Samantha Seybold
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Meet Professor Seybold
she, her, hers
Years at Knox: 2023 to present
My work is in interdisciplinary applied ethics, with a specific focus on the issues that emerge at the intersection of media ethics, gender, and policy. I am curious about how popular media, especially digital technologies, repackage and reinforce traditional gender roles. My most recent article investigates how Meta’s advertising infrastructure enabled bad actors to engage in targeted racial disenfranchisement during the last three U.S. presidential elections. I also have publications in critical media studies that examine female agency and empowerment in The Godfather and in Disney’s revisionist postfeminist princess films. Currently, I am developing an edited volume that analyzes the “brand” of feminism present in the 2023 Barbie movie. (I’ve seen that film more times than I’d like to admit... )
I am a firm believer in the interactive ethics classroom. Every class meeting is discussion-based to ensure that students gain ample practice engaging with others on difficult topics and carefully formulating their own ideas. My classes are thoroughly interdisciplinary, connecting ethics topics to cutting-edge research in diverse fields like critical data studies, environmental policy, political science, and psychology. I have created several new course offerings during my time at Knox, including Biomedical Ethics, Deconstructing Disney, The Barbie Mystique, and Digital Ethics.
Education
Ph.D., 2023, Philosophy, Purdue University
M.A., 2021, Philosophy, Purdue University
B.A., 2018, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Carroll University
B.S., 2018, Psychology, Carroll University
Teaching Interests
Applied ethics; feminist philosophy; media studies; social epistemology.
Full Curriculum Vitae - (PDF)
Honors/Grants
Knox College Faculty Conference Travel Grant ($1,200), 2025.
Knox College Grieg-Post Adventures in Art Fund ($260), 2024: Cultural event fund awarded to support on-campus event “From Trash to Treasure: The Environmental Art of Hey Lola, Co.”
Knox College “Abolition for All Time” Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation ($3,000), 2024-25 Academic Year: Collaborating with an interdisciplinary Curriculum Development faculty working group to develop course materials that enlist interactive, accessible, and practical pedagogies.
Knox College “Abolition for All Time” Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation ($1,500), 2023-24 Academic Year: Collaborated with interdisciplinary Digital Literacy faculty working group to develop abolitionism-oriented original research and teaching Materials.
Knox College Faculty Conference Travel Grant ($1,100), 2023.
Publications
Seybold, S. “Voter Deterrence Campaigns and the Moral-Epistemic Landscape of Political Microtargeting.” Ethics and Information Technology. 27, no. 22 (2025): 1-22. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-025-09831-8.
Seybold, S. “More Dangerous Than Shotguns: Patriarchy and Women’s Agency in The Godfather.” In The Godfather and Philosophy, edited by Joshua Heter and Richard Greene. Peru, IL: Carus Books, 2023. 131-139.
Seybold, S. “Why Causal Facts Matter: A Critique of Jeppsson’s Hard-Line Reply to Four-Case Manipulation Arguments.” Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. (2022). DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2022.2152093.
Seybold, S. “Not Just ‘Bodies with Vaginas’: A Kantian Defense of Pelvic Exam Consent Laws.” Bioethics. 6, no. 36 (2022): 940-947. DOI: 10.1111/bioe.13084.
Hendricks, P. and Seybold, S. “Unauthorized Pelvic Exams are Sexual Assault.” The New Bioethics. (2022): 1-9. DOI: 10.1080/20502877.2022.2102132.
Seybold, S. “‘It’s Called a Hustle, Sweetheart’: Zootopia, Moana, and Disney’s (Dis)empowered Postfeminist Heroines.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. 34 (2021): 69-84. DOI: 10.1007/s10767-019-09347-2.
Seybold, S. and Rondolino, M. “Conforming Beasts and Compliant Princesses: A Radical Appraisal of Disney’s 1990s Americana Rhetoric.” Visual Inquiry: Learning & Teaching Art. 7, no. 2 (2018): 95-110.
Presentations
“On Kensurrectionists and Apologies,” Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 18th, 2025.
“Social Media’s Voter Suppression Industry,” University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, April 19th, 2024. (virtual).
“That’s Not Philosophy! Encounters with the Generic Masculine,” Carroll University, April 11th, 2024. (virtual)
“‘So Much Hides Behind My Smile’: Neocolonialism in Disney’s Encanto,” Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, March 30th, 2024.
“‘So Much Hides Behind My Smile’: Neocolonialism in Disney’s Encanto,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD, October 29th, 2023.
“‘And If All of That is Also True For a Doll …’: Feminist Epistemology in the Barbie Movie,” Carroll University, September 19th, 2023. (virtual)
“Group Norms and Vicious Partisan Epistemology,” Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology Annual Meeting, Louisville, KY, March 7th, 2023.
“Privilege, Perspective, and the Legacy of Dr. J. Marion Sims,” Purdue University Graduate Student Symposium, November 17th, 2022.
“Credible Newscaster or Feminist Mouthpiece? Confronting the Ongoing Marginalization of Women Journalists,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, November 12th, 2022.
“The Normative and Hegemonic Implications of Microtargeted Voter Deterrence Advertising in the US,” Purdue University Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Spring Reception, West Lafayette, IN, May 4th, 2022.
“Reviving the Causal Perspective: A Response to Jeppsson’s Hard-Line Reply,” American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Conference (held virtually), January 13th, 2022.
“How to Read Disney Princess: Envisioning a Transnational Feminist Critique of the Franchise,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, October 15th, 2021. (virtual)
“She Won’t Go Speechless: Essentialized and Orientalized Patriarchy in Disney’s Live-Action Aladdin,” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, June 2nd, 2021. (virtual)
Comments on Ophelia Vedder’s “Discursive Injustice and Sexual Refusals,” Purdue University Inclusive Philosophies Online Workshop, July 21st, 2020.
“‘More Than This Provincial Wife’: Disney’s Live-Action Beauty and the Beast as Postfeminist Bridal Fiction,” Indiana Philosophical Association Fall 2019 Workshop in Socio-Political Philosophy, Marian University, November 8th, 2019.
“Holdin’ Out for a Hero(ine): Zootopia, Moana, and the Emergence of Disney’s Postfeminist Princess,” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, Washington, D.C., April 18th, 2019.
“Holdin’ Out for a Hero(ine): Zootopia, Moana, and the Emergence of Disney’s Postfeminist Princess,” Invited Lecture for Purdue University’s Philosophy of Gender Course, December 5th, 2018.
“Holdin’ Out for a Hero(ine): Zootopia, Moana, and the Emergence of Disney’s Postfeminist Princess,” Purdue University Graduate Student Symposium, November 14th, 2018.
“The Magic of ‘Me’: Disney’s Renaissance and the Rhetoric of Individual Legitimation,” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, San Diego, CA, April 2017. [with Massimo Rondolino].
Campus & Community Involvement
- Referee and Review Work
- Journal of Moral Philosophy
- Philosophical Psychology
- Philosophical Studies