Department of Philosophy University of California
321 Dodd Hall | Los Angeles, CA 90095-1451
Vida Yao 姚维达
I received my Ph.D. from UNC Chapel Hill in 2016, under the direction of Professor Susan Wolf.
I was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia.
My mother is from Hangzhou. My father is from Shanghai.
I did my undergraduate work at the University of British Columbia and UC Berkeley, as a Killam-Fulbright Fellow.
While I was an undergraduate Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at UC Berkeley, I worked from 2008-2010 for former Emeritus Professor John Searle, whose repeated acts of sexual harassment, assault, intimidation and retaliation were well-known for many years and are now public record.
I state this here because I am interested in hearing from those who may know something I do not know, as I attempt - through philosophy and other means - to make sense of what happened to me, and to the other women harassed, assaulted, intimidated, and retaliated against by John Searle.
I state it here also because I do not believe that academic philosophy will become a more hospitable place for all philosophers unless we find a way to articulate and make comprehensible the damage done to those who were made to feel unwelcome, and unsupported by their philosophical communities.