IRS to conduct abortion audits?? March 19, 2011
Still think it doesn’t make any difference whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge? Try this one on. For all the disappointments we’ve had with Democrats, can you imagine this one ever passing a democratic body?
Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?
Now imagine if the Republicans had the Senate and the Presidency. (Thanks, J-Bro!)
Keele: What’s Going On? March 19, 2011
When the decision to close the philosophy department was announced, colleagues of mine guessed that this was because all the really profitable stuff was in PEAK, which made loads of money from its professional ethics courses. We were shocked, a few hours later, to hear that they were planning to close PEAK too. Nafsika Athanassoulis, who only recently left PEAK, has shed some light on the situation. She writes:
During my time at Keele PEAK’s budget was absorbed by Law and it became impossible for anyone to figure out the real numbers relating to either unit. Given the diverse nature of the activities of the two units it became very difficult to properly account for income generated in any way that would clarify who contributed what to where. To give you an example, as Director of the MA in the Ethics of Palliative Care I alerted Professor Thomson to the fact that figures for student income were persistently misrepresented in the budget because the course started in January rather than September, but the figures were never corrected. Even in the academic year where the course changed from a January to a September start and managed to recruit double its usual number of students (a remarkable feat under the circumstances) the figures simply did not reflect this fact, nor were they adjusted despite my numerous attempts to make the errors knows.
For Nafsika’s full letter, go here. For some good discussion of it, go here.
For the Save PEAK website, go here.
Results: What (if anything) prevents women from accepting conference invitations? March 18, 2011
UPDATE: I just wanted to note something epistemically interesting. We’ve had endless discussions over the years here about why women might be refusing conference invitations, but the number one reason from our poll was *never* suggested in any of those discussions.
Our poll is now over and we’ve got some interesting results. The most popular reason for women to turn down conference invitations is a lack of funding to attend. If it’s true that women turn down conference invitations more often than men do (we still don’t know this), a key reason may be that they are less likely to have good travel funds available. Why think this? Well, we already know that women are disproportionately to be found at less wealthy, less prestigious institutions, and more likely to work part-time. They are also less likely to be have reached senior ranks. All these factors are likely to mean that women have less access to travel funds. So conference organisers may want to think about who they give their limited funds to. They might want to think about prioritising the women. Alternatively, and with quite possibly the same effect, they might want to prioritise funding the junior people from less wealthy institutions. I know it’s awkward asking senior/famous people whether they can fund themselves, but unless they’re arseholes they’re unlikely to be offended if you explain that you want to use your limited funds where they’re most needed.
Reason number 2 is having a clash of obligations for which more options on dates would help. The fourth most common reason is being asked very late. Both of these point to the thought that conference organisers should try to invite women as early as possible, perhaps giving them first choice on a range of dates. After all, somebody has to be asked first. If women in your field *are* really hard to come by, then perhaps make them the first ones you ask. At the very least, don’t wait until two weeks before!
Tied with the above reason number 2 is having so many obligations that more options on dates wouldn’t make any difference. It’s hard to see how conference organisers can help with this, but one commenter has noted that she has turned down conferences due to simply having too many obligations rather than a clash– and that asking her far enough in advance would help. So, another reason to ask early.
The third most popular answer was “I have never turned down a conference invitation”. We can’t take this to show anything about relative numbers of women and men saying yes to conferences, but at least it’s some indication that women aren’t just serial turners-down of invitations.
Reason 5 was invitation outside my area of competence/current research, and reason 6 was lack of childcare at the conference. So: do be sure you’re asking someone to do what they actually do, and do think about help with arranging childcare.
A few women said they’d turned down conferences in order to avoid harassers, help the environment or because there was a lack of accommodation for their disabilities. Even though the numbers here are low, the issues are significant, and there are things an organiser can do. Don’t invite known harassers (I very much like a “no arseholes” rule at my conferences); offer the possibility of speaking by video; and work harder on accommodating disabilities.
Gender Assumptions Influence Animal Research March 18, 2011
This fits well with Emily Martin’s work some time ago on how research on the sperm and egg are affected by gendered assumptions. However, it’s in a different domain and– importantly- it’s current. I find students always suggest that what Martin claimed isn’t true any more.
Sexual conflicts among animals and plants mean that the male and the female disagree in various ways on mating and the raising of young. Research on these sexual conflicts is an area that is growing rapidly. Therefore, it is especially important to make other researchers aware of and alert to the fact that their own frames of reference pose a risk, say Kristina Karlsson Green and Josefin Madjidian.
