Frances Maughan-Brown

Frances Maughan-Brown is a Montserrat Lecturer and Philosophy Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross since 2017. She holds a Ph.D. from Boston College and focuses on 19th-20th century Continental philosophy, feminist philosophies, aesthetics, and Kierkegaard’s works. Her research explores themes of authority, aesthetics, and political philosophy, with particular attention to Kierkegaard’s resistance to patriarchal structures and intersections with feminist thought.

Education: Ph.D., Boston College.

Research interests include Kierkegaard’s Lily Discourses, the interplay of call/conscience/justice in existential thought, and feminist critiques of patriarchal systems. She co-edits the International Journal of Kierkegaard Research and authored The Lily’s Tongue: Figure and Authority in Kierkegaard’s Lily Discourses (2019). Her recent work bridges feminist theory and continental traditions, examining community formation through aesthetic and ethical frameworks.

Publications span essays on Kierkegaard’s imagination, metaphor, and social-political ethics, with contributions to journals like History of European Ideas and Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook. No scientific awards are explicitly listed, though her scholarly contributions are widely recognized in continental philosophy circles.

Teaching focuses on existentialism, feminist philosophy, and the philosophy of art. She advises no listed students, though her courses engage graduate and undergraduate audiences in critical discourse.