Dr. Becky Vartabedian teaches courses in the history of philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy and art, and philosophy’s intersections with race, gender, and sexuality. She is affiliated faculty in the Peace and Justice Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies programs and contributes to Regis College’s Integrative Core program. Before returning to Regis in 2012 - Dr. Vartabedian is a 2001 graduate of Regis - she taught philosophy at the Community College of Aurora, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where she earned her Ph.D.
Students in Dr. Vartabedian’s courses engage in work that closes the gap between studying philosophy and doing philosophy. She is especially interested in mentoring students in the work of research and writing. Dr. Vartabedian has collaboratively authored work with students in her courses, including the book chapter titled “Erlebnis, Tarrying, and Thinking Again After George Yancy,” which was published in George Yancy: a Critical Introduction (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021).
Dr. Vartabedian’s primary areas of research are contemporary Continental philosophy and critical phenomenology. She has written extensively about the contemporary French philosopher Alain Badiou, his theories of being and change, and their articulation in mathematical terms. Her current research concerns the status of gentrification and the gentrifier relative to philosophical discourse around hospitality, working with the figure of “the uninvited guest” to decipher the obligations of the gentrifier in relation to the communities to which they arrive and the people their arrival displaces.
The Blog of the American Philosophical Association - one of the profession’s major news and discussion destinations - featured an interview with Dr. Vartabedian about her spring 2022 seminar, “Precarious Bodies.” Learn more about the class and about Dr. Vartabedian’s approach to the topic here: https://blog.apaonline.org/2022/06/24/precarity-and-possibility/.
