SWIP Art Meetings

Hello everyone,

Art and philosophy are often engaged in similar tasks: asking questions, seeking answers and exploring possibilities. At Essex, those working on art and philosophy are uniquely placed to inform each others' endeavours, and in this spirit, we would like to invite ideas from you on the possibility of holding some informal SWIP art discussion meetings. The goal of these meetings is very broad: to explore a variety of art forms as a means of thinking about feminism and/or philosophy.

Nothing is decided yet about the format of these meetings, so any suggestions are welcome: presentations of movies, plays, performances, paintings, works of literature, pieces of music (or just anything that is art from your point of view). Art has no limits, so feel free to make your presentation in any way you like.

Anyone interested in making a presentation, or with any ideas about these meetings more generally, just send me a quick email (ksiosy@essex.ac.uk) and we will discuss your suggestion together.

Thank you for your time.

Have a wonderful day,

Kristina Siosyte

Reading Group: Next term

Dear all,

 

Next term we will continue the Feminism and Philosophy Reading group, but with a slightly different approach.

 

We will be reading Michelle LeDoeuf's Hipparchia's Choice, an important and very influential text on women and philosophy. Hipparchia's Choice was written in 1989 and is not only a personal reflection by LeDoeuff on her experience as a female philosopher, but also a deeply interesting philosophical book with a particular focus on the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. It is a somewhat informal book in approach, as its structure consists of four 'notebooks', each concerning a different theme. The first notebook concerns Sartre and the exclusion of women from his discourse. The second is focused on Simone de Beauvoir and her book The Second Sex. The third notebook is a more general reflection on the exclusion of women in (the history) philosophy from the ancient Greeks onwards. The fourth notebook focuses on social justice and the women's movements of the 70's and 80's, and how women can find their voice in a patriarchical society.

 

In reading this book we will continue to think about whether feminism and philosophy are compatible. Hipparchia's Choice answers this question in the affirmative. As one reviewer writes, "The “freedom of thought” Le Dœuff refers to in the epilogue is fundamental to all her work. This freedom is to follow philosophical ideas wherever they lead, for women to engage in the intellectual work that interests them, and in general not to be limited by boundaries, prejudices, or exclusionary imaginaries against thought."

 

There are two copies of the book available at the library, but if you want to buy it we recommend the 2007 Columbia University Press edition (you can probably get it cheaply from abebooks.co.uk). If you cannot find this edition, the 1991 Blackwell edition is also fine, although it does not have the Epilogue and there might be a bit of confusion with the page numbers.

 

The preliminary time for the reading group will be Fridays from 3-4, room TBC. If you are very interested in joining the group but cannot make that time, please e-mail either rreits@essex.ac.uk or rworsd@essex.ac.uk, there is a good chance we will be able to change the time and date.

 

Anyone is welcome to join the reading group, whether you attended this past term or not. If you would like to keep informed about the reading group, please join the SWIP subscription list athttps://www.essex.ac.uk/contact/mailinglists/listinfo.aspx?list=swip . All future communication about the reading group will be done on that mailing list.

 

We hope to see you in the first week of term!

 

SWIP Social

Dear all,

 

We'd like to invite you to the first SWIP Social!

 

Please come along and celebrate the successful launch of our group this term, this Tuesday the 10th December, from 6-8pm in Top Bar. 

 

All philosophy students and staff are welcome to join us for informal drinks and a chat.

 

Hope to see you there,

 

University of Essex Society for Women in Philosophy Group

Reading Group November 29

Hi all,

Following the interesting discussions we had at the last meeting, the text for this week's meeting of the Feminism and Philosophy reading group will be another chapter by Haslanger, entitled Gender and Race: (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them To Be?

Hopefully this reading will give some shape to the abstract ideas we discussed from the last text. It is available online as a chapter of an ebook, through the library:
http://0-www.oxfordscholarship.com.serlib0.essex.ac.uk/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892631.001.0001/acprof-9780199892631

For those of you who weren't able to make the last meeting, it might be useful (if you have time of course) to have a quick skim of the Haslanger piece we read last time:http://www.mit.edu/~shaslang/papers/HaslangerFMNN.pdf

The meeting will be at the same time and place as always (4-5 pm, 5A.325). See you all on Friday!

Best,

Rosie on behalf of Uni of Essex SWIP.

Committee meeting

Hi all,

The next SWIP Committee Meeting will be today, Monday 18 November at 5pm in 5A.118.

We would like to invite anyone who is interested in the society to come along and join us for the meeting, as we are keen for as many people to get involved in the organisation and running of the society as possible. We have lots of possible events to think over and discuss, and the more input we have from people interested in the SWIP, the more ideas we will be able to bring to fruition. So whether or not you would like to take on a more permanent position in the running of the society, or if you would just like to come along to let us know what you think about what has been going on so far and what else you would like to see, please do come along an join us for the meeting.

We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible!

The University of Essex SWIP Group.

Reading Group November 11

Hi all,

The reading for the third meeting of the Feminism and Philosophy reading group is a piece by Sally Haslanger entitled "Feminism in Metaphysics: Negotiating the Natural". A pdf copy can be accessed at the following link: http://www.mit.edu/~shaslang/papers/HaslangerFMNN.pdf

Alternatively the text is in the Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy if you can get hold of a copy.

The meeting will be at the same date, time and place as before: Friday (11th), 4-5pm, 5A.325.

Best,

Rosie, on behalf of Uni of Essex SWIP

Reading Group

The first meeting for our Reading Group is this Friday, October 18 from 4-5 in room 5A.325. 

The theme for the reading group is "Is Feminism Compatible with Philosophy?" and our first reading 'Can the Other of Philosophy Speak?' by Judith Butler. This is chapter 11 in her book Undoing Gender, an electronic copy of this book is available on the library website.

We hope to see you all there!