2018--2019
Friday, November 2, 3-5PM
James Hammond (UM, English & Education), Angell Hall 3222
Sex, Writing, and Population Control: Horace Mann and the Biopower of Co-Education, 1853-1859
Abstract:
Is education an engine of progress or a source of inequality?
Public education is often imagined as an important space for promoting social improvement and popular welfare—so important, in fact, it is sometimes declared a human right. Increases in educational access and opportunity are, by this logic, often positioned as means of reducing harmful social inequalities along the axes of race, gender, and class. Returning to the archives of American education history, however, we find that this master narrative about the promise of public education has troubling, eugenic origins. In this talk, we explore one historical case that helps us better understand how education can both promote progress and inequality: The 19th-century education reform efforts of Horace Mann, arguably the figure most responsible for popularizing the idea of public education.
Though often overlooked by historians, Mann premised his support for schooling on the eugenic notion that classroom instruction and assessment could physiologically rewrite the masses being schooled—promoting racial hygiene and eradicating disability. Education reform was, as he imagined it, a strategy of biopower. Mann was also an early and vocal advocate of co-education on college campuses—but, curiously, only because he believed that shared educational spaces would improve sexual selection, promoting racial progress in the process. For present day educators, Mann’s 19th-century experiments with assessment provide a trenchant reminder that social justice initiatives can cohabit with, even spring from, dangerous social assumptions and logics.
Friday, November 16, 3-5PM
Sara Chadwick (UM, Women's Studies &Psychology), Angell Hall 1171
When Orgasms Do Not Equal Pleasure: Accounts of Bad Orgasm Experiences During Consensual Sexual Encounters
Abstract:
Orgasm is considered by many to be the most satisfying aspect of sex. Accordingly, orgasms are generally assumed to be wholly positive experiences; and thus, sex with orgasm is assumed to be always necessarily positive or pleasurable. But, are orgasms always experienced in unilaterally positive ways? The evidence that women and men can orgasm while being sexually assaulted suggests that the answer is no; orgasm can result from physical stimulation even during resistance and absence of arousal. Despite this, research has yet to explore the frequency of orgasms in non-positive consensual sexual encounters and whether orgasms themselves can be non-positive, or even negative. This calls to question: 1) Do individuals experience orgasm in non-positive consensual sexual encounters and how do individuals characterize these experiences? 2) Can orgasms themselves be non-positive or negative?
In this talk, I will discuss findings from my dissertation project, which suggested that orgasm during non-positive and/or negative consensual sexual encounters may be a common phenomenon despite notions that orgasm equates that a sexual encounter was positive and pleasurable. I will discuss how participants characterized their bad orgasm experiences, how social location can create stressful expectations for orgasm, and how participants comments complicated notions of orgasm as inherently pleasurable.
Friday, January 18, 2-3:30PM (via videoconference)
Heath Fogg Davis (Temple University, Political Science), Angell Hall 1171
Is it Time to Consider All-Gender Prisons?
Book Abstract:
Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter? (NYU Press, 2017) provides practical strategies to help organizations of all kinds and sizes design and implement gender policies that are both trans-inclusive and institutionally smart. In this book I question the usefulness of dividing the world into not just male and female categories but even additional categories of transgender and gender fluid. I draw from legal cases, policy debates, and my own experiences as a biracial (African American and white) transgender man, to explore the underlying policies and customs in American life that have led to transgender bathroom bills, college admissions controversies, and more. I argue that it’s necessary for our society to take real steps to challenge the assumption that gender matters.
I examine four areas where we ought to re-think our sex-classification systems:
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sex-marked identity documents such as birth certificates, driver’s licenses and passports
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sex-segregated public restrooms
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single-sex colleges
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and sex-segregated sports
Monday, February 25, 6:15-8:15PM
Elli Neufeld (USC, Philosophy), Angell Hall 1171 (Tanner)
An Essentialist Theory of the Meaning of Slurs
Cosponsored by MMP & MAP
Abstract:
In this paper, I develop an essentialist model of the semantics of slurs. I defend the view that slurs are a species of kind terms: slur concepts encode mini-theories which represent an essence-like element that is causally connected to a set of negatively-valenced stereotypical features of a social group. The truth-conditional contribution of slur nouns can then be captured by the following schema: For a given slur S of a social group G and a person P, S is true of P iff P bears the ‘essence’ of G – whatever this essence is – which is causally responsible for stereotypical negative features associated with G and predicted of P. Since there is no essence that is causally responsible for stereotypical negative features of a social group, slurs have null-extension, and consequently, many sentences containing them are either meaningless or false. After giving a detailed outline of my theory, I show that it receives strong linguistic support. In particular, it can account for a wide range of linguistic cases that are regarded as challenging, central data for any theory of slurs. Finally, I show that my theory also receives convergent support from cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics.
Monday, April 15 2:30-4PM (Tanner Library)
Commentary Panel on the Ethics and Politics of Re-Entering the Public Sphere After Sexual Misconduct
Panelists: Sara Chadwick (UM Psychology & Women's Studies),
Mercy Corredor (UM Philosophy), &
Valerie Kutchko (UM Psychology & Women's Studies)
Abstract:
Recent social and political developments, such as the #MeToo movement, have led to an increased awareness, and broadening definition, of sexual misconduct. This, in turn, has come with an increasing public acknowledgement of the pervasiveness of phenomena such as sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sexual pressure. However, the steps that should follow this acknowledgement are not always clear and have become a site of fierce debate, especially in cases that fall outside of the purview of the pre-existing legal and institutional infrastructure. These debates often center on prominent public figures who have been called out for different forms of misconduct, including Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, Al Franken, and many others. However, these debates also have broader implications for those outside the public eye, especially given the pervasiveness of these phenomena. Should these individuals face sanctions? If so, under what conditions and procedures? How should the public at large respond when these individuals re-enter the public sphere? How should individuals accused or confirmed to have engaged in wrongdoing be treated and re-integrated into public life? We aim to explore these questions, among others, in a panel discussion on the ethics and politics of re-entering the public sphere after misconduct.
Format:
Each panelist will have 10-15 minutes each to deliver remarks on this topic, broadly construed. We will then hold a ~45 minute discussion with the panelists.
Friday, April 19, 3-5PM
Chike Jeffers (Dalhousie University, Philosophy), Angell Hall 1171 (Tanner)
Race as Political and Cultural: Du Bois' Dusk of Dawn
poster
Abstract:
In recent work, I have argued that, when thinking about race as a social construction, it is important to distinguish between political constructionism, according to which differential relations of power are what is fundamental to the social construction of race, and cultural constructionism, according to which socialization into distinct identities and ways of life is what is fundamental. In this paper, I will argue that we find in W.E.B. Du Bois' 1940 book, Dusk of Dawn, the fascinating drama of one of history's greatest theorists of race experiencing and displaying the pull of both types of social constructionism. Focusing especially on the sixth and then the fifth chapters, I will argue that this pulling in different directions is, on the one hand, meant to lead us to confront the complexity and mysteriousness of race but also, on the other hand, ultimately able to suggest to us the path toward properly balancing political and cultural dimensions in our theorization of race.
