethics of Sexual Difference, Alto Adige, Italy, June-July 1999.

 “In and Out of the System: Between Lyotard’s Fables and Haraway’s Science Fiction” presented at the International Association for Philosophy and Literature Conference at Trinity College, May 1999.

 “Fictioning: Between Ethics and Aesthetics” presented at the Ninth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference at Binghamton University, April 1999.

 “Nature, Blood, and the Enclosure of the Self: Irigaray’s Reading of Kant” presented at the Society of Women in Philosophy Spring Conference at the University of South Florida, April 1999.

"Lyotard's Critique of Political Reason" presented at the Eighth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference at Binghamton University, April 1998.

"Irigaray's Ethics: A Continuation of the Copernican Revolution?" presented at the International Association for Philosophy and Literature Conference at the University of South Alabama, May 1997.

"Irigaray's Ethics: Invading the Master's House" presented at the Seventh Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference, Binghamton University, April 1997.

"Philosophers and the Holocaust: Mediating Public Disputes" presented at the Sixth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference at Binghamton University, April 1996.

"The Disappearance of Woman in Plato and Derrida" presented at the International Association for Philosophy and Literature Conference at Villanova University, May 1995.

"Justice and the Problem of Community: Adorno's Reading of Kant's Ethics" presented at the Fifth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference at Binghamton University, April 1995.

Union Leadership, California Faculty Association:

CFA Political Action and Legislative Chair, June 2019-June 2020

CFA Statewide President, June 2015 to June 2019

CFA Associate Vice President North, June 2012 to June 2015

CFA Board of Directors, 2012 to present

CFA Bargaining Team, 2012 to present

CFA Chapter President, Fall 2011 to June 2015

CFA Faculty Rights Chair, CSUEB Chapter, Fall 2009 to Spring 2011

Recent University Service:

University Tenure and Promotion Committee, 2020-2021

Acting Department Chair, Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies, 2020-2021

Chair, Department of Public Affairs & Administration, Summer 2020

Member, College of Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Retention, Tenure & Promotion Committee, 2017-2018

Member, Executive Committee of the CSUEB Academic Senate, 2008 to 2015

Member, Committee on Instruction and Curriculum, 2013- 2014

Academic Senate Vice Chair, 2012-2013

General Education Subcommittee, Chair 2014-2015

Philosophy Department Chair, 2006-2012

Critical Thinking Subcommittee, 2000-2012

Chair, Committee on Instruction and Curriculum, 2009-2010

Member, Committee on Instruction and Curriculum, 2009 to 2011

Editorial Service and Peer Review:

Editorial Board Member, Administrative Theory and Praxis, to present

Associate Editor, Administrative Theory and Praxis, 2011-2014

Forum Editor, Administrative Theory and Praxis, 2008 to 2011

Manuscript Reviewer, Continental Philosophy Review, September 2006 to the present

Regular Book Reviewer for Choice

Conference Organizing and Panel Participation:

Moderator “The Ontology Panel” presented at the 31thAnnual Public Administration Theory Network Conference hosted by University of Colorado Denver, May-June 2019.

Workshop Training “Union Membership Mobilization and Collective Bargaining in an Open Shop Environment” facilitated at the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions Hunter College CUNY Annual National Conference, CUNY Graduate Center, April 2019. 

Panel “Anti-Racism and Social Justice Transformation in a Faculty Association” presented with Dr. Cecil Canton, Sacramento State and Dr. Sharon Elise, CSU San Marcos, AAC&U’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive Democracy Conference, San Diego, CA, March 2018.

Panel “Agency Fees: Janus v. AFSCME and Its Ramifications for Employees and Employers” Higher Education Labor-Management Conference, National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions of Hunter College, CUNY, hosted by California State University, Long Beach, December 2017. 

Round Table participant, “Reinvigorating California’s Master Plan for Higher Education,” American Association of Colleges & Universities Annual meeting, San Francisco CA, January 2017.

Panel Discussant on Online Teaching, January 2013 Fourth National Gathering, Campaign for the Future of Higher Education, Sacramento, CA, January 2013.

Co-Facilitator (with Thomas Catlaw, Arizona State University and Richard Box, University of Nebraska-Omaha), Workshop for Ph.D. students in Public Administration “Writing Theory in a Technicist Field,” Norfolk, VA, May 2011.

Panel Moderator, “Philosophical Interpretations of Public Administration Practice”, American Association for Public Administration 2005 Conference, Milwaukee, WI, April 2005.

Forum Organizer and Participant, “Faculty and Students Speak About Human Rights”, sponsored by the Philosophy Department and the Philosophy Society of California State University Hayward, November 2003.

Co-Organizer of Conference Panel “Power, Identity, Privilege”, for the Thirteenth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference, Binghamton University, April 2003.

Conference Coordinator, “Terror and Justice: A Conference of Bay Area Academics Responding to the Events of 9/11”, California State University, Hayward, May 2002.

Chair, Session on Nancy Bauer’s paper, “How To Do Things With Pornography”, Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, March, 2002.

Co-Organizer of Conference Panel “Sport”, for the Twelfth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference, Binghamton University, April 2002.

Co-Organizer of Conference Panel “Theoretical Applications”, for the Eleventh Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference, Binghamton University, April 2001.

Co-Presenter, “Who Are We Now?: Existential Perspectives on Living With Terror”, CSUH College of Arts Letters and Social Sciences, November 13, 2001.

 “Philosophy of Public Administration”, Presentation to the Public Administration Delegation from Hunan Province, China, November 13, 2001.

 “Philosophy of Public Administration”, Presentation to the Public Administration Delegation from Guizhou Province China, September 12, 2001.

 “Philosophy of Public Administration”, Presentation to the Public Administration Delegation from Beijing China, January 30, 2001.

Co-Organizer of Conference Panel “Alternative Temporalities”, for the Tenth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation, Culture Conference, Binghamton University, April 2000.

Conference Co-Organizer, “Toward a Philosophy of Public Administration” honoring Dr. Jong S. Jun on the occasion of his retirement, California State University Hayward, May 2000.

 “Ethics and Human Rights”, Presentation to the Public Administration Delegation from Beijing, China, December 12, 2000.

Panel on Ethics for the Public Administration Delegation from Beijing China, with Professors Richard VrMeer and Linda Dennard, December 13, 2000.

Pre-publication Manuscript Reviewer for Wadsworth Press, Sex and Gender: A Spectrum of Views Edited by Philip Devine and Celia Wolf-Devine, December 2000. 

Co-Presenter, “Presentation Panel – Research by New Faculty” for the CSUH Office of Faculty Development, November 15, 2000.

Co-Presenter, “Using Rubrics Across the Curriculum” for the CSUH Department of English’s Wednesday Seminar, November 1, 2000

Co-Presenter, “Evaluating Student Writing in the General Education Clusters” for the CSUH Office of Faculty Development, April 17 2000.

Outstanding Mentor to Students, Cal State East Bay, 2013

Sue Schaefer Faculty Service Award Recipient Cal State East Bay, 2011