About
Dr. Janet Borgerson (BA philosophy, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; MA Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, England; PhD philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison) completed postdoctoral work at Brown University in philosophy, gender, and religious studies. She has held tenured positions at the University of Stockholm, Sweden and the University of Exeter, UK and served as visiting professor at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics and at Walailak University, Thailand. She is an advisory board member of the Race in the Marketplace Research Forum and former trustee of the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. Borgerson is author of Caring and Power in Female Leadership: A Philosophical Approach (2018) and co-author of From Chinese Brand Culture to Global Brands: Insights from Aesthetics, Fashion, and History (2013). Her scholarly articles appear in a broad range of journals, including Body and Society, Business and Society Review, and Philosophy Today.
Current Work
Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America (MIT Press, 2017), the first book in a trilogy co-authored with Jonathan Schroeder, explores the role of record albums and their covers as midcentury media on the front lines of the Cold War in postwar America. It was named a Best Book of 2017 by The Financial Times and featured in The Wall Street Journal. Designed for Dancing: How Vinyl Records Taught Midcentury America to Dance (MIT Press, 2021) celebrates the uncharted territory of the midcentury dance record, at the same time addressing postwar American identity concerns of race, gender, and melting pot politics. Designed for Success: Better Living with Midcentury Vinyl (MIT Press, 2023) explores the US national projects of self-improvement and entrepreneurship through the frame of the album cover. A second project explores notions of witnessing in Islamic and continental philosophy.
Research Area Keyword(s)
ethics, Islamic studies, material culture, midcentury media, postcolonial and critical race theory