Books and Other Publications
The general theme of my research is to interrogate existing legal, moral, and sociopolitical paradigms (laws, policies, theories of knowledge, theories of reality, moral and sociopolitical theories) to determine the extent to which these paradigms facilitate positive outcomes for the marginalized, oppressed, and subjugated (particularly persons of color and women). As regards legal paradigms (laws), my method of analysis is legal hermeneutics. For example, in my dissertation, The Hermeneutics of Equal Protection Analysis, I used the tools of legal hermeneutics (e.g., a focus on sociohistorical context, an examination of legislative history, an acknowledgment that all legal interpretation is time- and space-specific, and a search for the “spirit” or general purpose of the law in question) to examine the relationship between the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution and laws or policies that discriminate on the basis of race, gender, and sexual orientation (and any other marginalized status). As regards moral and sociopolitical paradigms, my method of analysis includes insights from philosophy of race, feminist philosophy, ethical theory, and communitarian themes in political philosophy (particularly the concept of the socialized self). Where a given paradigm is found lacking, I advocate alternative approaches or paradigm shifts designed to more fully protect members of marginalized populations. In the process, I hope to derive legal interpretations that enhance the overall well-being of the larger social systems of which a given marginalized population is a part. Through pursuing particularized lines of inquiry (e.g., the way in which a particular law affects persons of color or women), the hope is that important lessons are derived regarding metaphilosophical topics such as methodology that will prove useful to the solution of more universal social problems (e.g., poverty, world hunger, human rights, global warming, health care, animal rights).
Books
Other Publications
Botts, Tina F. “In Black and White: A Hermeneutic Argument Against Transracialism,” Res Philosophica, Volume 95, Issue 2, April 2018.
Botts, Tina F. “Race and Method: The Tuvel Affair,” Philosophy Today, Volume 62, Winter 2018.
Botts, Tina F. “Boylan’s Agency Justification for Natural Human Rights and Group Rights,” in The Journal of Applied Ethics and Philosophy, Vol. 8, September 2016, pp. 16-22.
Botts, Tina F. “Legal Hermeneutics,” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ISSN 2161-0002, November 2015.
Botts, Tina F., Liam Kofi Bright, Myisha Cherry, Guntur Mallarangeng, and Quayshawn Spencer. Research Note: “What is the State of Blacks in Philosophy?” Critical Philosophy of Race, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2014.
Fernandes (Botts), Tina. “Antidiscrimination Law and the Multiracial Experience: A Reply to Nancy Leong,” 10 Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal, 191-218, Summer 2013.
Botts, Tina F., “Dasein and Intersectional Identity,” in Heidegger and the Human, Ingo Farin and Jeff Malpas, eds. (forthcoming, SUNY).
Botts, Tina F., “Gadamer and Race Theory” in The Gadamerian Mind, Theodore George and Gert-Jan van der Heiden, eds. (Abingdon/Oxfordshire: Routledge, August 10, 2021).
Botts, Tina F. “The Genealogy and Viability of the Concept of Intersectionality” in The Routledge Companion to Feminist Philosophy, Ann Garry, Serene J. Khader, and Alison Stone, eds. London: Taylor and Francis, July 2017, pp. 343-357.
Botts, Tina F. “The Concept of Race and Equal Protection Law” in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race, Naomi Zack, editor, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, December 2016, pp. 526-536.
Botts, Tina F. “Multiracial Americans and Racial Discrimination” in Race Policy and Multiracial Americans, Kathleen Korgen, ed. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, January 2016, pp. 81-100.
Botts, Tina F. “Hermeneutics, Race, and Gender,” in The Routledge Companion to Hermeneutics, Jeff Malpas and Hans-Helmuth Gander, eds., London: Taylor and Francis, 2014, pp. 498-518.
Botts, Tina F. and Rosemarie Tong. “Women of Color Feminisms” in Tong, Rosemarie, Feminist Thought. 4th Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2013, pp. 211-253.
Botts, Tina F. Review of Saving the Security State: Exceptional Citizens in Twenty-First Century America, by Inderpal Grewal, Duke University Press, 2017, Hypatia Reviews Online, June 2019.
Botts, Tina F. Review of Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly About Racism in America by George Yancy, Rowman & Littlefield, 2018, philoSOPHIA: A Journal of Continental Feminism, 9.1, Winter 2019, pp. 166-173.
Botts, Tina F. Review of A Hermeneutic Approach to Gender and Other Social Identities by Lauren Swayne Barthold, Palgrave MacMillan, 2016, APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy, Fall 2017, p. 17.
Botts, Tina F. Review of Why Race and Gender Still Matter: An Intersectional Approach, edited by Namita Goswami, Maeve O’Donovan, and Lisa Yount, Pickering & Chato, 2014, Hypatia Reviews Online, 2015.
Botts, Tina F. Review of The Philosophy of Race by Albert Atkin, Acumen Publishing, 2012, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, June 13, 2013.
Botts, Tina F., Editor of Special Issue, “Being-with Ethics: Mitsein and the Possibility of a Hermeneutic Ethics,” Philosophies, Winter 2019/2020.