Behaviour that originates from a sexual conflict always has a negative effect on the other partner and such behaviour should therefore be described in the same manner and using the same terms. It is thus possible to avoid making a subconscious distinction between the sexes. The two researchers claim that this is not the case today.
“In the literature, the male is described more in terms of activities to promote his own interests, while the female is described in more passive terms, such as that her behaviour is merely a reaction to that of the male. This is despite the fact that the behaviour of both sexes has a negative impact on the other partner while promoting the partner’s own interests,” says Josefin Madjidian.
(Thanks, Rob!)
Help Save Keele Philosophy March 18, 2011
There’s now a website for the campaign to save Keele Philosophy here. And there’s a petition here.
And you should also consider emailing the following:
Prof. Nick Foskett: n.h.foskett@vco.keele.ac.uk
cc to:
Prof. Rama Thirunamachandran, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost: r.thirunamachandran@vco.keele.ac.uk
Prof. David Shepherd, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, d.g.shepherd@humss.keele.ac.uk
Readers of this blog may be interested to know that Keele, despite its small size, has a feminist philosopher. It is also very unusual in another way close to the hearts of feminist philosophers: it takes seriously the project of building bridges between various traditions (analytic, phenomenological, Kantian and post-Kantian).
Newspaper thinks maybe sexual torture was consensual even though torturer has already admitted guilt March 17, 2011
On November 5, 2010 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a story by Todd C. Frankel under the headline “A Missouri Town’s Doubts about a Sex Torture Case.” One of the perprtrators in this case, James Noel has pled guilty to human trafficking and participating in the torture and rape of a young woman, and all other charges against him in a federal indictment out of the Western District of Missouri Office of the United States Attorney, including himself participating in torturing her by linking an electrical decive to her genitals and knowing that she was in severe pain and unable to escape.
The Post-Dispatch article’s headline is itself victim-blaming and sensational in a way that does victims and survivors of rape, torture, and human trafficking an extreme disservice by perpetuating doubt and re-enforcing damaging assumptions. The article raises doubts about the victim’s veracity and focuses soley on town members’ opinions, who speculate that the victim, according to the indictiment a “mentally defecient” teenager when Edward Bagley, Sr. took her and allegedly began grooming her for torture and sex slavery, was a willing participant. Frankel quotes townspeople and relatives as saying such things as, “They no more held that woman captive than a man in the moon,” and “I just can’t believe they’re saying stuff like that…sounds like an excuse.”
For more information, and to sign a petition against the coverage, go here. (Thanks, Simone!)
Woman removed from flight for headscarf and mis-heard words March 17, 2011
Southwest Airlines is apologizing after a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf was pulled off a flight on Sunday because a flight attendant thought she heard her say into her cell phone: “It’s a go.”
Irum Abbasi, a San Jose University graduate student, was slated to fly at 8:15 a.m. from San Diego when she hurriedly finished a phone call to a Verizon representative by saying sharply, “I have to go,” Edgar Hopida, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tells AOL Travel News.
More here.
(Thanks, Jender-Parents.)
More Bad News From Keele March 17, 2011
They are also, apparently, planning to cut the Centre for Professional Ethics at Keele (PEAK), despite the fact that it is highly profitable. There’s more information on this here. Apparently the decisions to cut Philosophy and PEAK are not yet final.
PLEASE take a minute to write to:
Prof. Nick Foskett, VC: n.h.foskett@vco.keele.ac.uk ; you could cc: Prof. Rama Thirunamachandran, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost:, r.thirunamachandran@vco.keele.ac.uk, and Prof. David Shepherd, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences d.g.shepherd@humss.keele.ac.uk.
Exactly the wrong response to gang rape March 17, 2011
Dress codes! Wow. Does it get any more victim-blamey than that?? Hey, actually it does:
“There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gangraped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed like a 21-year-old prostitute,” Passidomo declared.
Where the hell does one even start with this? [Obscenities deleted]
(Thanks, Jender-parents!)
Save Philosophy at Keele March 17, 2011
Another philosophy department slated for closure. Absolutely outrageous. There’s a facebook group you can join (just search for “Save Philosophy at Keele”), and I’ll keep you posted on further developments.
