Keya Maitra

Keya Maitra’s intellectual journey bridges continents and traditions. She has been a professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville, where she also served as the director of the Humanities Program and Thomas Howerton Distinguished Professor of Humanities (2018-22). Her research and teaching facilitate critical conversations across cultural and disciplinary boundaries.

Professor Maitra’s work is both globally informed and socially resonant. Her scholarship has appeared in the Journal of the American Philosophical Association, ​Hypatia, Asian Philosophy, Philosophy in the Contemporary World, ​Southern Journal of Philosophy, ​Philosophy East and West, and International Journal of Philosophical Studies, and numerous anthologies. Her books include ​Feminist Philosophy of Mind (co-edited with Jennifer McWeeny; Oxford University Press 2022), ​Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita: A Contemporary Introduction (Bloomsbury 2018), The Ethics of Governance: Moral Limits of Policy Decisions (co-authored with Shashi Motilal and Prakriti Prajapati; Springer 2021) and On Putnam (Wadsworth 2003).

She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching (2023), the Champion for Students Award (2018), and a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Award (2015). She has delivered numerous keynote addresses and was honored to serve as the Commencement Speaker at UNCA’s December 2023 Graduation.