The Richard Rorty Society is pleased to announce that results of the 2026 Women’s Essay Competition on Rorty’s Philosophy.

“Engagement without Clinging: A Buddhist Redescription of Rorty’s Liberal Ironist”

By Alexandra S. Ilieva

Alexandra S. Ilieva is an Affiliated Researcher at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. Her work in intercultural philosophy brings neopragmatism and Buddhist philosophy into dialogue, with a particular focus on philosophy of language and metaphilosophy. Her work seeks to address contemporary problems, often in the spirit of what Rorty calls cultural politics. She has two forthcoming books: Exploring Buddhist Philosophy in Equinox Publishing’s Global Philosophy Series and The Buddha, Nāgārjuna, and the Nature of Language: Beyond Representationalism which reads Madhyamaka philosophy through an anti-representationalist lens, forthcoming with Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism.