Nic Cottone

My research utilizes feminist and socio-political philosophy (especially marxism and social reproduction theory) to theorize topics like pain, disability, labor, and sexual violence.

Selected Recent/Forthcoming Publications:
>Cottone, N. (forthcoming, 2026). “Reification and the Historical Production of Disability,” chapter in Marxism in Dialogue. (invited)

>Cottone, N. and Jessica Martínez-Cruz. (forthcoming 2026) “Remembering Pain Otherwise: Disability, Enclosed Surfacing, and Crip Memory.” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal.

>Cottone, N. (forthcoming 2026) “Repeating to Refuse: Punk, Disability, and Curative Time,” chapter in Essays on the Ramones and Philosophy.

For additional publications and recent talks, access my CV.

Dissertation
Title: Conceptualizing Misconceptions of Rape: Ideology and the Social Context of Sexual Violence
Abstract: What shapes our understanding of sexual violence such that certain cases, and not others, are recognizable as rape? What do prevailing beliefs about sexual violence imply about our social world and practices? Drawing on socio-political and feminist philosophy, this dissertation argues that the selective recognition of sexual violence stems from an ideological form of social consciousness, for which it develops an account. It further suggests that properly apprehending this form requires situating it within historically specific social relations, which it theorizes through the framework of social reproduction theory. This approach underscores the necessity of theorizing sexual violence in relation to its material and historical conditions. Without such analysis, hegemonic conceptions of rape—including those feminist anti-rape activists have sought to displace—risk being reproduced in ways that reify the very social relations from which they emerge.