Reading Group

Previous Semesters

Winter 2023

Jan 31. Ellie Anderson’s “A Phenomenological Approach to Sexual Consent.”
Feb 9. *Workshop with Kristie Dotson, Love Politic
Mar 7. The Combahee River Collective Statement; Jennifer Nash, "Re-Thinking Intersectionality."
Mar 21. Adi Goldiner, "Understanding 'Disability' as a Cluster of Disability Models"
Apr 4. Talia Mae Bettcher, "Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Re-Thinking Trans Oppression and Resistance"
Apr 18. Elizabeth Barnes, "Disability and Adaptive Preference"

Fall 2022

Sep 22. Myisha Cherry, "Love, Anger, and Racial Injustice,"
Oct 6. Julie Sze, "Gender and Environmental Justice"
Oct 20. *Jingli Zhou, "Unjustified Selective Adoption."
Nov 3. Janine Jones, "Disappearing Black People through Failures of White Empathy,"
Nov 18. *Workshop with BR George and Ray Briggs, "Gender Feels"
Dec 8. Jane Hill, "The Everyday Language of White Racism"

Winter 2022

Jan 20. Jane Hill, "Language in White Racism : An Overview" (Ch. 2 from The Everyday Language of White Racism) [via Zoom]
Feb 3. Andrea Long Chu, "On Liking Women", as well as a brief selection from Females [via Zoom]
Feb 17. Glen Sean Coulthard, "For the Land: The Dene Nation’s Struggle for Self-Determination" (Ch. 2 from Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition) [via Zoom]
Mar 10. Sukaina Hirji, "Oppressive Double Binds" [via Zoom]
Apr 7. Linda Radzik, "Practicing Social Punishment" (Ch. 3 from The Ethics of Social Punishment: The Enforcement of Morality in Everyday Life) [via Zoom]

Fall 2021

Sep 23. Amy Reed-Sandoval, "Socially, Not Legally, Undocumented" from Socially Undocumented: Identity and Immigration Justice [via Zoom]
Oct 7. Sara Ahmed, "Killing Joy: Feminism and the History of Happiness" [via Zoom]
Oct 21. Meeting cancelled due to Oct 22 speaker event.
Nov 4. Céline Leboeuf, "'What Are You?': Addressing Racial Ambiguity" [via Zoom]
Nov 18. Cedric Robinson, "Racial Capitalism: The Nonobjective Character of Capitalist Development" (ch. 1 of Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition). [via Zoom]
Dec 2. Manon Garcia, "Delights or Oppression: The Ambiguity of Submission" (ch. 8 of We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women's Lives). [via Zoom]

Winter 2021

Feb 3. Kristie Dotson, "Between Rocks and Hard Places: Introducing Black Feminist Professional Philosophy" [via Zoom]
Feb 17. Quill Kukla, "A Nonideal Theory of Sexual Consent" [via Zoom]
Mar 3. Rachel Elizabeth Fraser, "The Ethics of Metaphor" [via Zoom]
Further Mar/Apr reading groups cancelled due to multiple speaker events

Fall 2020

Oct 1. Frank B. Wilderson III, Afropessimism, Chs. 1-2 [via Zoom]
Oct 15. Andrea Dworkin, "The Promise of the Ultra-Right" (Ch. 1 of Right-Wing Women) [via Zoom]
Oct 29. Saidiya V. Hartman, "Seduction and the Ruses of Power" (Ch. 3 of Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America) [via Zoom]
Nov 12. Margaret Olivia Little, "Suspect Norms of Appearance and the Ethics of Complicity" [via Zoom]
Dec 10. Renée Jorgensen Bolinger, "The Language of Mental Illness" [via Zoom]

Winter 2020

Jan 21. Briana Toole, “From Standpoint Epistemology to Epistemic Oppression”
Feb 4. Ania Loomba, "Racism in India"
Feb 18. Gayle Rubin, "The Traffic in Women - Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex"
March 10. Robin Zheng (ms) - pre-read workshop
March 24. Hilkje Charlotte Hänel, "Ameliorating the Concept of Race" (Ch.5 of What is Rape?) [via Zoom]
April 7. Lorella Terzi, "The Social Model of Disability: A Philosophical Critique" [via Zoom]

Fall 2019

M Sep 23, 4-5, AH 4211. Angelo N. Ancheta, "Neither Black Nor White" from Asian American Studies Now: A Critical Reader
W Oct 9, 3-4, AH 1164. Robin Dembroff, "Beyond Binary: Genderqueer as Critical Gender Kind"
M Oct 21, 4-5, AH 4211. Debra Satz, "Markets in Women's Sexual Labor"
W Nov 6, 3-4, AH 1164. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, "Feminist Disability Studies"

M Nov 18, 4-5, AH 4211. Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner and Kyle Whyte, "Theorizing Indigeneity, Gender, and Settler Colonialism"
W Dec 4, 3-4, AH 1164. Silvia Federici, "On Elder Care Work and the Limits of Marxism" in Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle

Winter 2019

Jan 23. Heath Fogg Davis, "Introduction" to Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter?
Feb 18. Heath Fogg Davis, "Seeing Sex in the Body: Sex-Segregated Sports" (ch. 4 of Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter?)
March 11. Alex Guerrero, "The Epistemology of Consent"
Wed, March 27 4-6PM. Work-In-Progress Session with Mercy Corredor, "Policing Unintentional Slights: Bad Sex and Moral Disapproval"
- Admissions Fair event.

