Soofia Lateef

Philosophy PhD candidate at the University of California, Riverside

email: slate003(at)ucr(dot)edu

link to University Profile

Research

Graduate Research Projects:

  • Dissertation: Pessimism and Affect
  • Masters Thesis: Hope and Power-Seeking (accepted 2023)

Conference Presentations:

  • Presented at Contemporary Challenges and Values 4: Values and Emotions (Institute of Philosophy, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University – 2025)
  • Presented at Politics of Pessimism conference (Tufts University – 2025)
  • Presented at Pessimism: Problematising the Value of Life conference (NOVA University Lisbon – 2024)

Research Groups:

  • Graduate Fellow with the Emotion and Society Lab (2023 to 2024)
  • Participant in Experimental and Feminist Philosophy Workshop (CUNY – 2021)

Service

  • University of California, Riverside colloquia coordinator (2024 to now)
  • Minorities and Philosophy chapter head for University of California, Riverside (2024 to now)
  • Judge at California Regional Ethics Bowl (2025)
  • University of California, Riverside Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship roundtable panelist (2024)
  • Graduate Student teaching mentor for University of California, Riverside Philosophy department (2022 to 2023​)
  • Presentation on Diversity Statements for University of California, Riverside Philosophy department (2022)

Teaching

Associate Instructor and Teaching Assistant at University of California, Riverside from 2021 to now.

Teaching Awards:

  • Graduate Division’s Outstanding TA Award (2025)
  • Philosophy Department Distinguished TA award (2022)

Philosophy Classes taught as Associate Instructor:

  • Evil
  • Introduction to Law and Society

Philosophy Classes taught as Teaching Assistant:

  • Evil
  • Introduction to Law and Society
  • Philosophy of Law
  • Philosophy of Race
  • Hellenistic Philosophy
  • Introduction to Philosophy
  • Contemporary Moral Issues
  • Introduction to Logic

Gender and Sexuality Studies Classes taught as Teaching Assistant:

  • Women and Culture