Poll: What (if anything) has prevented you from accepting conference invitations? March 16, 2011
UPDATE: THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED. RESULTS TO BE POSTED SHORTLY.
Update: An apology to Bakka, with whom the poll suggestion originated– hard to keep track of it all sometimes!
In our discussions of all-male conferences, people frequently note the women they’ve invited decline invitations at a higher rate than the men do. Following up on a suggestion from Bakka, Ingrid and Catarina, we think it would be useful to investigate what sorts of constraints may be preventing women from accepting conference invitations. The options we’ve given here are based on our own experiences, those of other women we know, and some of the stories recounted at the What is it Like blog. Since we don’t know whether it’s actually true that women reject invitations at a high rate, we’ve also included an “I’ve never rejected an invitation” option. Next week, we’ll do a post with the results, reflecting on what they tell us about things conference organisers or the profession more generally could do to make women more able to accept invitations.
So….
If you are a woman with a job in philosophy can you take a minute to fill out this poll?
Workshop: Motivation and Global Justice March 16, 2011
Motivation and Global Justice Workshop
22-23 June 2011
University of YorkOn 22-23 June, the Political Philosophy group at the University of York will host a workshop on ‘Motivation and Global Justice’.
The aim of the workshop is to consider the persistent gap between the demands generated by our best theoretical accounts of global justice and the action in support of global justice that real world agents are motivated to take; and to advance normative research on global justice that is sensitive to, and informed by, empirical questions.
Confirmed speakers:
Carol Gould (CUNY) ‘Does Global Justice Presuppose Global Solidarity?’
Katrin Flikschuh (LSE) ‘Domesticating Global Justice: An African Perspective’
Graham Long (Newcastle) ‘Justifications for Sentimental Manipulation’
Lea Ypi (Oxford) ‘Activist Political Theory and Avant-Garde Agency’
Simon Hope (Stirling) ‘The Cosmopolitanism of Fear’
Kerri Woods (York) ‘Moral Motivation and Distant Others’
Sue Mendus (York) Title tbcThe workshop will close with a roundtable discussion, with participation from Paul Gready, director of the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York.
Interested parties are warmly invited to attend, but as places are limited, please register in advance by contacting Kerri Woods (kerri.woods [@] york.ac.uk). A registration fee of £25/£15 will be payable to cover catering costs. The workshop will begin at lunchtime on 22nd June, and close at approximately 6.15pm on the 23rd.
Cats yes, feminism no: recall notice March 14, 2011
I’d suppose that everyone knows about this, but I found out about it before Whole Foods did, though after I had stocked up there. So in case you don’t know:
The recall lots involved in this voluntary recall are: Wellness Canned Cat Food (all flavors and sizes) with best by dates from 14APR 13 through 30SEP13; Wellness Canned Cat Food Chicken & Herring (all sizes) with 10NOV13 or 17NOV13 best buy dates. A full listing of recalled lots can be found in the FDA recall bulletin at:
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm245108.htm
The problem is insufficient vitamin B and the results can be intestinal or neurological problems. Hard to tell with my cats, but still … .
Graduate programs: UPDATE on philosophy of race, diverse? March 14, 2011
A commenter asked recently what the progress is on compiling a parallel, to something like the women-friendly or feminist-supportive philosophy graduate programs, in philosophy of race or in high achievement in diversity. I punted the question with a professorial ‘efforts are proceeding’ sort of answer, but it is too good a question to leave in the comments.
A few programs that take diversity to be central missions and/or provide robust opportunities for concerted work on race leap to mind, and commenters are invited to direct readers’ attention to others. Please forbear from too much speculation if you really don’t know or have only third-hand impressions; bear in mind that prospective students genuinely want to know of the possibilities and your reasons for stating them. Suggestions would be great for either MA or PhD programs, but if you can, specify whether the program you mention is one or the other.
The program in which my department coworkers and I have often taken an interest is the MA / PhD program at University of Memphis, which has strengths in both concerted attention to diversity (in faculty and students), and scholarship, especially with the addition of Bill Lawson and the ongoing participation of philosophers such as Sarah Clark Miller.
Please feel free to add your own information about other programs in the comments. Inquiring minds appreciate the answers!
UPDATE: I contacted a few people to invite comment, and heard back happy news from the incomparable Linda Alcoff:
The Pluralist’s Guide to Philosophy list I have been working on for over 2 years will shortly be up. Everything is done, we are just waiting on our web design to finish. So look for it in a month — it will have lists on critical race philosophy, feminist philosophy, and more.
