Margaret Betz

I have been in the philosophy field for roughly 30 years, beginning as a philosophy major in college and then doing part-time teaching in my 20s after earning my master's degree. I worked at various different schools at various different levels of just part-time teaching, being what they call an adjunct professor, before eventually completing my PhD and moving into my current role. Today, I am an Associate Teaching Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey, where my main areas of expertise are political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and applied ethics. My most notable professional achievement is publishing my book in late 2023 called Modes of Protest and Resistance, in which I did an excellent job analyzing different forms of political violence and explaining what forms seem to be reasonable. The book is published through an academic publishing house and might show up at academic conferences where the publisher displays books. I grew up as the daughter of a philosophy professor who died a year ago, and I really attribute my success to him. I grew up surrounded by philosophy professors, as his colleagues were his friends and he would socialize with them, and I grew up in a house full of books. I'm really grateful that my father never made me feel as though I didn't belong just because I was a daughter and not a son. I actually wrote something on this for a philosophy society because I thought I have this interesting backstory. Today, I mentor young women in the field and make sure that I write as many letters of recommendation for graduating female students as I can. I've never turned a student down when they've asked me because I really want to make sure that they have some sort of support. Some of them are applying to law school, and they'll contact me and say they got in, which is a great feeling.