Registration Open: Bias in Context (#4): Psychological and Structural Explanations of Injustice

Registration is now open for Bias in Context (#4): Psychological and Structural Explanations of Injustice

October 26 – 27 2017, University of Utah, Salt Lake City

Confirmed speakers:

Ásta (Sveinsdóttir)
Glenn Bracey
Jacqueline Chen
Clifton Granby
Adam Hosein
Theresa Lopez & Bryan Chambliss
Meena Krishnamurthy
Kate Manne
Jennifer Mueller

Confirmed poster presenters:

Saray Ayala-Lopez
Rima Basu
César Cabezas
Gabbrielle Johnson
Annette Martin
Katherine Tullman
Nadya Vasilyeva
Jennifer White & Alex Madva

Organized by Erin Beeghly & Jules Holroyd

What is the relationship between psychological and structural explanations of persistent social injustice?

This conference—the final in a series of four (see here and here for earlier events) —considers recent empirical and philosophical work that frames social injustice in terms of individualistic psychological explanations.  Such explanations appeal to phenomena such as prejudice, implicit bias, stereotyping, and stereotype threat, in order to understand persisting inequities in a broad range of contexts, including educational, corporate, medical, and informal social contexts.

A key challenge to these explanations, and to the discourses that incorporate them, maintains that the focus on individual psychology is at best obfuscatory of, and at worst totally irrelevant to, more fundamental causes of injustice, which are institutional and structural. Yet structural explanations face difficulties accommodating the extent to which individual agency is implicated in those problematic structures or institutions. Nor are they well placed to articulate how individual agency might be directed towards changing these structures.

This conference will generate more fully worked-out understandings of the interaction between these two kinds of explanations.  It will also investigate the normative and practical implications of one’s explanatory mode on attempts to address bias via institutional policy, interpersonal intervention, and collective action.

To register and to see specifics of program, as well as to get details about accessibility, go to: http://biasincontext4.weebly.com/programme.html. Deadline for registration is September 24th.

This event is sponsored by the University of Utah’s College of Humanities & the Philosophy Department.

Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon TODAY (Oct. 8th, 1:30PM PST onward)

Today from 1:30PM PST onwards, there will be a Wikipedia edit-a-thon to improve the coverage of underrepresented philosophers and philosophy (see our earlier posts about the editathon here and here), in honor of Kevin Gorman, whose passionate work on behalf of women in philosophy we highlighted in an earlier post (see also here). The editathon will be in the San Diego Central Library as part of Wikiconference North America, but you may also join us remotely from wherever you are.  If you’d like to join remotely, please send me an email (alexmadva@gmail.com).  (If I don’t get back to you right away, that will probably be because I’m on my way to the event — I’ll definitely get back to you well before it begins!)

We will have Wikipedia-savvy folks on hand to help newbies learn how to edit, but if you are intimidated by the prospects of editing, you can also just email me stuff, e.g., in a Word doc, to hand off to the seasoned editors.  At this point we have a lot of the basic background information about a lot of folks.  Going forward we’ll probably most need external references, for example, discussions of people’s work, awards, or service which appear outside of their personal and faculty webpages, such as a book review that emphasizes the contributions they’ve made, or a short news article mentioning an honor.  If you’re not sure whether something is useful or relevant, please err on the side of sending it my way rather than withholding it!

See our earlier post for working lists of folks about whom we’ll try to write pages (see also here).  (Thanks again to everyone for your suggestions!  I’m sure there are still tons of names being left out, of course, so keep those suggestions coming.)

Updates on Wikipedia Edit-a-thon for Underrepresented Philosophers

This Saturday (10/8) from 1:30PM PST onward, we’ll be hosting a Wikipedia edit-a-thon to improve the coverage of underrepresented philosophers and philosophy, in honor of Kevin Gorman.  (See our earlier post here.)  The editathon will be in the San Diego Central Library as part of Wikiconference North America, but you may also join us remotely from wherever you are, or send me (alexmadva@gmail.com) content, references, or ideas in advance.  We will have Wikipedia-savvy folks on hand to help newbies learn how to edit, but if you are intimidated by the prospects of editing, you can also just email me stuff, e.g., in a Word doc, to hand off to the seasoned editors.  Below is a working list of folks about whom we’ll try to write pages (see also here).  (Thanks to everyone for your suggestions!  I’m sure there are still tons of names being left out, of course, so keep those suggestions coming.)  In the next day or two, I will also post a list of content pages that we’d like to improve or create.

This is a classic scenario in which a lot of people doing a little bit will go a long way.  So, for example, if you know of any awards that one of these people has won, or if you know of an article (perhaps an article you’ve written!) that references one of these people as being influential (e.g., by explaining how a person has made a significant contribution to a debate), please let me know.  Also feel free to post more suggestions, etc., here.

