Áila O’Loughlin

Áila O’Loughlin (all pronouns work, including they/she/he) is currently a Mellon MNI postdoctoral fellow in the Philosophy Department at Macalester College and Professor of Philosophy at North Hennepin Community College in the Twin Cities on Dakota and Anishinaabe land. They hold a PhD in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Minnesota with a doctoral minor in Philosophy, an MA in Teaching from the University of San Francisco, and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota. They hold a second PhD in Philosophy with a graduate minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies, also from the University of Minnesota. Áila taught high school English for ten years in Oakland, California and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their research interests include topics in both Ethics and Education, as they relate to Gender, Sexuality, Race, Language, and Indigeneity, especially: Indigenous Kinship Ethics, as well as Philosophy of Resistance and the nature of Change/Transformation.

Áila has taught courses in (or presently teaches):

– Intro to Philosophy

– Ethics

– Free Will & Moral Responsibility 

– Philosophy and Human Relations

-Philosophy and Cultural Diversity 

-Critical Pedagogy

– Sociocultural Foundations of Education

– Introductory North Sámi Language Class

Outside of teaching, Áila enjoys gardening in South Minneapolis where they live with their kids, partner and four pets (two dogs, two cats), as well as walking their dogs to the lake, reading, dance, film, tea and language learning. Áila O’Loughlin is a philosopher who works primarily in Ethics and Social Philosophy, particularly on Environmental Ethics as well as Indigenous Kinship Ethics as a major normative theory.

Note: my name, Aila O’Loughlin, is pronounced (EYE-lah OH-LOCK-lihn).