Sanchez, Carlos Alberto
- Full Professor of Philosophy
- President's Scholar, 2018
- Advisor for the Graduate Program in Philosophy
- Chair, Committee on Inter-American Philosophy for the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy
Preferred: carlos.sanchez@sjsu.edu
Telephone
Preferred: (408) 924-7581
Office Hours
Email for appointment.
||Books, Monographs, and Anthologies||
- Mexican Philosophy for the 21st Century. Bloomsbury Press, 2023.
- Emilio Uranga's Analysis of Mexican Being: Translation and Critical Introduction. Bloomsbury Press, 2021.
- A Sense of Brutality: Philosophy and Narco Culture. Amherst College Press, 2020.
- The Disintegration of Community: On Jorge Portilla's Social and Political Philosophy, co-written with Francisco Gallegos. State University of New York Press, 2020.
- Mexican Philosophy in the 20th Century: Essential Readings, co-edited with Robert E. Sanchez. Oxford University Press, 2017.
- Contingency and Committment: Mexican Existentialism and the Place of Philosophy. State University of New York Press, 2016.
- The Suspension of Seriousness: On the Phenomenology of Jorge Portilla. State University of New York Press, 2012.
- From Epistemic Justification to Philosophical Authenticity: A Study of Husserl's Phenomenological Epistemology. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010.
- The Thought and Social Engagement in the Mexican American Philosophy of John H. Haddox: A Collection of Critical Appraisals, co-edited with Jules Simon. Edwin Mellen Press, 2010. Nominated for the 2012 Americo Peredes Book Award.
||Interviews: Radio/Podcasts/YouTube||
- Lecture on "Mexistentialism" for University of London SOAS.
- Webinar on "Brualitdad y Ecologia Moral" for Kaleidos.
- What the Fuckery? Podcast. "On Zozobra and Narco-Culture."
- ABC News, Sydney. Interview. "On Zozobra."
- CBC News, Canada. The Sunday Magazine, Interview.
- Blog of the American Philosophical Association, Interview.
||Public Philosophy/OpEds/Other||
- "Being and Accident: A Mexican Ontology," The Philosopher, Spring 2023.
- Author-Meets Critics for A Sense of Bruality, University of Washington, February 19, 2021
- "Wearing a mask makes us face our own mortality," Latino Rebels, OpEd, Jan. 27, 2021.
- "Don't forget the children ripped from their families at the border," San Jose Mercury News, OpEd, Jan. 19, 2021.
- "Don't call immigrant farm workers heroes," San Francisco Chronicle, OpEd. Oct. 27, 2020.
- "It's Called Zozobra," The Conversation, Nov. 2, 2020; reprinted in The Denver Post and translated into Spanish and reprinted by The BBC.
- Recognized for scholarly achievement: 2018 President's Scholar.
- Why I study Mexican Philosophy in the APA Blog
- On "The Philosophy of Mexicanness" in AEON Magazine.
- On "(M)existentialism" in Philosophers Magazine.
- On "On Narco-Culture" in Radical Philosophy Magazine.
- University Scholar Lecture on Narco-Culture here.
- My blog on Mexican Philosophy with Robert Sanchez.
- Link to Review of Contingency and Committment in Nortre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy, Philosophy, University of New Mexico, 2006
- Bachelor of Science, Advertising, San Jose State University, 1998
Licenses and Certificates
Bio
I am the eldest son of (undocumented) im/migrant farm workers, a first-generation college student, lover of all things spicy, and now full professor of philosophy at SJSU. I was thrown into this life in Anaheim, California in 1975, but spent my childhood on a blind horse collecting firewood with my 80 year old grandfather in Acuitzeramo, Michoacan, Mexico. My parents and I returned (insert: traumatic immigration story here) to the US in the mid-1980s and I went to junior high and high school in King City, California, graduating in 1994 with a 2.5 GPA and a Juvenile Hall record. I received a Bachelors of Science degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications (Advertising!) at San Jose State University in 1998, a Masters in Philosophy from the same place, and a PhD in Philosophy from The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM, in 2006. I've been professing and mildly corrupting youths at SJSU since my glorious return in that same year.
My research and publications chronicle my adventures in the history of 20th century Mexican philosophy. Currently, I'm working on a book that applies lessons learned in those adventures to contemporary concerns. I call it, Zozobra, Relajo, and Other Frameworks for Understanding Our World: Essays in Mexican Philosophy.