2017--2018
past work-in-progress sessions here
Friday, October 6, 3-5PM
Jennifer Rubin (UM, Psychology), Angell Hall 1164
#fragilemasculinity: The Role of Threatened Masculinity &
Anonymity in Men's Perpetration of Online Harassment
Abstract: Women navigate an unprecedented amount of gender-based harassment in online environments. The breadth of this aggression has received attention not only from academics, but in popular press, where it has been widely critiqued as unfortunate consequences of trolling culture. Largely absent from these conversations is the role of gender, and in particularmasculinity, in sustaining harassment in digital contexts. In this talk, I examine the connections between masculinity and sociotechnical affordances of computer-mediated communication in men's motivations to gender harass online. I propose that men's endorsement of online gender-based harassment is motivated by attempts to (re)affirm their masculinity following threats that question their manhood. Anonymity afforded by online communication can exacerbate these effects, since the impression of being anonymous makes it easier to engage in harassment. Technology therefore enables gender harassment to thrive, yet men's motivations to gender harass are grounded in performances of masculinity and maintenance of gender relations between (and among) women and men.
Friday, October 27, 3-5PM
Elena Ruíz (Michigan State, Philosophy), Angell Hall 1164
Pre-read workshop: "On the Politics of Coalition" (co-authored with Kristie Dotson)
Co-Sponsored by MAP
Abstract: In the wake of continued structural asymmetries between women of color and white feminisms, this essay revisits intersectional tensions in Catharine MacKinnon’s Toward a Feminist Theory of the State while exploring productive spaces of coalition. To explore such spaces, we reframe Toward a Feminist Theory of the State in terms of its epistemological project and highlight possible synchronicities with liberational features in women-of-color feminisms. This is done, in part, through an analysis of the philosophical role “method” plays in MacKinnon’s argument, and by reframing her critique of juridical neutrality and objectivity as epistemic harms. In the second section, we sketch out a provisional coalitional theory of liberation that builds on MacKinnon’s feminist epistemological insights and aligns them with decolonizing projects in women-of-color feminisms, suggesting new directions and conceptual revisions that are on the way to coalition.
Friday, November 3, 3-5PM
Daniel Fryer (Penn Philosophy/UM Law), Angell Hall 1171 (Tanner Library)
Pre-read workshop: "Repairing Reparative Justice"
Abstract: In this essay, I articulate a conception of reparative justice in the context of explaining why claims of reparations for black Americans may be valid. I begin discussing the relationship between reparative justice and distributive justice. I argue against views that portray reparations as merely distributive justice claims in disguise. Reparative justice is not dependent on, nor necessarily secondary to, distributive justice. Next, I address the potential for reparative claims to survive under changed circumstances, such as the passing of the original wrongdoer or the repeal of unjust laws. Following Jeremy Waldron, I acknowledge that changed circumstances could, and should, influence how we prioritize competing claims for justice. But I reject Waldron’s claim that enduring historical injustices are superseded by new concerns. I suggest that while historical injustices could be tolled—that is, temporarily suspended until a later time—it is incorrect to claim that they could be superseded. This, I argue, allows us to retain our belief about changed circumstances without accepting the conclusion that these historical claims are obliterated when society has more pressing needs. It also avoids counterintuitive conclusions that Waldron’s view welcomes. I conclude with some general remarks about reparative justice and the form reparations for black Americans could legitimately take going forward. A plausible philosophical basis for distinctly reparative interventions better assists us in dealing with many problems of racial injustice that have recently received increased political attention in our society.
Thursday, January 18, 11:30-1PM
Filipa Melo Lopes (Michigan, Philosophy), Angell Hall 1171 (Tanner Library)
“Perpetuating the Patriarchy: Misogyny and (Post-)Feminist Backlash.”
Abstract: How are patriarchal regimes perpetuated and reproduced? Kate Manne’s recent work on misogyny aims to provide an answer to this central question. According to her, misogyny is a property of social environments where women perceived as violating patriarchal norms are ‘kept down’ through hostile reactions coming from men, other women and social structures. In this paper, I argue that Manne’s approach is problematically incomplete. I do so by examining a recent puzzling social phenomenon which I call (post-)feminist backlash: the rise of women-led movements reinstating patriarchal practices in the name of feminism. I focus on the example of ‘raunch feminist’ CAKE parties and argue that their pro-patriarchal dimension cannot be adequately explained by misogyny. I propose instead a different story that emphasizes the continued centrality of gender distinctions in our social normative life, even as gendered social meanings become increasingly contested. This triggers a ‘meaning backlash’, a distinct reactionary impulse towards the reinstatement of patriarchy that rekindles vestigial misogyny. ‘Meaning backlash’ both complicates the answer to Manne’s main question – “why is misogyny still a thing?” – and suggests the need for a different kind of feminist political intervention.
Friday, January 19, 3-5PM
Kate Manne (Cornell, Philosophy), Angell Hall 3222
"Unforgiving Him: On Himpathy and History”
Co-Sponsored by MAP
Friday, April 13, 3-5PM
David Livingstone Smith (University of New England, Philosophy)
Angell Hall 1171 (Tanner Library)
"How dehumanization makes monsters"
Co-Sponsored by the Institute for the Humanities and English Language & Literature
Abstract: Nazis described Jews as vermin. White Americans described Black Americans as beasts. And today, the militant Buddhists of Myanmar characterize the Rohingya as subhuman animals. These are all examples of dehumanization, a phenomenon that often paves the way to mass atrocity. In my 2011 book Less Than Human I described dehumanization as the attitude of conceiving of others as less than human. However, some scholars have objected that this view is not consistent with the fact that dehumanizers often acknowledge the humanity of their victims, and have suggested that dehumanization, as I have described it, does not occur. In this talk I will explain why this concern should not lead one to reject the reality of dehumanization. Using two examples of spectacle lynchings—extremely gruesome lynchings of African Americans that were attended by hundreds or thousands of spectators—I will explain how this problem can be addressed in a way that leads to a deeper, more nuanced, and more disturbing account of what dehumanization is and how it works.
Thursday, April 19, 3-5PM
José Medina (Northwestern, Philosophy), AH 1171
"Taking Responsibility for Racial Violence"
Co-Sponsored by MAP
Abstract: Patterns of racial violence have a systemic social dimension that requires going beyond the individual responsibilities of perpetrators of such violence and demanding accountability and responsiveness from the communities and institutions within which those patterns unfold. This talk will analyze different kinds of complicity with racial violence and will defend a view of shared responsibility that goes beyond the bystander model. Working toward community responses that are both reparative and preventive, I argue for a kind of political mobilization and resistance against racial violence that I term epistemic activism, which consists in contestatory practices that disrupt complicity with damaging social imaginaries and with the distortions in social perception that hide patterns of racial violence and perpetuate the vulnerabilities of racial minorities. Epistemic activism will be discussed by analyzing photo activism and the activist practices of organizations such as the NAACP and of social movements such as Black Lives Matter.
