Johnathan Flowers
Assistant Professor

Brief Biography

My primary research areas include African American intellectual history and Philosophy, Japanese Aesthetics, American Pragmatism, Philosophy of Disability, and Philosophy of Technology. I also work in Science and Technology Studies and Comics Studies.

In Philosophy of Technology, my work focuses on the impacts of technology as sociotechnical systems and artifacts on society. My work applies insights from American Pragmatism, Philosophy of Race, and Disability Studies to current issues in human/computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and identity in digital space.

In Disability Studies, Feminist Philosophy and Affect Theory, my work focuses on the affective organization of identity and institutions through culture, the lived experience of disability, and the institutionalization of ableism and oppression as an organizing principle of the world.

In Comics and Pop Culture Studies, my work engages broadly with issues of representation and identity, Pop Culture as cultural organizing narratives, and the relationship of popular culture to art and aesthetics.

I am working to develop Audre Lorde's Erotic as an integrative principle which unites the self into a felt whole, enables epistemic inquiry through self-scrutiny in conduct, and serves as the ground for acts of social justice through an affective epistemology.

My first monograph, Mono no Aware and Gender as Affect in Japanese Aesthetics and American Pragmatism was published by Lexington Books in 2023.

Research 

Africana Philosophy Japanese Philosophy American Pragmatism Philosophy of Gender Philosophy of Disability Philosophy of Technology Philosophy of Race Aesthetics Feminist Philosophy Philosophy of Science

Connections