Ann Cudd is Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor & Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. From August 2015-August 2018 she was Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University. Prior to that, Cudd was University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas, where she also served as the Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies. Cudd was on the faculty at KU for 27 years and taught for 2 years at Occidental College.

Cudd’s research spans social and political philosophy, philosophy of economics, feminist theory, and philosophy of social science. Her dissertation was in the philosophy of game theory on common knowledge. Early in my career, she was greatly influenced by Susan Moller Okin’s work on gender and justice, which led her to deeper study of feminism, and then to the social psychology and economics of oppression and social exclusion. This work culminated in a book, Analyzing Oppression, which was published in 2006 with Oxford University Press, and which was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title and won the Byron Caldwell Smith Award in 2007.

Cudd has also co-authored a book, Capitalism For and Against: A Feminist Debate (Cambridge University Press, 2011) with Nancy Holmstrom, in which she defends capitalism as a positive force for women, affording us a way out of traditional roles and norms, and providing a path out of poverty for the world’s poor.

Her current research focuses on the concept of self-ownership in political philosophy, and on topics in higher education, connecting to her work as dean. Cudd is deeply committed to the innovative power and democratic mission of higher education, which can only succeed if it is diverse and inclusive.