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Micah Trautmann

Philosopher | Boston University

I am interested in the ways the places we inhabit inform our well-being, shaping our access to rights and privileges, our standing in our social worlds, the contours of our agency, even the ways we think and feel. My primary research mobilizes that conviction to normative ends via an examination and critique of the contemporary landscape of forced displacement, focusing on the harms created by states’ responses to people on the move. I also maintain a more strictly historical research program centered on Arendt and Heidegger, and have an abiding secondary interest in moral psychology, particularly the practical benefits of negative emotions.

I'm currently a Postdoctoral Associate at the Center on Forced Displacement at Boston University. I completed my PhD in the Department of Philosophy at Boston University in 2024. When I'm not thinking, I like to climb rocks, garden, take photographs (the ones on this site are mine), and design and build furniture.