Clarissa Müller-Kosmarov

I am a PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Philosophy.

My doctoral thesis sets out a critical phenomenology of othering (the construction of subjects as other) by bringing key aspects of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment – particularly, the body schema, body image, and habituation – into conversation with first-person accounts of racial, transgender, disabled, and neurodivergent otherness and othering. In the dissertation, I present othering as both the exercising and effects of a particular kind of perceptual and interpretative practice that operates through (at least) four dimensions, namely spatiality, pathologisation, humiliation, and hyper-/invisibilisation.

Beyond my thesis, I am interested in the application of critical phenomenological and hermeneutical approaches to contemporary social issues. My main areas of interest are the philosophy of neurodivergence (and the philosophy of disability more broadly), normality and normativity, and political epistemology. I also have a research background in International Law and International Human Rights Law and seek to maintain an interdisciplinary focus in all my research and professional endeavours.

Departmental Engagement

• Equality and Welfare Committee (EWC) - minorities and PGR representative since 2021. Submit your experiences and opinions about all things EDI and welfare via the anonymous feedback form hereLink opens in a new window.
• Warwick Continental Philosophy Conference (WCPC) - organising committee member and inclusivity officer 2023/2024.
• Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) - committee member from 2022-2024.
• Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) - MAP representative 2023/24.
• Student Events Committee - committee member 2023/24.

Recent and Forthcoming Projects

Peer Reviewed

‘The Philosophy of Neurodiversity’ in Philosophy and Theory of Disability. Oxford Research Encyclopaedia in Disability Studies, Oxford University Press. With Robert Chapman; forthcoming.

Interviews

Müller-Kosmarov, C. (2025) 'Dialogues on Disability: Shelley Tremain Interviews Clarissa Müller-Kosmarov', BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. Available hereLink opens in a new window.

Public Philosophy

Müller, C. (2021) "The Politics of Authenticity", Philosophy2u. Available hereLink opens in a new window.

Müller, C. (2020) "A Theory of Emptiness", Philosophy2u. Available hereLink opens in a new window.

Müller, C. (2020) "Quarantine, an Existential Perspective: A Self without Others", Philosophy2u. Available hereLink opens in a new window.

Recent Talks and Presentations

August 2025: Authoring Autism: Can the Autistic Speak?. The British Society of Phenomenology Annual Conference, University College Dublin.

December 2024: Against Merit: How Disabled Students Subvert Intelligence Essentialism. Philosophy of Disability and Social Change 5, BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY and the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.

September 2024: Conceptualising Autistic Embodiment: The Normative Body-Schema and Interpretative Registries of Neurominoritization. The British Society of Phenomenology Annual Conference, University of West England.

July 2024: The Spatiality of Othering: A Crip Reading of Embodiment and the Phenomenology of Belonging. The Mind and Aristotelian Society Joint Session, Birmingham University.

Previous Education & Languages

• LLM in International Law with International Human Rights Law, The University of Kent (2019-2020)
• BA(Hons) in Philosophy, The University of Kent (2016-2019)

English (native) French (CEFR A2)

Russian (CEFR A2) German (CEFR A1)