Oral history interview with Christia Mercer, 2015

Biographical Note

Christia Mercer is the Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, she studied art history and then philosophy before receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1989. She has been at Columbia University since 1991. Since publishing Leibniz's Metaphysics: Its Origins and Development in 2001, she has published papers on early modern Platonism and its centrality in early modern thought. Her most recent awards include: Sovern Fellowship, American Academy, Rome, Italy (2010); Senior Fellowship, Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany (2013); Resident Fellowship, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy (2013); and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2012-2013)

Scope and Contents

In the first session of this interview, Christia Mercer discusses her PhD program at Princeton University and the campus's intellectual environment for women, many of whom experienced "imposter syndrome" at the time. After being hired by Columbia University, Mercer found a mentor outside of the Philosophy Department in Jean Howard and subsequently started teaching at IRWGS. She addresses her approach to teaching the IRWGS seminar Feminist Texts I. Mercer also returns to earlier memories to recall the culture growing up in Texas and the gender roles she observed there. In the second session of this interview, Mercer elaborates upon the challenges of pursuing tenure while raising her young children. Mercer explains that, after gaining tenure and finishing her first book Leibniz's Metaphysics: Its Origins and Development, she was able to develop her class Philosophy and Feminism, accept a short directorship at IRWGS, and chair the Literature Humanities part of the Columbia Core curriculum. During this time, Mercer helped further open IRWGS to queer studies and bring feminist perspectives to the Core curriculum. Mercer emphasizes the merits of Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, and Toni Morrison as well as Plato, Augustine, Virgil, and Dante and how all courses of learning can benefit by using gender as a tool of analysis. Mercer also addresses the experiences of feminist scholars on campus, the political inclinations of Columbia students, the influence of the IRWGS Feminist Interventions lecture series, her experiences teaching a Theorizing Activism course, and her time teaching incarcerated students through Columbia's Center for Justice. Mercer discusses ways to think about change and justice, especially with the election of Barack Obama, the cases of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Additionally, Mercer talks about the political engagement of IRWGS, particularly in relationship to sexual assault on campus, the Title IX complaints against Columbia, and the student activist group No Red Tape

Subjects

• Black lives matter movement.
• College teachers--Interviews.
• Columbia University. Institute for Research on Women and Gender.
• Dziedzic, Sarah, interviewer.
• Feminism and higher education--United States.
• Feminist theory.
• Interviews.
• Mercer, Christia--Interviews.
• Motherhood.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Philosophy--Study and teaching.
• Princeton University.
• Rape in universities and colleges--United States.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2015