Eduardo Mendieta, professor of philosophy at Penn State University, has died.
Professor Mendieta, described by some as a “giant” in Latin American and Latinx philosophy, wrote on various topics in ethics, social and political philosophy, the human condition, animals, critical theory, and philosophy of race. He is the author of Global Fragments: Globalizations, Latinamericanisms, and Critical Theory (2007) and The Adventures of Transcendental Philosophy (2002), among other works. His most recent book is The Philosophical Animal: On Zoopoetics and Interspecies Cosmopolitanism (2024). You can learn more about his writings here.
Mendieta joined the Department of Philosophy at Penn State in 2015. Prior to that, he was professor and chair of philosophy at Stony Brook University, where he had moved, in 2001, from the University of San Francisco. He earned his PhD in philosophy at The New School for Social Research, an MA from Union Theological Seminary, and his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Rutgers University.
He died on December 17th, 2025 from cancer.
[via Alex Guerrero]
This is very sad news. He was my colleague for many years at Stony Brook. He was much too young.
This took me by surprise. Though our times at Penn State didn’t overlap, I had the privilege of hearing him speak on many occasions and he has certain done a great deal for Latin American philosophy and philosophy in general. I know he was not only an extraordinary scholar, but also well-liked by his students.
I had the good fortune to know Eduardo, and to work with him on a few projects. He was a great scholar and a good friend. Some longer thoughts here – https://progressivegeographies.com/2025/12/31/eduardo-mendieta-1963-2025/