Soofia Lateef

Philosophy PhD Candidate · University of California, Riverside

SLate003 [at] ucr [dot] edu

University Profile

Phil People Page

Research

Graduate Research Projects

• Dissertation: Pessimism and Affect
• Insight Into Irrationality: Schopenhauerian Tragic Compassion. Kultura I Wartości 41:75-95. http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/kw.2026.41.75-95 (published 2026)
• Masters Thesis: Hope and Power-Seeking (accepted 2023)

Conference Presentations

• International Society for Moral Psychology Inaugural Conference — Cornell University (2026)
• Contemporary Challenges and Values 4: Values and Emotions — Institute of Philosophy, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (2025)
• Politics of Pessimism conference — Tufts University (2025)
• Pessimism: Problematising the Value of Life conference — NOVA University Lisbon (2024)

Fellowships

• $23,000 UC Riverside Dissertation Program Fellowship (2026-2027)
• $8,000 UC Riverside Center for Ideas and Society Summer Dissertation Writing Fellowship (2026)
• $50,000 UC Riverside Provost Research Fellowship (2020-2025)

Research Groups

• Graduate Fellow, Emotion and Society Lab (2023–2024)
• Participant, Experimental and Feminist Philosophy Workshop — CUNY (2021)

Service

• UC Riverside colloquia coordinator (2024–present)
• Minorities and Philosophy chapter head for UC Riverside (2024–present)
• Judge, California Regional Ethics Bowl (2025)
• UC Riverside Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship roundtable panelist (2024)
• Graduate Student teaching mentor, UC Riverside Philosophy department (2022–2023)
• Presentation on Diversity Statements, UC Riverside Philosophy department (2022)

Teaching

Associate Instructor and Teaching Assistant at University of California, Riverside (2021–present)

Teaching Awards

• Graduate Division's Outstanding TA Award (2025-2026)
• Philosophy Department Distinguished TA Award (2021-2022)

As Associate Instructor

• Philosophical Issues of Race and Gender (upcoming in Summer 2026)
• Evil
• Introduction to Law and Society

As Teaching Assistant — Philosophy

• Evil
• Philosophy of Race
• Hellenistic Philosophy
• Biomedical Ethics
• Introduction to Law and Society
• Philosophy of Law
• Introduction to Philosophy
• Contemporary Moral Issues
• Ethics and the Meaning of Life
• Critical Thinking
• Introduction to Logic
• Formal Logic

As Teaching Assistant — Gender & Sexuality Studies

• Women and Culture