Nancy Nyquist Potter

Emerita Professor of Philosophy

About

Nancy Nyquist Potter has published extensively in feminist ethics and political philosophy as well as the interdisciplinary field of philosophy and psychiatry. Her current research is on the connections between theories of knowledge and ethics, with special attention to nosological and diagnostic issues, and on the relationship between voice, silence, and uptake, in particular for patients living with mental illness. She is co-Principle Investigator with Mona Gupta, M.D., Ph.D. on a CIHR grant to study types of knowing that psychiatrists draw on when making diagnoses. Her last book-length publication was a critical analysis of borderline personality disorder (Oxford University Press, 2009) and her newest book, The Virtue of Defiance and Psychiatric Engagement, is now out (Oxford University Press). Professor Potter is a past-president of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry and continues to serve on their Executive Council, as well as on local hospital ethics committees. While at the University of Louisville, she taught numerous courses ranging from Aristotle, Ethical Theory, and The Nature of Violence to Race, Gender and Mental Illness, and Philosophy of Mental Illness. She was a Core Faculty Member of the Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Bioethics and Medical Humanities, an Adjunct Faculty with Women and Gender Studies, and an Associate with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She sings in the Louisville Master Chorale.