Research Interests: social and political philosophy, feminist ethics, autonomy theory, bioethics

Dr. Bhandary is a political philosopher and feminist ethicist whose work incorporates the human need for dependency care at the level of the foundational assumptions, premises and concepts in the liberal tradition.  In her published work, which includes her monograph, Freedom to Care: Liberalism, Dependency Care, and Culture (Routledge) she advances a theory of distributive justice for caregiving arrangements that is structured by the liberal values of autonomy and transparency. It defends the importance of an abstract understanding of caregiving arrangements with her concept the “arrow of care map” as a way of tracking distributive inequalities by categories including race, gender, ethnicity, class status.

personal website

Selected Publications: 

BOOKS

Freedom to Care: Liberalism, Dependency Care, and Culture, Routledge (2020).

     Reviewed in Hypatia, First View, pp. 1 - 4

Symposium in Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698230.2021.1922860

     Reviewed in Philosophical Quarterly,  Ethics, Politics & Society, and Hypatia

Caring for Liberalism: Dependency and Political Theory, co-edited with Amy R. Baehr, Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy series, Routledge (2021).

ARTICLES

Bhandary, Asha Leena. 2022. Caring for whom? Racial Practices of care and liberal constructivism. philosophies 2022, 7(4), 78. In the Special Issue "Feminist Care Ethics Confronts Mainstream Philosophy". 

Bhandary, A. (2021). “Why Liberalism Needs Autonomy: Achieving a Mainstream Society without Intergroup Caregiving Exploitation.” Ethics, Politics & Society, 4(1), 230-241. https://doi.org/10.21814/eps.4.1.199

Bhandary, A. 2021. The theory of liberal dependency care: a reply to my critics. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2021.1922865

Bhandary, A. 2021. Precis: Freedom to Care. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2021.1922864.

Bhandary, A. (Forthcoming.) “On the Diverse Priorities of Autonomous Women: Comments on Gina Schouten’s Liberalism, Neutrality, and the Gendered Division of Labor.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.

Bhandary, A. 2021. “Being at Home”, White Racism, and Minority Health.” in Applying Nonideal Theory to Bioethics: Living and Dying in a Nonideal World, eds. Elizabeth Victor and Laura Guidry-Grimes, Springer, Ch. 10.

Bhandary, A. 2021. “Interpersonal Reciprocity: An Antiracist Feminist Virtue for Liberal Care Arrangements,” in Caring for Liberalism, eds. Baehr and Bhandary, New York: Routledge.

Bhandary, A. and Amy R. Baehr. 2021. “Introduction,” Caring for Liberalism, eds. Baehr and Bhandary, New York: Routledge.

Bhandary, A. 2020. Review of The Oxford Handbook of Distributive Justice, edited by Serena Olsaretti (2018), Hypatia Reviews Online. https://www.hypatiareviews.org/reviews/content/462.

Bhandary, A. 2018. “Dependency Care before Pizza: A reply to Jan Narveson,” The Journal of Philosophical Research, published online August 3, 2018. DOI: 10.5840/jpr201882126.

Bhandary, Asha L. 2017. "The Arrow of Care Map: Abstract Care in Ideal Theory." Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 3, (4). Article 5. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/fpq/vol3/iss4/5.

Bhandary, A. 2017. “Arranged Marriage: Could it Contribute to Justice?” The Journal of Political Philosophy, Early View published Sept. 29, 2017. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jopp.12144/full. 

Graber, A., Carter, S., Bhandary, A., Matthew Rizzo. 2017. “The Case for Enrolling High-Cost Patients in an ACO”. HealthCare Ethics Committee Forum: An Interprofessional Journal on Healthcare Institutions' Ethical and Legal Issues. 7). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-017-9333-4.

Bhandary, A. 2016. “Liberal Dependency Care,” Journal of Philosophical Research (Vol. 41), Online first published on June 28, 2016. DOI: 10.5840/jpr201662767.

Bhandary, A. 2016. “A Millian Concept of Care,” Social Theory and Practice (Vol. 42, no. 1): 155-182.

Graber, A., A. Bhandary and M. Rizzo. 2015. “Ethical practice under accountable care.” Healthcare Ethics Committee Forum 28:2 (June 2016): 115-128. First published 2015 online.

Bhandary, A. 2013. Review of Adaptive Preferences and Women’s Empowerment, by Serene J. Khader, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, Hypatia 28:2 (Spring 2013): 390-393.

Bhandary, A. 2010. “Dependency in Justice: Can Rawlsian Liberalism Accommodate Kittay’s Dependency Critique?” Hypatia 25:1 (Winter 2010): 140-156.

Digital Humanities Website:

Surviving the Indifferents video game. Created by Asha Bhandary, Laura Brown, Timothy Sommers, and Jamie Ritzo. Iowa City: UI Digital Scholarship and Publishing Studio, 2021. Derived from the monograph Freedom to Care, the game is designed to prompt discussions about the role of care in systems of social cooperation. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first philosophical video game developed by a team of philosophers.

Professor Bhandary is faculty advisor for the University of Iowa’s Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) chapter.

She is also a member of the Advisory Board for PIKSI-Rock. http://www.piksi.org/about-us/people/rock-board/

Iowa Research Online: https://iro.uiowa.edu/esploro/profile/asha_l_bhandary/output/all?institution=01IOWA_INST

Academia https://clas.uiowa.edu/philosophy/research/feminist-philosophy

Professional History: 

2019-current Associate Professor, University of Iowa
2012-2019 Assistant Professor, University of Iowa
2011-2012 Visiting Assistant Professor, Wesleyan University
2010-2011 CLAS Dean’s Graduate Fellow, Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut
2006-2010 Teaching Assistant, University of Connecticut
2004-2006 Strategy Consultant, Wellspring Consulting (consulting for national non-profits)

Research Areas: 

Ethics and Social/Political
Feminist Philosophy

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