Thanks, Linda! I’ll post a new announcement when it comes out. Meanwhile, feel free to continue to contribute to students’ knowledge in comments, while we wait. And stay tuned!
Language and Mind, 60% female March 14, 2011
Wow. (Maybe there are women interested in these things, after all._
First PLM Conference
Every two years PLM will organize a conference in the philosophy of language and philosophy mind area. The first PLM conference will take place at Stockholm University, Stockholm, 16-18 September 2011. A selected number of speakers will be asked to contribute a paper in a following special issue of Synthèse.Keynote speakers will be:
* » Delia Fara, Princeton
* » Crispin Wright, NIP, Aberdeen (NIP) / NYU
* » Elisabeth Pacherie, Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris
* » Hannes Leitgeb, Munich
* » Genoveva Martí, ICREA and University of Barcelona
Query from a reader about teaching women authors March 14, 2011
I’m currently teaching a mid-level philosophy class where the syllabus has just switched from exclusively male authors to exclusively female in the last few weeks. (I did not plan this, it has just been an artifact of moving from historical to contemporary literature.)
Since this has happened, I swear that the women in the course who did speak up before are speaking up more, and women who had not previously spoken are speaking up for the first time.
My not terribly diligent Googling yielded no results about this, and I don’t feel that I can completely trust my sense that this is happening, so I thought this would be the place to ask if others have noticed this or have anecdotes or (better) data bearing on this question. Is there reason to think female students participate more when discussing female authors?
Cordelia Fine Podcast March 14, 2011
Listen here.
Cordelia Fine joins us from Melbourne, Australia to discuss her book: “Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences.” Sex discrimination is supposedly a distant memory, yet popular books, magazines and even scientific articles increasingly defend inequalities by citing immutable biological differences between the male and female brain. That’s the reason, we’re told, that there are so few women in science and engineering and so few men in the laundry room — different brains are just better suited to different things. Drawing on the latest research in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and social psychology, Fine sets out to rebut these claims, showing how old myths, dressed up in new scientific finery, are helping to perpetuate the sexist status quo.
(Thanks, Rob!)
Intuitions and Ideology March 13, 2011
Is it a common intuition among philosophers that human beings are naturally self-centered.? We don’t, such a story could go, actually give a damn about others’ survival, but for various reasons – largely for our own good – we need to act otherwise. My sense is that this is a wide-spread belief in the profession, and indeed when it surfaces, I end up feeling I should find another field, despite the empirical and transcental arguments I have heard for “the impossibility of altruism.” Are such intuitions, if they do exist, the product of rational reflection or do they more often mirror deeply popular ways of regarding ourselves? That is, are they more a matter of ideologies?
In any case, it now seems that such intuitions may well be quite wrong. There has already been interesting evidence that reciprocity is a deep seated need for the human psyche. And theorists such as Sarah Hrdy have argued that female groups formed to raise infants are not inherently selfish agents. But the NY Times reports empirical backing for an even more stunning idea. What distinguished human beings from chimps in the earliest stages of our split from them is the difference in cooperating with and learning from others:
Anthropologists studying living hunter-gatherers have radically revised their view of how early human societies were structured, a shift that yields new insights into how humans evolved away from apes.
Early human groups, according to the new view, would have been more cooperative and willing to learn from one another than the chimpanzees from which human ancestors split about five million years ago. The advantages of cooperation and social learning then propelled the incipient human groups along a different evolutionary path. … Group selection could possibly act at the level of the tribe, Dr. Hill said, meaning that tribes with highly cooperative members would prevail over those that were less cohesive, thus promoting genes for cooperation.
And what is part of all this? Pair bonding:
The finding corroborates an influential new view of early human origins advanced by Bernard Chapais, a primatologist at the University of Montreal, in his book “Primeval Kinship” (2008). Dr. Chapais showed how a simple development, the emergence of a pair bond between male and female, would have allowed people to recognize their relatives, something chimps can do only to a limited extent. When family members dispersed to other bands, they would be recognized and neighboring bands would cooperate instead of fighting to the death as chimp groups do.
I’m left wondering about philosophical intuitions. Is it right that many people have found “foundational selfishness” an intuitively attractive view? If so, does that tell us that books such as The Selfish Gene are just internalized? Are intuitions, despite many people’s claims for their source in reason, too often a reflection of wide-spread academic beliefs?
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