• Kathryn Pine Addelson of Smith College
• Sybol Cook Anderson
• Susan Babbitt
• Bat-Ami Bar on
• Dorit Bar-on
• Elizabeth Barnes
• Margaret Batton
• Elizabeth Lane Beardsleyof Temple U
• Karen Bennett
• Samantha Brennan
• Rachael Briggs
• Sarah Broadie
• Sarah Buss
• Helen Cartwright
• Leigh Cauman of Columbia University
• Tina Chanter
• Gertrude Ezorsky
• Elizabeth Flowers of U of Penn
• Hide Ishiguro
• Ann Jaap Jacobson
• Agnieszka Jaworska
• Karen Jones
• Rebecca Kukla
• Maggie Little
• Kate Lindemann
• Sabina Lovibond
• Mary Beth Mader
• Linda López McAlister of U of South Florida
• Susan Sauve Meyer
• Sarah Moss
• Mary Beth Mader
• Susan Sauve Meyer
• Sarah Moss
• Jennifer Nagel
• Catarina Dutilh Noaves
• Dorothea Olkowski
• Phyllis Belle Parun
• Diana Raffman
• Deborah Satz
• Susan Sherwin
• Sharon Street
• Connie Rosati
• Carol Rovane
• Nancy Tuana
• Moira Gatens
• Catriona Mackenzie
• Jeanette Kennett
• Rachael Briggs
• Katherine Hawley
• Janice Dowell
• Rosemarie Tong
• Jean Grimshaw
• Janice Moulton
• Leslie McCall
• Rita Manning
• Ellen Feder
• Alison Watson
• Nadine Puechguirbal
• Mary Ann Weathers
• Patricia Bell Scott
• Cellestine Ware
• Alma M. Garcia
• Michelle Habell-Pallan
• Ziba Mir Hosseynni
• Oumayma Abu Bakr
• Irene d’Almeida
• Carole Boyce-Davies
• Anne Adams
• Talia Mae Bettcher
• Esa Diaz-Leon
• Kristie Dotson
• Ishani Maitra
• Helena de Preester
• Mari Mikkola
• Helen de Cruz
• Margaret (Peggy) Battin
• Leslie P. Francis
• Catharine MacKinnon improve
• Suzanne Pharr expand from stub
• Jane English improve
• Luce Irigaray improve

• Manuel Vargas
• Eduardo Mendieta
• José Medina
• Lucius Outlaw
• Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò
• Dwayne Tunstall
• Neil Roberts
• Tommy J. Curry
• Robert E. Birt

 

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon for Underrepresented Philosophers & Philosophy, in Honor of Kevin Gorman (Oct 8th)

On October 8th 2016, from 1:30PM PST onward, in the San Diego Central Public Library, Wikipedia will host an edit-a-thon in honor of Kevin Gorman, whose passionate work on behalf of women in philosophy we highlighted in an earlier post (see also here).  The editathon will be part of this year’s WikiConference North America.  I will be coordinating the editathon with seasoned editor, Julie Farman.

This is a call for crowd-sourcing in advance of the editathon.  What the Wikipedians most need from us: guidance about which pages are still missing, and content and references to fill those missing pages.  Kevin began compiling a list of missing notable women philosophers, and a current list-in-progress is here.  This is part of the “Women in Red” project (so-called because links to nowhere in Wikipedia are in red font.  You can also see a list of the many pages on women philosophers that Kevin had already created toward the bottom of this link.)

For starters, you can post suggestions for pages to add on Wikipedia, about underrepresented philosophers and philosophy in the comments below.  Also please feel free to email me (alexmadva@gmail.com) with comments, questions, suggestions, etc.  We will also eventually need help with content and references.  In particular, to pass Wikipedia’s “notability” guidelines, we will need reliable, verifiable references to back up what we post.

The gaps on Wikipedia remain vast, and they will not be hard to find, but here are my preliminary thoughts about concrete strategies to identify gaps:

1. Compile a list of existing or planned pages on, e.g., the SEP and the IEP, related to, e.g., feminist philosophy, and then check to see if corresponding pages exist on Wikipedia.
2. For every page that is already up on notable woman philosophers, see if the Wikipedia page on the subject she works on has a link to her and/or reference to her work.  There’s surely a lot of room for better cross-referencing within Wikipedia.  (The established Wikipedia editors will be especially well-poised to contribute here.)
3. Check the existing pages on underrepresented topics and people to see if they are accurate, substantive, etc.
4. More generally, people should just look up the topics they themselves work on (or are currently interested in or are simply curious to learn more about!) and see what’s missing, where there’s room for improvement, etc.

For those who can attend the editathon in person, you can join us for lunch at 12PM PST if you register for $10 that day, or you can come at 1:30pm with free registration.