�ٸ�����1000

Bio

Tricia Van Dyk teaches philosophy at LCC International University in Klaipėda, Lithuania. She earned her BA (Philosophy major/Physics concentration) from Dordt College, her MA (Systematic Philosophy) from the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, and her PhD (Philosophy) conjointly from the VU University, Amsterdam, and the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto. As the only female major in both of her fields of interest as an undergraduate, she became interested in the institutional bias toward male involvement in philosophy and science. Building particularly on the work of Hannah Arendt, Martha Nussbaum, Wayne C. Booth, and Lambert Zuidervaart, Tricia’s research has focused on the concept of plurality as an alternative to the contemporary inclination to take as normative what can be generalized and simultaneously to deny universally applicable normativity. Her current interests focus on pedagogy and the practical relevance of philosophy, especially in the interactions of science and literature with gender and ethics. 

Before coming to LCC, Tricia lived or studied in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Australia, Costa Rica, and China. Her favorite description of philosophy comes from Theodor Adorno’s essay “Why Still Philosophy”: “Philosophy that satisfies its own intention, and does not childishly skip behind its own history and the real one, has its lifeblood in the resistance against the common practices of today and what they serve, against the justification of what happens to be the case.” She and her husband, Benjamin Groenewold, contribute to this resistance by hosting a weekly Philosophy Night in their home, where students come together to ask big questions and share ideas. Tricia enjoys reading, knitting socks, walking in the woods, training in Taekwondo, playing cello, and playing games with her family.