Expertise

Historical: Modern European Philosophy; Systematic: Hermeneutics, Philosophy of Art, Social and Political Thought

Biography

Kristin Gjesdal specializes in modern European philosophy, including women philosophers from this period. Systematically, her work centers on philosophy of art, social and political thought, and phenomenology and hermeneutics. 

Kristin Gjesdal has published four monographs, eight edited and co-edited volumes, and a number of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, many of which have been translated into German and other languages. She has given named lectures, keynotes, and invited lectures across North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. Her public-facing philosophy has appeared in podcasts, printed interviews, and blog posts. 

Kristin Gjesdal’s most recent monograph, Unruly Women. Philosophers, Romantics, Revolutionaries (Opprørerne. Kvinner som endret filosofien), traces the intersection of philosophy and politics in the lineage from Germaine de Staël, via Rosa Luxemburg, to Angela Davis. The book was published in Norwegian in 2024 (hardback, paperback, audio), with a German translation, Rebellinnen der Philosophie, anticipated in March 2025 (hardback, paperback, audio). An English translation is forthcoming with the University of Chicago Press. 

Previously, Kristin Gjesdal has published Gadamer and the Legacy of German Idealism (Cambridge University Press 2009 and 2011), which represents a critical discussion of twentieth-century hermeneutics, especially the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer and his teacher, Martin Heidegger. This perspective is given a positive twist in Herder’s Hermeneutics (Cambridge University Press 2017 and 2019), which retrieves a critical, pre-Kantian line of hermeneutic thought. 

Her work in aesthetics centers on historical and systematic issues in philosophy of art, with a particular focus on drama and sculpture. The Drama of History: Ibsen, Hegel, Nietzsche (OUP 2020) investigates the unique and fertile dialogue between philosophy and drama in the Nineteenth Century. Her collaboration with the artist Jeanette Christensen culminated in a 2017 book project that was awarded the The Grafill Design Prize.

Kristin Gjesdal is a Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy-editor (nineteenth-century philosophy). She serves on the editorial boards of European Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Transcendental Philosophy, Project Vox, Journal for New Narratives in the History of Philosophy (JNNHP), Kritik & Klasse (Denmark), and the book series New Studies in the History and Historiography of Philosophy (De Gruyter) and Cultura della Modernità (Edizioni ETS, Pisa). 

In 2023, Kristin Gjesdal has been awarded the Distinguished Anderson Fellowship in the Department of Philosophy, the University of Sydney. She has also been awarded a Professorial Fellowship in philosophy at the University of Oslo (2014-2018) and fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation (at the University of Chicago) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin). She has been a visiting scholar in the Philosophy Departments at Columbia University and the Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt. Recognizing her excellence in teaching, Kristin Gjesdal has also been awarded The Eleanor Hofkin Award from The College of Liberal Arts at Temple. She is an elected member of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Kristin Gjesdal current work includes a short monograph on Germaine de Staël’s philosophy is under contract with Cambridge University Press. A more focused study of Germaine de Staël’s theory of selfhood, with the working title “How to be a Self. Four Lessons from Germaine de Staël,” is under contract with Oxford University Press.

Website | Curriculum Vitae

Selected Publications

• In Process: Germaine de Staël (under contract with CUP)
• In Process: How to be a Self. Four Lessons from Germaine de Staël (under contract with OUP)
• Unruly Women: Philosophers, Romantics, Revolutionaries (Opprørerne) (Cappelen Damm, 2024)
   - German Translation: Rebellinnen der Philosophie, trans. Christel Hildbrandt and Gabriele Haefs (Frankfurt aM: Eichborn, 2025)
   - English translation: Forthcoming (University of Chicago Press)
• History and Drama: Ibsen, Hegel, Nietzsche (Oxford University Press, 2020)
• Herder’s Hermeneutic Philosophy: History, Poetry, Enlightenment (Cambridge UP, 2017)
• Gadamer and The Legacy of German Idealism (Cambridge UP, 2009)

Edited and Co-edited Volumes

• The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers in the German Tradition (Oxford UP, 2024). Ed. w/ D. Nassar
• Spinoza in Germany: Political and Religious Thought in the Long Nineteenth Century (Oxford UP, 2024) Ed. w/ J. Yonover 
• Women Philosophers in the Long Nineteenth Century: The German Tradition (Oxford UP, 2021) Ed w/ Dalia Nassar. Translated into Norwegian (Cappelen Damm 2022). Arabic translation is forthcoming.
• Philosophy of Sculpture: Historical Problems; Contemporary Approaches. (Routledge 2020). Ed. w/ Fred Rush and Ingvild Torsen. 
• The Cambridge Companion to Hermeneutics (Cambridge UP, 2018) Ed w/ Michael Forster
• Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler: Philosophical Perspectives (Oxford UP, 2017)
• Key Debates in Nineteenth Century European Philosophy (Routledge, 2016)
• The Oxford Handbook of German Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford UP, 2015) Ed w/ Michael Forster

Courses Taught

• Kant (esp. first and third Critiques)
• Hegel (esp. the Phenomenology of Spirit)
• German Idealism
• Marx
• Nietzsche
• Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (from Kant to Husserl)
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Existentialism
• Unruly Women: Philosophers, Romantics, Revolutionaries 
• Phenomenology
• Hermeneutics
• Aesthetics; Philosophy of Art; Philosophy of Literature