Murphy-Philosophy Seminar: Elvira Basevich

Organized by the Tulane Philosophy Department, the Murphy-Philosophy Seminars are a series of workshops where CE Faculty Fellows and distinguished guest speakers present works in progress on ethics, political philosophy, political theory, moral psychology, the philosophy of law, and intellectual history. Papers are distributed one week beforehand to the participants who read the paper and prepare discussion questions for the presenter.

Elvira Basevich is a 2025-26 Visiting Faculty Fellow in The Murphy Institute's Center for Ethics and an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at UC-Davis. Basevich’s research areas are political philosophy, Africana philosophy, and late modern German philosophy, especially Kant, Hegel, and Marx.  Her current research projects include a book on W.E.B. Du Bois's theory of democracy that tackles why grassroots democratic practices led by historically excluded groups can help philosophers rethink the requirements of justice—namely, what the content of justice is about and how best to realize it in the circumstances of injustice. She is also working on issues relating to slavery, exploitation, and race in the 19th and 20th century U.S.