I specialize in critical philosophy of race and modern philosophy. My work has engaged political questions concerning domination, slavery, and race in modern figures such as Hobbes and Leibniz. Currently, I am working on a book manuscript on Ottobah Cugoano’s philosophy, the tentative title is Responsibility from Below: Cugoano’s Thoughts and Sentiments. I have three research agendas: to interpret the social and political visions of Afro-modern figures within the 18th and 19th centuries; to make intelligible a diachronic conception of race by drawing on resources from Africana philosophy and Latin American philosophy; and third, to reconstruct Anton Amo's metaphysics.
Professor Topete will be spending 2024-2025 on a research fellowship at Dartmouth College.
