God, Religion, but not women: Update

Update:  Email addresses have been removed at Dr. Nagasawa’s request.

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Do any women do philosophy of religion?  Of course.  And one thing we know of them:  none is  an invited participant at the conference described below.  What’s wrong with that?  Well, at least three things (readers are warmly invited to add to the list or to correct  my entries):

1.  Such conferences perpetuate epistemic injustice by leaving out the women’s voices in the field.

2.  They create cadres of privilege; without access to one such event, women suffer the sort of small disadvantage that adds up  significantly damaged professionally over time, as V. Valian has argued..

3.  They send a very bad message to women students and university administrators at a time when philosophy is becoming marginalized.

 

The Concept of God and the Cognitive Science of Religion Conference

The University of Birmingham, UK

Sunday 14^th – Tuesday 16^th June 2009

 

Sponsored by the Cognition, Religion and Theology Project at the University of Oxford, funded by the John Templeton Foundation

 Invited speakers: Richard Swinburne (Oxford), Graham Oppy (Monash), T. J. Mawson (Oxford), David Leech (Oxford), Graham Wood (Tasmania), David Efird (York), Klaas Kraay (Ryerson), Robin Le Poidevin (Leeds) 

Please visit the conference website for registration details: http://www.philosophy.bham.ac.uk/events/cogsci.shtml or contact Yujin Nagasawa (Y.Nagasawa@bham.ac.uk)  —

Dr. Yujin Nagasawa

 Department of Philosophy/University of Birmingham/Edgbaston, Birmingham/B15 2T/United Kingdom

http://www.philosophy.bham.ac.uk/staff/nagasawa.shtml

Careers outside academic philosophy

Reader Bakka has contacted us with this question, which I’m sure is becoming increasingly widespread in the current academic job climate.

I have a question for the feminist philosophers. I am finishing up my PhD in philosophy, specializing in feminist ethics and health care ethics. Throughout my studies I was pretty sure I wanted to continue on the academic path and try to land a tenure-tack job. During the course of writing my dissertation, however, I have become unsure that I want to continue down this path. Further, I think many of my colleagues are in a similar position. For some this is in part because the job market does not look very good for those of us about to graduate.

I noticed that in your description of yourselves in the “our policies” section you list that some of you are philosophers who are working outside the academy. I was wondering if anyone would want to share what kinds of careers they have pursued beyond the academy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing non-academic careers?

I know many of our readers are also working outside academia. It would be great to hear from you in response to this question!

Some Data on Women in Philosophy

Sally Haslanger has posted some data on women in philosophy at the Leiter “Top 20” departments here.

Feminist Theory Jokes?

A post on FEAST-L by a distinguished feminist philosopher (giving a graduation speech) has asked for feminist theory jokes, and I don’t know any. Do you?