15 Facts About Christia Mercer

Christia Mercer is an American philosopher and the Gustave M Berne Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University.

Christia Mercer is known for her work on the history of early modern philosophy, the history of Platonism, and the history of gender.

Christia Mercer has received national attention for her work teaching in prisons and advocating for educational opportunities for incarcerated people.

Christia Mercer received a PhD in philosophy from Princeton University in 1989 under the supervision of Margaret Dauler Wilson and a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the Leibniz Archives in the University of Munster in 1984.

Christia Mercer has been the Guest Professor, Seminar fur Geistesgeschichte und Philosophie der Renaissance, University of Munich, 2003; gave the Ernst Cassirer Lectures at the University of Hamburg, 2006; and was visiting professor at the University of Oslo.

From 2004 to 2015, Christia Mercer was the North American Editor for Archiv fur Geschichte der Philosophie.

Christia Mercer was the Director for the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia from 2000 to 2001.

Christia Mercer began her career working primarily in early modern philosophy.

Christia Mercer has published widely on Leibniz and on the diversity and importance of early modern Platonisms.

Christia Mercer has begun to devote herself more and more to contextualizing the history of philosophy.

Christia Mercer has designed a book series, Oxford Philosophical Concepts, that enlists prominent international scholars to think creatively about the "lives" of concepts in the history of philosophy.

Christia Mercer has written about the importance of inclusive history of philosophy in op-eds for the New York Times and the Washington Post.

In 2015, Christia Mercer became the first Columbia University professor to teach in a prison as part of Columbia's Justice In-Education Initiative.

Christia Mercer has been active in the education and prison reform movements, publishing op-eds and posts in the Washington Post and other outlets about philosophy's gender bias, the history of Christianity, and the prison-industrial complex.

Christia Mercer was interviewed on this topic by WBUR's On Point.