Awards

Titled Professor - 2021 - 2022

James B. Nelson Professor

Titled Professor - 2020 - 2021

Oscar R. Ewing Professor

Titled Professor - 2018

Mahlon Powell Professor

About Kate Abramson

Kate Abramson received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1997. She started her teaching career at Indiana University (IU) in 2005 as an assistant professor of philosophy. She was promoted to associate professor in 2011, and she earned the additional title of director of admissions for the Department of Philosophy and became the Mahlon Powell Professor of Philosophy in 2019. She earned the title Oscar R. Ewing Professor of Philosophy in 2020 and became the director of undergraduate studies in 2021.

Abramson’s specializations include David Hume’s philosophy on contemporary ethics, especially issues concerning moral psychology and character, and philosophical feminism. She has written and published various articles and other publications. Her 2014 article titled Turning up the Lights on Gaslighting defines gaslighting and explains how interacting in this manner can deeply and negatively affect social life. She has also written articles titled Character as a Mode of Evaluation in 2017, Empathy without Sharing with Adam Leite in 2019, and What’s so ‘Natural’ about the Natural Virtues? in 2015.

Abramson has been a fellow at the Rockefeller Center for Human Values at Princeton University and received grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the American Philosophical Society. She was also offered a grant by the AAUW and a fellow position at the Newberry Library.