Rashmika Pandya is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the American University in Cairo. She was born in Kisumu, Kenya and immigrated to Canada as a young child; her philosophical interests and work reflect the experience of someone who has lived in multiple “worlds” at one time and in one sense her approach to philosophy reflects this multi-world experience.

Pandya works on current trends in Continental Philosophy, Ethics, Feminist Theory and Cultural and Social Philosophy. Her past research dealt with issues of identity in relation to the immigrant experience as well as more traditional philosophical issues around the issues of identity and subjectivity dealing with how culture, language, history and political, economic and social conditions affect 'who' we are in the world.

Her current research focuses on the relation of reason, imagination and emotion in the history of philosophy. Pandya is interested in how philosophical theories on the relation of the various human faculties affects how philosophy understands our human existence and specifically in how traumatic or violent events 'fit' into various current continental views on the relation of reason, imagination and emotion. Professor Pandya is committed to showing that philosophy is not merely a theoretical pursuit but is applicable and essential to the day to day realities of human life.

Research Interests

Phenomenology, ethics, feminist theory, social and cultural philosophy.

Recent Publications

“The Borderlands of Identity and Difference”, Intertwinings, Ed. Gail Weiss, Albany: SUNY Publications, 2008; 241-264.

“Sensibility and Subjectivity: Levinas' Traumatic Subject”, forthcoming in Santalka 2010; 18(1):  5-15.