Alia Al-Saji

Alia Al-Saji is James McGill Professor of Philosophy at McGill University. Her work focuses on bringing 20th century phenomenology and French philosophy into dialogue with critical race and feminist theories. Al-Saji believes that feminist phenomenology must take an intersectional approach to its work, one that accounts for the fact that gender cannot be treated in a vacuum apart from other axes of oppression. She received a bachelor's degree from McMaster University, a master's degree in philosophy from KU Leuven, and a doctorate in philosophy from Emory University. Al-Saji is the editor of the feminist philosophy section of the journal Philosophy Compass and a co-editor of the Symposia on Gender, Race and Philosophy. She has held a number of fellowships, including one at the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University and one at The Camargo Foundation. Much of Al-Saji's work has represented an effort to forge links between 20th century phenomenology and French philosophy and critical race and feminist theories. A significant theme of her work has been the question of time. Al-Saji's research has two distinct tracks: the first looks at questions of embodiment, memory, and intersubjectivity, and the second attempts to develop a phenomenology of "cultural racism," especially through feminist analysis of the depiction of Muslim women in modern western contexts. Al-Saji's work has touched upon the work of many scholars before her, including Henri Bergson, Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean Paul Sartre, although her work has primarily focused on Bergson and Merleau-Ponty.