Professor DeArmitt (PhD, DePaul University, Chicago) joined the department in 2006. She also holds an MA from DePaul University and a BA from Duquesne University. Her research and teaching interests include contemporary continental philosophy, feminist theory, psychoanalysis, and social and political thought. She has published articles on Derrida, Kofman, and Kristeva in journals such as Mosaic, Parallax, Philosophy Today, Research in Phenomenology, and The Southern Journal of Philosophy. She is the co-editor of Sarah Kofman’s Corpus (SUNY Press, 2008) and a memorial issue of Epoché on Jacques Derrida (2006). Her book, The Right to Narcissism: A Case for an Im-possible Self-Love, is forthcoming with Fordham University Press. She is also the co-translator of Derrida’s “A Europe of Hope” (2006) and “Aletheia” (2010).

Having previously held visiting positions at Grinnell College and Villanova University, Dr. DeArmitt has taught numerous undergraduate courses in philosophy and gender theory. Since arriving at Memphis, she has taught graduate courses on Rousseau’s moral psychology, Freud’s metapsychology, Kristeva's philosophy of bios, and a survey of recent Continental thought.

Dr. DeArmitt was the recipient of an American Post-doctoral Research Fellowship (2010-11), awarded by the American Association of University Women. She is also serving as the current President of Société Américaine de Philosophie de Langue Française (SAPLF). Dr. DeArmitt is the director of the 2012 Spindel Conference entitled "Freudian Futures."

Dr. DeArmitt serves as Director of Graduate Placement.

Books and Collections

The Right to Narcissism: A Case for an Im-possible Self-Love (New York: Fordham University Press, forthcoming 2013).

Sarah Kofman’s Corpus, eds. Tina Chanter and Pleshette DeArmitt (Albany: SUNY Press, 2008).

Epoché, eds. Pleshette DeArmitt and Kas Saghafi,"An Entrusted Responsibility: Reading and Remembering Jacques Derrida," vol. 10, iss. 2 (Spring 2006).

Articles/Chapters

"Conjuring Bodies: Kofman’s Lessons on Death," Parallax 58 (January-March 2011): 4-17.

"Resonances of Echo: A Derridean Allegory,” Mosaic 41, 3 (2009): 89-100.

"Sarah Kofman’s Art of Affirmation, or the 'Non-illusory Life of an Illusion'," in Sarah Kofman’s Corpus (Albany: SUNY Press, 2008).

"Kristeva's Radical Revaluation of (Women's) Work," The Kristeva Circle group session meeting, American Philosophical Association, Atlanta, GA (December 2012).

Invited Roundtable Speaker, Kristeva's Recent Work, The Kristeva Circle, Siena College, Loudonville, New York (October 13, 2012).

"Cascade of Remainders: Derrida on Ipseity and the Logic of the Remainder," Featured Session: "What Remains--Of Mastery and Ipseity," 3rd International Derrida Today Conference, University of California, Irvine (July 13, 2012). 

"Narcissism of Minor Sexual Differences," philoSOPHIA: A Feminist Society, Miami University, Oxford, OH (April 14, 2012).