Prof. Cressida J. Heyes
Americal Philosophical Association Fellow, November - December 2026
Cressida J. Heyes is Professor and HM Tory Chair at the University of Alberta, Canada, where she is appointed in Political Science and Philosophy. She is the author of three books, including most recentlyAnaesthetics of Existence: Essays on Experience at the Edge (Duke University Press, 2020), which won the David Easton Award in political theory from the American Political Science Association. Her interests range across the politics of the body, feminist philosophy, and medical humanities.
Project title: Sleep is the New Sex: A Feminist Philosophy of Sleep
"Sleep is the New Sex” is both an academic and a popular project that starts from the premise that the experience and representation of sleep has a cultural politics. With collaborators, I have published academic articles on working from bed, advice to parents about children’s sleep, sleep and the work ethic, and sexual violence against unconscious victims. I am also the host of the podcast, Sleep is the New Sex, which is about to launch its second season. While in Edinburgh I will work on a cross-over book representing all this material for a mainstream audience.