Prof. Jessica L Ruffin

Professor Ruffin's first book, "Becoming Amphibious: critical ethical encounters between land and sea," engages philosophical aesthetics, critical theory, and philosophies of race to trace the potential for ethics amid white supremacy and anti-Blackness. Her essays include "Preface to a Philosophy by Which No One Can Live" (New German Critique); "The Myth of the Sneeze in the Dream of Film History" (Discourse); and "Between Friends" (qui parle). Her second manuscript reframes Frankfurt School critical theory and psychoanalysis in light of Arthur Schopenhauer’s aesthetics -- exploring the ethical and mystical in German avant-garde media through the conclusion of World War II.

Ruffin earned a Ph.D. in film and media, with a designated emphasis in critical theory (2021). She also holds an MA in German literature and culture (University of California at Berkeley, 2018) and an M.A. in humanities (University of Chicago, 2008). She comes to MIT after two years as assistant professor of film, television, and media and member of the Michigan Society of Fellows at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.