Elizabeth Cantalamessa
I am an Assistant Professor of social and political
philosophy at St.Bonaventure University.
My research lies at the intersection of social philosophy,
philosophy of language, and value theory.
I am particularly interested in language's role in revealing, reinforcing, and challenging social norms and the political implications of doing so.
I received my PhD from the University of Miami;
my dissertation introduces a model of
humor as a cultural technology for
manipulating social norms.
I have published on topics including political speech,
Taylor Swift, aesthetic vocabulary and disagreement,
democratic deliberation, and copyright law.
I am also an Emerging Scholar with the Mark Twain Circle of America
and I was a Quarry Farm Fellow with the Center for Mark Twain Studies.
I am developing a monograph on Twain's implicit neopragmatism,
and his approach to non-literal speech such as humbug,
irony, and tall tales.
My last name looks harder to pronounce than it is:
"can't" "a-la" "mess" "ah"
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Biography
I grew up in Houston, Texas. I dropped out of high school but reignited my academic passion when I enrolled in a philosophy elective at my local community college. I went on to receive my B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy at the University of Wyoming. I taught at the University of Houston-Downtown before joining the PhD program in philosophy at the University of Miami.
I am a "nomadic nerd" and in my spare time I like to follow Bob Dylan around on tour, run, play video games, do outdoorsy things, watch bad movies, and take road trips with my cats. I have visited all 48 contiguous states in the US. :)
I was a guest on the Philosopher's Nest podcast where I discuss my unconventional academic trajectory as well as my work on humor.
Dissertation
Laugh Hard at the Absurdly Evil: Humor as Cultural Technology
Humor is weird; Richard Pryor used humor to challenge racist stereotypes, while the neighborhood bully uses derisive laughter to enforce their superiority. Philosophers generally define humor as a psychological response or emotion. However, humor often performs both psychological and communicative functions simultaneously. For example, a caregiver may tease a child that, “if you keep making that face it’ll stick that way” because they are frustrated, at the same time, the tease functions to reinforce norms about appropriate behavior. I introduce an alternative model of humor as a discursive tool for negotiating social norms and show how my account captures important social dimensions of humor that escape the traditional psychological approach. I then argue that humor functions as a technology for developing, maintaining, and challenging oppressive social practices, not merely as a psychological response to them.
Papers, Drafts, etc.
Please email me if you'd like a draft or pre-print.
Rights of the Living Dead: Taylor Swift's Zombie Army
Forthcoming in Taylor Swift and the Philosophy of Re-Recording edited by Brandon Polite.
In this paper I sketch an institutional theory of celebrity names to explain the economic, institutional, and political significance of self-appropriation, using Taylor Swift’s act of re-recording her own music as a paradigm case.
A Pragmatist Approach to Aesthetic Disagreement
Forthcoming in Art & Philosophy edited by Alex King.
In this paper I introduce and motivate a pragmatist method for philosophizing about aesthetic disagreement. I argue that disagreement should be modeled as a practical activity or process, and show how this conception of disagreement avoids many of the puzzles faced by views that prioritize semantics.
Inverting the Implementation Challenge for Conceptual Engineers:
Lessons from the Disability Rights Movement
In this paper I survey some empirical and theoretical work on the “Implementation Gap” that arose between the design and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, touted as an important legal component in combatting the attitudinal and structural barriers that impact people with disabilities. I then provide a new set of challenges for conceptual engineers interested in successful implementation.
Pragmatist Feminist Metaphysics
In this paper I introduce and defend a pragmatist methodology for projects in feminist metaphysics, drawing on the work of neopragmatists Huw Price and Amie Thomasson.
Eliminating the Fiction-Nonfiction Divide
I argue that philosophers should abandon the "fiction-nonfiction" divide in the philosophy of documentary film and replace it with Thi Nguyen's notion of aesthetic trust and betrayal. I explore the benefits of my proposal using the Martin Scorsese and Bob Dylan film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story.
Sentimentalist Conceptual Engineering
Conceptual engineering is often framed as the activity of assessing and/or revising our concepts and conceptual frameworks in order to improve how people "think and talk." I argue that art can elicit feelings that cause us to reconsider our conceptual, linguistic, or normative commitments without explicit justification or explanation. In other words, art operates in the space of causes, rather than the space of reasons. As such, art is better suited in contexts where reason-based deliberation would fail or has failed in the past. Consequently, conceptual engineering is not just a matter of changing how people “think and talk,” but also how they feel; I call this “sentimentalist conceptual engineering.”
On Humor
Forthcoming in Introduction to Aesthetics edited by Evan Malone and Elizabeth Scarbrough.
I survey existing philosophical accounts of humor before arguing that we ought to be pluralists about the function of humor. I then introduce a model of humor as a cultural technology for revealing, reinforcing, and challenging social norms.
Courses Taught
Please Contact Me for Syllabi
Partial list (Full list available on my CV)
Ancient Philosophy
Spring 2024; University of Houston-Downtown
Social and Ethical Issues in Computing
Spring 2023; University of Miami
Philosophy of Language
Fall 2022; University of Miami.
Spring/Fall 2022; University of Miami.
19th Century Philosophy
Spring 2022; University of Miami.
Summer 2021; University of Wyoming.
Fall 2021; University of Wyoming.
Get in Touch
Please contact me if you have any questions or interests regarding my work in progress, course offerings, or any other inquires.
e[last name] [at] sbu [dot] edu