Ashli Anda, Ph.D.

About

I think about philosophy as a way of finding, making, and solving (some) puzzles. My favorite philosophical puzzles or questions tend to be about justice, punishment, human nature, mutual aid, and politics. My interest in philosophy has always included both theoretical and practical philosophy, meaning I love ideas and I feel duty bound to be attentive to our real world issues and needs.

In addition to loving philosophy, I'm passionate about prison education and reentry. I have a decade of experience teaching philosophy in adult prisons and juvenile facilities in California and Illinois and taught a summer course at Luzira Maximum Security Prison in Kampala, Uganda. In Spring 2027, I am teaching a 16-week Inside Out course called "The Search for Meaning" in the Ventura County Juvenile Facility. The Inside Out Prison Exchange Program Center advocates for social change through transformative education. The Inside Out model brings classes together comprising both University students and incarcerated students.  

I am a student-centered teacher which, for me, means that I enjoy working with students to build their curiosity, plan their next steps, and to encourage them to live well and do good. I teach a wide variety of courses:

• Philosophy and the Search for A Good Life
• Latin American Philosophy
• Business Ethics and the Philosophy of Work
• Oppression and Liberation
• Contemporary Political Philosophy
• Philosophy of Education

I also direct the Sarah W. Heath Center for Equality and Justice here at California Lutheran University. 

Education

Ph.D. in Philosophy 2024, University of Illinois and Urbana Champaign

M.A. in Philosophy 2016, Boston College

B.A. in Philosophy 2014, California Polytechnic University, Pomona

A.A. 2012, Los Angeles Valley College

Expertise

Areas of Specialty: Kant's practical philosophy, legal and political philosophy (especially policing and punishment), Applied Ethics

Areas of Competence: Latin American Philosophy, Hegel's practical philosophy, phenomenology, and philosophy of education

Anda, A. Forthcoming in Proceedings of the 14th International Kant-Congress: Kant’s Project of Enlightenment. Edited by Christoph Horn and Rainer Schäfer (Berlin: De Gruyter).

Anda, A. (2025). Reform, Abolition, and Carcerality. Radical Philosophy Review. 28 (1):169-173.

Anda, A. (2023). Decarceration, Disability, and Disepistemology. Kritik: Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. https://criticism.illinois.edu/blog/2023-10-10t044424/decarceration-disability-and-disepistemology

Anda, A. (2022). From Dispositional Solidarity to Creative Solidarity. Kritik: Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. https://criticism.illinois.edu/blog/dispositional-solidarity-creative-solidarity

Anda, A., Edwards. A. (2018). Learning On the Job. Jacobin. https://jacobin.com/2018/03/uiuc-graduate-union-student-workers-university

Anda, A. (2017). An Interest, not a Project: Hegel on Ethical Love and Procreation. In Procreation, Parenthood, and Educational Rights Ethical and Philosophical Issues (pp. 201–210). Routledge.