Eva Feder Kittay, Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Stony Brook University, was one of 250 new members recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
“On behalf of the entire College, my sincere congratulations to Eva Kittay on her election to this distinguished class of scholars,” said Axel Drees, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy. “Eva’s groundbreaking work on cognitive disability and the ethics of care has been read and taught widely, and she has been a strong advocate for the reconfiguring of social policy to accommodate people with disabilities. I am extremely proud to have her among our esteemed emeriti faculty.”
Kittay was elected in the Humanities and Arts class, Philosophy section. The new members are recognized for their excellence and invited to uphold the Academy’s mission of engaging across disciplines and divides.
“We honor these artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, non-profit, and private sectors for their accomplishments and for the curiosity, creativity, and courage required to reach new heights,” said David Oxtoby, president of the Academy. “We invite these exceptional individuals to join in the Academy’s work to address serious challenges and advance the common good.”
This year’s induction ceremony will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts on September 21, 2024.
Kittay is a senior fellow of the Stony Brook Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics, and an affiliate of the Women’s Studies Program. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEH Fellowship, and the APA and Phi Beta Kappa Lebowitz Prize. She has also been recognized for her work in Feminist Philosophy, being named Women Philosopher of the Year (2003-2004) by the Society for Women in Philosophy and having chaired the Committee on the Status of Women (1997-2001).
Her book Love’s Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency (Routledge, 1999) has received international attention and has been translated into Japanese and Italian. Her other work includes Cognitive Disability and the Challenge to Moral Philosophy (Blackwell, 2010), Blackwell Guide to Feminist Philosophy (Blackwell, 2007), Theoretical Perspectives on Dependency and Women (Rowan and Littlefield, 2003), Metaphor: Its Cognitive Force and Linguistic Structure (Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1987, 1985), an edited collection Frames, Fields and Contrasts (Erlbaum, 1992), and Women and Moral Theory (Rowan and Littlefield, 1985). She has edited many journal issues in feminist philosophy and the philosophy of disability and has published over 85 articles and book chapters.
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was founded in 1780 and elected its first members in 1781. The new class joins a remarkable roster of Academy members, including Benjamin Franklin (elected 1781), Alexander Hamilton (1791) , Ralph Waldo Emerson (1864), Charles Darwin (1874), Albert Einstein (1924), Robert Frost (1931), Margaret Mead (1948), Milton Friedman (1959), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1966), Madeleine K. Albright (2001), Antonin Scalia (2003), Anna Deavere Smith (2019) and Xuedong Huang (2023).