Fall 2018

Sept 17. Catharine MacKinnon, "Rape Redefined" (from Butterfly Politics) and "Rape: On Consent & Coercion" (ch.9 of Toward a Feminist Theory of the State)
- Optional: MacKinnon, "A Sex Equality Approach to Sexual Assault"
Oct 1. Derrick Darby, "Du Bois's Defense of Democracy" (draft)
- Optional: W.E.B. Du Bois, "Of the Ruling of Men" (ch. 6 of Darkwater)
Oct 18. Rebecca Kukla, "Performative Force, Convention, and Discursive Injustice"
- Thurs, Oct 18, 11:30-1PM in AH 1171 (note day, time, & location change)
Oct 29. Tommy Curry, "Introduction" to The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood
Nov 12. José Esteban Muñoz, "Introduction: Performing Disidentifications" to Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics
- Optional: ch.7, "Performing Disidentity: Performing Disidentification as a Practice of Freedom"
Nov 26. Rae Langton, "Duty & Desolation"

Winter 2018

Jan. 24. J. Medina (2013) - “Color Blindness, Meta-Ignorance, and the Racial Imagination.”
Jan 31. M. Lugones (2006) - "On Complex Communication"
Feb 14. Jane Anne Gordon (2018) - “Unmasking the Big Bluff of Legitimate Governance and So-Called Independence: Creolizing Rousseau through the Reflections of Anna Julia Cooper”
March 7. Nausica Palazzo, "How Conservatives’ Animus Toward Same-Sex Couples Has ‘Queered’ Family Law" (Work-In-Progress presentation; details here)
March 14. Panel Discussion of "Cat Person" with the author, Kristen Roupenian. Comments by Filipa Melo Lopes (Philosophy), Meena Krishnamurthy (Philosophy), and Sara Chadwick (Psychology/Women's Studies).
March 21. Iris Young - "From Guilt to Solidarity"
April 4. Guillermo Del Pinal - "Conceptual Centrality and the Stability of Social Biases" (Work-In-Progress presentation; details here)

Fall 2017

Sept. 11. K. Manne (2017) - "Threatening Women" (ch. 1 of Down Girl)
Sept. 25. S. Federici - "On Sexuality as Work" (1975) and "Introduction" to Caliban and the Witch (1998)
- Optional: "The Wages for Housework Campaign and ‘Women’s Work’ Under Capitalism"
Oct. 2. J. Schaffer (2016) - "Social construction as grounding; or: fundamentality for feminists, a reply to Barnes and Mikkola"
- Joint meeting with the Contemporary Metaphysics Reading Group
Oct. 9. E. Díaz-León* (ms) - "Social Construction, Grounding, and Amelioration"
- Díaz-León will Skype in.
Oct 23. C. MacKinnon (1989) - "The Liberal State" (ch. 8 of Toward a Feminist Theory of the State)
Oct 29. E. Ruíz* & K. Dotson (2017) - "On the Politics of Coalition"
- Pre-read workshop with Ruíz. More details here.
Nov 3. D. Fryer* (ms) - "Repairing Reparative Injustice"
- Pre-read workshop with Fryer. More details here.
Nov 20. P. Taylor (2016) - "Beauty to Set the World Right: The Politics of Black Aesthetics" (ch. 3 of Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics)
Dec 4. K. Manne (2017) - Ameliorating Misogyny (Ch. 2 of Down Girl)

Winter 2017

N. Bauer (2015) - “What Philosophy Can’t Teach Us About Sexual Objectification” (ch. 3 of How to do Things with Pornography)
- Side Reading Group: Bauer, ch’s 1, 2, 4
L. Zerilli (2009) - “Toward a Feminist Theory of Judgment”
S. Efstathiou (2012) - “How Ordinary Race Concepts Get to Be Usable in Biomedical Science: An Account of Founded Race Concepts”
M. Mikkola* (forthcoming) - “Subordination: Causal and Constitutive”
M. Mikkola* (forthcoming) - “Free, Restricted, and Prohibited Speech” (ch’s 2 and 4 respectively of her forthcoming book on pornography)
L. Alcoff (2007) - “Epistemologies of Ignorance: Three Types”
L. Alcoff (2005) - “Latino v. Hispanic: the politics of ethnic names” and Gracia’s response in “A political argument in favor of ethnic names”
M. Krishnamurthy* (2017) - "Race Talk, Justice, and Self-Respect: A Brief Analysis of Rachel Dolezal"

Fall 2016

M. Fricker (2016) - "Epistemic Injustice & the Preservation of Ignorance"
K. Manne (2016) - "Humanism: A Critique"
A. Srinivasan (ms) - "Does Feminist Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?"
L. Anderson (2015) - "Racist Humor"
B. Boxill (1976) - "Self-Respect & Protest"
M. Krishnamurthy* (ms) - "White Moral Blindness and the Importance of Experiencing Racism"