Biography
Maxine Sheets-Johnstone is an interdisciplinary scholar affiliated with the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon where she holds an ongoing Courtesy Professor appointment and where she taught periodically in the Department in the 1990s. She has lectured widely in Europe, most notably at the University of Aarhus, at Ghent University, and at the University of Copenhagen at the Center for Subjectivity Research, the Department of Sport, and the Niels Bohr Institute. She received her B.A. in French and Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley, and her M.A. in Dance and her Ph.D. in Dance and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin. She studied for but did not complete a second doctorate in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Wisconsin. She was a professor of dance, choreographer/performer, and dance scholar for a number of years prior to her professorship in philosophy. She has published over 70 articles in humanities, art, and science journals. Her first book was The Phenomenology of Dance(University of Wisconsin Press, 1966; 50th anniversary edition with new preface, Temple University Press, 2015). Her latest book is Putting Movement Into Your Life: A Beyond Fitness Primer (Kindle e-book 2010; Amazon paperback 2013). The Corporeal Turn: An Interdisciplinary Reader (Imprint Academic, 2009) and three “roots” books–The Roots of Thinking(Temple University Press, 1990), The Roots of Power: Animate Form and Gendered Bodies (Chicago: Open Court, 1994), andThe Roots of Morality (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008)–occupy a space between these publications, as does The Primacy of Movement (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing,1999; 2nd expanded ed. 2011), Giving the Body Its Due (New York: State University of New York Press, 1992), and Illuminating Dance: Philosophical Explorations (Bucknell University Press, 1985). The Roots of Power was nominated by Ashley Montagu for an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Two of her books--The Roots of Thinking and The Primacy of Movement–were featured in Book Review Sessions at meetings of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. Professor Sheets-Johnstone was a Distinguished Fellow in residence in the inaugural year of the Institute for Advanced Study, Durham University, UK, 2007, the theme of which was “The Legacy of Charles Darwin.” She received an Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Wisconsin, School of Education, in 2011.