of How the Force Regards His Adherents” in 2019, and his first book, working title The End of the Anthropocene, is currently being made better by his editor(s) at Rowman & Littlefield for inclusion in their Ecocritical Theory and Practice line. If you notice an insistence on natural spaces in the chapter he co-authored here, he is to blame and is not sorry. Further unapologetic, Gormley is the loud one in the office he shares with co-author Benjamin Wendorf.
Stephen C.W. Graves serves the University of Missouri in the Department of Black Studies. He specializes in political theory, Black politics, and American government, and is an expert on Wakandan politics. Dr. Graves is the author of A Crisis of Leadership and the Role of Citizens in Black America: Leaders of the New School, a theoretical examination of the concepts of the citizen, citizenship, and leadership. Prior to receiving his PhD from Howard University, Stephen received his master’s degree in political science from the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Graves is also a highly sought-after speaker and mentor who has led professional development workshops and lectured at numerous college campuses, high schools, and institutions.
Christine Hobden wrote her contribution to this volume while lecturing philosophy at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. She has since moved inland to Wits School of Governance in Johannesburg where she lectures in ethics and public governance. Unsure if this Earth is really Earth-616 or Earth-1610, she hasn’t written on the Marvel Universe too often, but hopes to do so more often in the future after the excellent experience of engaging with Black Panther and its relationship to African philosophy (and because the editors of this volume were really cool).
Sofia Huerter is an instructor at Colorado Technical University, as well as a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Washington, where they work on issues at the intersection of animal ethics and epistemology, generally from a feminist perspective. In addition to their research, Sofia has worked extensively to bring philosophy to underserved populations, through their work with the Freedom Education Project of the Puget Sound, which creates pathways to education for women, as well as trans-identified and gender non-comforming individuals, in prison, and also through the Simpson Center for the Humanities as a Mellon Fellow. During The Blip, Sofia interned at the Wakandan International Outreach Centre in Oakland.
Thanayi M. Jackson is an American historian and lifelong student of punx, drunx, freaks, and geeks, revolutionary jocks and hippies, hip hop intellectuals, and heavy metal queens. Born and raised in San José, California, she spent most of her days trying to escape capitalism as a disciple of Rock before a Griot banished her to the discipline of History where a great odyssey through the University of Maryland transformed her into a semi-mild-mannered professor. Jackson has held positions at San José State University, Berea College, and is currently Assistant Professor of History at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. A fangirl of the Reconstruction period, her work examines transitions from slavery to freedom and all things Black Power. Jackson abides by a punk rock pedagogy whereby anything can be learned, everything can be deconstructed, and nothing can be lost.
Karen Joan Kohoutek is an independent scholar and poet, who has published about weird fiction and cult films in various journals and literary websites. Recent subjects include the female protagonists of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, the writers August Strindberg and Charles Brockden Brown, and Doris Wishman’s cult film oddity Nude on the Moon. She has also published a novella, The Jack-o-Lantern Box, and the reference book Ici Repose: A Guide to St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, Square 3, about the historic New Orleans cemetery. She lives in Fargo, North Dakota.
Ruby Komic is a pop-culture-overthinker from Melbourne, Australia. In 2021, she completed her master of arts in philosophy, at the University of Melbourne. Her thesis and writing centers around social epistemology, justice issues, and the imagination. Her future work will aim to break down the barriers of accessibility between academic philosophy and mainstream culture. When she’s not thinking and writing, Ruby goes on walkabouts to get in some practice time with her Dora Milaje spear.
Dean A. Kowalski is a Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Arts & Humanities department in the College of General Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He regularly teaches philosophy of religion, Asian philosophy, and ethics. He is the author of Joss Whedon as Philosopher (2017), Classic Questions and Contemporary Film, 2nd edition (2016), and Moral Theory at the Movies (2012). He is the editor of The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy (2012), The Philosophy of The X-Files, revised edition (2009), and Steven Spielberg and Philosophy (2008); he is the co-editor of The Philosophy of Joss Whedon (2011). Dean’s younger sister once called him “genius,” but he’s pretty sure she was being sarcastic, like Shuri.
Deana G. Lewis is a scholar and organizer whose work focuses on Black women and girls who have experienced state violence and how their experiences have often been left out of discourses on incarceration. Deana is a member of Love & Protect, a collective supporting women and gender nonbinary people who are criminalized by interpersonal violence. She is also a founding member of the Just Practice Collaborative, whose purpose is to build communities’ capacities to compassionately respond to intimate partner violence and sexual assault without relying primarily on state-based systems. As a plant lover, Deana is on the eternal pursuit for a Heart-Shaped Herb or two.
If Greg Littmann had a Black Panther suit, he wouldn’t do any more administrative work and nobody would be able to make him. He’d still be an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, whether they wanted him to be or not, but anytime someone tried to get him to do some administration, he’d just jump right over them and keep walking. He’d still teach subjects including metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy through popular literature and film, but he’d return the graded exams any time he damn well liked. He’d still publish in a wide variety of areas, including philosophy of logic, evolutionary epistemology, and the philosophy of professional philosophy. He’d also still write chapters for books like this that relate philosophy to popular culture, like the ones he’s written for volumes on The Big Bang Theory, Black Mirror, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, The Good Place, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and numerous others. But there would be no word limits. Not when Greg has panther claws.
Matthew B. Lloyd was created in 1970 in comics published in Charlotte, NC. He would later appear with an art history MA in University of Louisville Comics. He currently appears on a podcast on the Comics in Motion Network, Classic Comics with Matthew B. Lloyd. He can also regularly be found writing reviews and editorials at www.dccomicsnews.com when he’s not appearing in Restaurant Manager Comics. He has previously co-authored an essay with Ian J. Drake in Politics in Gotham: The Batman Universe and Political Thought.
Edwardo Pérez was raised by the Puma deity on an alternate Earth (where the Mayans ruled the entire planet) to be Jaguar Paw, the Mayan equivalent of Wakanda’s Black Panther. But after The Blip, Edwardo appeared on Earth-616 disguised as an unassuming (though smartly dressed) Professor of English and prolific writer, contributing essays and blogs to the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series. Stripped of his Jaguar power, but endowed with rhetorical prowess, Edwardo instructs students in the ancient art of persuasion and the modern ways of critical theory at Tarrant County College Northeast. But, on the off chance that Doctor Strange is able to transport Edwardo back to his home world (where he could regain his Jaguar Paw powers), Edwardo keeps his claws sharpened, ready to aid anyone in the multiverse who needs help.
Charles F. Peterson is a Blerd from the hidden Black land of 1970s/80s Gary, IN. His Blerd consciousness was awakened by pages of The Uncanny X-Men, #127, vol. 1. He went on to receive degrees in philosophy from Morehouse College (BA), and philosophy, interpretation and culture from Binghamton University (MA, PhD). He writes in the areas of Africana political theory, cultural theory, and aesthetics. He is the author of DuBois, Fanon, Cabral: The Margins of Elite Anti-Colonial Leadership (2007) and the forthcoming Beyond Civil Disobedience: