J. Lenore Wright, Ph.D.

J. Lenore Wright, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy in the Honors College at Baylor University. Wright was named Master Teacher, a lifetime designation, by Baylor University in 2025 and received Baylor’s service award in 2024 for Significant Contributions to the Academic Community. She previously received Baylor’s outstanding professor award for Distinctive Teaching. Wright’s scholarly interests include theories and modes of self-representation, including textual and visual forms of self-portraiture. As a philosopher whose work is informed by feminist thought, Wright also writes and speaks about the representation of women and female archetypes. She is the author of two books: Athena to Barbie: Bodies, Archetypes, and Women’s Search for Self (Minneapolis: Fortress Press 2021) and The Philosopher’s ‘I’: Autobiography and the Search for the Self (Albany: SUNY Press 2006). She is co-editor of two volumes: Called to Teach (Wipf and Stock 2020) and Augustine and Barbie (forthcoming with Bloomsbury Press 2027). Other select publications include “From House to Home: Dwelling and Transcendence in Augustine and Barbie” (forthcoming in Augustine and Barbie, London: Bloomsbury Press, 2027), “Say What You Know: Administering Group Oral Examinations in Undergraduate and Graduate Courses” co-authored with Andrew Arterbury, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Vol. 36: Issue 2, Article 4 (2026), “Female Friendship in Philosophy” co-authored with Anne-Marie Schultz, Southwest Philosophy Review 42 (1):149-156, (2026), “From Golden Lassos to Dreamhouses: Femineering Women’s Power in Mid-Century America,” In a Barbie World: Barbie as Narrative, Symbol, and Cipher, ed. Anna Gotlib and Claire Katz (New York: Routledge Press, 2025), “Personal Jesus: Reflections on God’s Call,” co-authored with Andrew Arterbury, Religions 13 (11): 1095 (2022), “Panther Mystique: Demystifying Wakandan Feminism,” co-authored with Edwardo Pérez Navarro, Black Panther and Philosophy: What Can Wakanda Offer The World?, ed. Timothy E. Brown and Edwardo Pérez Navarro (Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., 2022), “Relationality and Life: Phenomenological Reflections on Miscarriage,” International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, vol. 11 no. 2 (Fall 2018), “Sameness and Difference: Simone de Beauvoir and the Question of Female Identity,” Identity, Freedom, and Responsibility, Fall 2017, “Becoming a (Wonder) Woman: Feminism, Nationalism, and the Ambiguity of Female Identity,” Wonder Woman and Philosophy, ed. Jacob Held (Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., 2017), 5-18 (reprinted in The Philosophers’ Magazine, Issue 79, 4^th Quarter 2017, 64-69, and Introducing Philosophy through Pop Culture, edited by William Irwin and David Kyle Johnson, 2nd ed., 236-44,  United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell), “From ‘I’ to ‘We’: Acts of Agency in Simone de Beauvoir’s Philosophical Autobiography,” The Philosophy of Autobiography, ed. Christopher Cowley (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 193-216, and “Who’s Afraid of Naomi Wolf:  Feminism in Post-feminist Culture” Feminism and Popular Culture (2013). She serves as a regular reviewer for Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy, the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, and Feminist Philosophy Quarterly. Wright is also engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning. She has published in the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Teaching Philosophy, and the Journal of Interactive Instruction Development. She serves on the Discrimination, Harassment, and Respectful Behavior Committee for the American Society for Aesthetics as well as Ombudsperson for the Rocky Mountain Division of the ASA.