Peg O'Connor

Peg O’Connor, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Her new book, Life on the Rocks: Finding Meaning in Addiction and Recovery (Central Recovery Press, 2016) is the only book that puts western philosophy into conversation with addiction and treatment concerns. Written for the general public, it assumes no familiarity with philosophy.

Additionally, Peg O’Connor's monographs - Oppression and Responsibility (Penn State Press, 2002) and Morality and Our Complicated Form of Life (Penn State, 2008) - are two of approximately ten published books using Wittgenstein to explore moral matters.

Peg O’Connor also has two edited books. Feminist Interpretations of Ludwig Wittgenstein is part of the prestigious Re-Reading the Canon series with Penn State Press (2002). The other, Oppression, Privilege, and Resistance (McGraw Hill, 2004), explores the connections between racism, sexism, and heterosexism. She has published four essays on philosophy and addiction in The New York Times along with one in The Huffington Post.

Peg O’Connor has taught a seminar “Philosophy and Addiction” at Gustavus. She also wrote an educational curriculum about character, moral development, and actions and consequences for students who had the most serious alcohol or drug infractions on campus. In 2012, Peg O’Connor was an A.A. Heckman Fellow at the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, MN working on a manuscript that explores the influence of philosopher/psychologist William James on Alcoholics Anonymous.

She has presented her work at conferences for treatment professionals and professional philosophers. She has also appeared on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, the flagship current affairs program for Canadian public television, on topics related to addiction.

Peg O’Connor is also the Chair of the Program for the 2015 Nobel Conference at Gustavus titled, “Addiction: The Science and Experience of an Equal Opportunity Condition.”