CFA: SWIP UK Feminism in/and Philosophy

Call for Abstracts

We welcome abstracts (of up to 500 words) for 30-minute presentations on the theme of feminism in/and philosophy. Please email your abstracts to oxfordswip2014 AT gmail.com by 30 November, 2013. Travel within the UK and accommodation will be covered for speakers.

Conference Announcement

“[W]hen you are a woman and a philosopher,” writes Michèle Le Doeuff in Hipparchia’s choice, “it is useful to be a feminist in order to understand what is happening to you”. Like many productive relationships, the relationship between feminism and philosophy has never been easy. Feminists and philosophers alike have claimed that between the two there can be no real dialogue. Radical feminists argue that the history of philosophy is the history of a patriarchal institution, the values of truth and reason no more than tools of subordination. Many philosophers meanwhile dismiss the very idea of ‘feminist philosophy’ as a category error: a conflation of a political project with an epistemic one.

And yet, we now have a rich tradition of feminist philosophy: a tradition that embraces orthodox philosophical values while drawing on the concerns and interests and methods of feminism. But just what is feminist philosophy, and how is it possible? What is it to be a feminist philosopher, beyond being both a philosopher and a feminist? What is it do philosophy as a feminist? And what is to practice feminism through philosophy? How are we to reconcile the demands of theory and practice, the goals of truth and emancipation, the perspectives of the universal and the particular?

This set of questions will be the starting point for the Feminism in/and Philosophy conference, at All Souls College, Oxford, 27-29 March 2014. Invited speakers are Michèle Le Doeuff, Rae Langton and Jennifer Saul.

For more information, go here.

Racial Segregation Continues

Some stunning maps here, via Wired.

Last year, a pair of researchers from Duke University published a report with a bold title: “The End of the Segregated Century.” U.S. cities, the authors concluded, were less segregated in 2012 than they had been at any point since 1910. But less segregated does not necessarily mean integrated–something this incredible map makes clear in vivd color.

I can’t recall if we’ve linked to these maps before, but as today was the 50th anniversary of King’s famous “I have a dream speech,” I thought it was appropriate to be reminded of his wise words regarding the urgency of justice and equality.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.