Feminist Philosophy Graduate Programs
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Feminist philosophy is an emerging subfield of philosophy. As a field of study, it has recently been added to the specialties identified in the most commonly used source of information on ranking doctoral philosophy programs, the 2004-2006 Philosophical Gourmet Report edited by Brian Leiter (also known as the Leiter Report). Margaret Urban Walker (2005) is one of many philosophers to argue that the Gourmet Report has a problematic method of identifying graduate programs with strength in feminist philosophy.[1] The same philosopher has argued elsewhere that feminist philosophy enjoys an uneasy position in the profession of philosophy. [2] On the one hand, she says, women have arguably contributed to philosophy for millennia[3]; on the other hand, women apparently do not yet make up more than, by somewhat "optimistic" estimates, 25-30% of academically employed philosophers.[4] Although Women in philosophy and feminists in philosophy are not coextensive sets, the lack of deeper inroads made by either may be inferred to be connected.
Sources of information on graduate programs in philosophy that allow for or foster feminist training are increasing, and included in the list below.
Entries on specific university programs follow.[5] An outdated report on the Society of Women in Philosophy website contains similar information, and the APA Committee on the Status of Women has its own, similarly unranked listing in pdf format.
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[edit] Brief history of initial assembly of information
Specific entries are based on contributions originally authored by volunteers who responded to a call for information on the SWIP email list-serve. To comply with Wikipedia style, they have been edited into a more encyclopedic style, although individual impressions retain their authority. Graduate students in response to the initial call for information reported that the search for a feminist friendly philosophy program was done in much frustration, especially due to a lack of guiding publications, knowledgeable undergraduate faculty and (relatedly) sometimes a fairly conservative undergraduate department.
The initial SWIP report included the now somewhat outdated comment, “Feminist faculty in several graduate programs report knowing of no source of information on pro-feminist philosophy departments.” The compilation and publication of relevant information by the APA CSW and by individual feminist philosophers resulted in, among other things, robust discussion on the SWIP listserve about the merits, demerits and complexities inherent in counting a program as feminist friendly or supportive. Readers of this entry are advised to search the SWIP archives for such discussions.
Many students and faculty persistently report a lack of female graduate students, let alone feminist students, and a sense that for many programs, one feminist on faculty is entirely sufficient. At the same time, no respondent described any program as openly hostile to feminism, although several observed, in the words of one, "idiosyncratic" expressions of anti-feminist sentiment by individual faculty and graduate students. The predominant sense was that many departments may not be anti-feminist in principle, but are a long way from being pro-feminist in practice.
Last, prospective graduate students are urged to crosscheck the information above with other websites that provide more information about the strengths of each department. A feminist friendly program may sound attractive, but should not be presumed to offer strengths in all possible areas of interest. The schools’ own webpages, the personal webpages of their faculty, and the Leiter report are all indicative of the sorts of pursuits supported there, and prospective students should also consider emailing the department contacts and asking them directly about their offerings and strengths.
[edit] Informational sites and external links
1. The 2004-2006 Philosophical Gourmet Report released in November 2004 does have a list of twenty "feminist philosophy" programs here; scroll past the "breakdown of programs by specialties" to the "Areas Rated by the Advisory Board."
2. A list of the percentage of female faculty (tenured/tenure-track) at 96 doctoral programs, including every department on Leiter's "top-50", maintained by Julie Van Camp – who notes this is "a different matter, of course, from feminist philosophy, but worth looking at...Some departments have one notable feminist, but no others. Some department with a decent representation of women don't necessarily have many feminist philosophers." Her homepage includes a modest proposal on choosing female-friendly departments, reprinted from the APA Newsletter.
[edit] Individual institutions and philosophers
Institutions are listed in two groups. Group I lists programs which offer a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Group II lists programs which offer an M.A. in Philosophy or closely related field. In each group, at this time, institutions are listed alphabetically for ease of recordkeeping, and their order should not be taken to indicate some sort of rank or reputability. Note that these are informational entries volunteered by students or faculty at the program. Therefore, they are not exhaustive of all the possibilities, and not unbiased or perfectly informed. Assume that many of these departments do not explicitly support feminism as a philosophical enterprise, sub-discipline, or critical methodology, unless the notes suggest otherwise.
A * indicates an institution also listed on the APA CSW report. A ^ indicates an institution also listed on the Philosophical Gourmet site under "Breakdown of Programs by Specialty: Areas Rated by the Advisory Board: Feminist Philosophy.")
[edit] Group I: Ph.D.-granting programs
There are two separate programs at Binghamton University that grant graduate degrees in Philosophy. 1) The graduate program of the Philosophy department offers an M.A. and a Ph.D. and is a program in Social, Political, Ethical and Legal Philosophy (SPEL). Faculty doing feminist work include the chair of the department, Bat-Ami Bar On (feminist political philosophy, violence, Arendt), the director of graduate studies, Lisa Tessman (feminist ethics and social thought), and Melissa Zinkin (feminism in the history of philosophy, feminist theory). Other faculty members (Max Pensky, Steve Scalet) are familiar with and supportive of feminist work. Many graduate students study feminist philosophy and write dissertations on feminist topics. Students may also earn a graduate certificate in Feminist Theory alongside their degree in Philosophy. 2) There is also an autonomous, interdisciplinary program (separate from the Philosophy department) in Philosophy, Interpretation and Culture that is friendly to feminist work. See <http://pic.binghamton.edu/>. Faculty includes feminist philosophers such as Maria Lugones and Jeffner Allen. A prospective grad student looking for something that's also informative in studying African Philosophy suggested that PIC is of special interest, especially the work of Nkiru Nzegwu.
Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada *
Offers M.A. and PhD programs and is very receptive to feminist projects. Faculty members with explicitly feminist research interests include Francoise Baylis (bioethics), Sue Campbell (philosophy of the emotions, aesthetics, race), Trish Glazebrook (ecofeminism, Heidegger, phil of technology), Letitia Meynell (feminist epistemology, aesthetics, phil of science), and Susan Sherwin (feminist health ethics,ethics, social and political phil.), and recent emeritus Richmond Cambell (political philosophy, ethics, and naturalized feminist epistemology).
Feminist-friendly -- dept. has a strong emphasis in Continental, ethics -- and some history of phil; we currently have 5 women working in feminist areas (or overlapping areas): Patricia Huntington (cont'l phil., Irigaray), Jennifer Parks (fem ethics), Jackie Scott (Nietzsche& fem'ism, race theory) Heidi Malm (ethics), and me, Julie Ward (Ancient, Beauvoir). There are also fem friendly male colleagues like Dave Ingram (critical theory) and Dave Schweickart (pol. phil. Marxism).
McGill U.*
Notes: there are presently two philosophers on faculty who do research in or teach feminism: Marguerite Deslauriers (ancient philosophy, feminist political theory) and Alia Al-Saji (French feminism, feminist theory informed/informing race theory).
Notes: Strength in feminist philosophy. Four faculty members do feminist philosophy here: Lisa Schwartzman, work in political theory and related fields; Hilde Lindemann, editor of HYPATIA, work in ethics, medical ethics, other "applied" ethics; Marilyn Frye, language, ontology, radical feminism; Judy Andre, ethics, health care, value theory; Jim Nelson, bioethics, moral theory, family; and two more faculty members are women: Debra Nails (ancient) and Jennifer Susse (metaphysics and philosophy of mind), both feminists, though not doing feminist philosophy as such. Two people do race theory, and people in interdisciplinary work related to ecology, health care, biological sciences, food and agriculture, development. It's a very politically progressive department, with plenty of support for feminist philosophy.
Notes: Penelope Deutscher on faculty
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada (contributed by Christine Overall)
The Department has a large proportion of women. Out of about eighteen permanent, cross-appointed, and adjunct faculty members, eight are women. Second, a number are engaged in feminist philosophy. Others who do some feminist philosophy include Susan Babbitt, Christine Sypnowich, and Jackie Davies. The Department is very strong in ethics and political philosophy, and most members of the Department are open to and interested in feminist work.
Stanford University, Modern Thought and Literature program * ^
Notes: MTL is an interdisciplinary PhD program, but it has a strong relationship with philosophy. Described as extremely supportive of feminist graduate work. Faculty includes Debra Satz and Helen Longino.
SUNY Stony Brook * ^
Notes: Two feminist scholars have recently left (Linda Alcoff & Kelly Oliver). Eva Kittay and Mary Rawlinson are on faculty. Many of the male professors are both open to and knowledgeable of feminist philosophy, e.g. Eduardo Mendieta & Lorenzo Simpson; Lee Miller directed Susan Bordo's dissertation.
Two feminist philosophers are in the department, Linda Martín Alcoff, who focuses on feminist epistemology, continental philosophy and critical, race theory, and Ishani Maitra, a recent student of Sally Halslanger's who focuses on philosophy of language and also teaches philosophy of law. Also in the department is Michael Stocker, who has worked on philosophy of the emotions, and other philosophers who are feminist friendly.
Notes: Faculty include Cressida Heyes; more recently Karen Houle; until recently Margaret van de Pitte (retired); Janet Wesselius (visiting); and the (pro)feminist political philosopher David Kahane.
University of Connecticut -- Storrs * ^
Faculty members include Diana Tietjens Meyers, who specializes in ethics, feminist theory, and social and political philosophy, and Serena Parekh, who specializes in social and political philosophy, philosophy of human rights, continental philosophy, feminist theory and the history of philosophy, including Hannah Arendt's theory of human rights. The Women's Studies Program offers a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies, which philosophy PhD students can take to complete an outside field requirement.
University of Kentucky (contributed by Joan Callahan) *
UKY lists at least eight explicitly committed women-supportive feminist-supportive faculty.
University of Massachusetts-Amherst The faculty in Philosophy includes Louise Antony (starting in 2006), Ann Ferguson and Eileen O'Neill, whose research and teaching include feminist philosophy, and Lynne Rudder Baker, who is renowned for her support of women in the field. Robert Paul Wolff, who is now working on critical race theory, is chair of Afro-American Studies. The Women's Studies Department offers a Graduate Certificate in WS. There are many left- and feminist-friendly programs on campus, including, esp. the economics department (which is home to the Center for Popular Economics), the Department of Labor Studies (home to The Labor Center, which offers a Master of Science in Labor Studies), the department of Resource Economics, and the Department of Sociology.
Feminist-friendly department with many distinguished alums. Active feminist philosophy graduate student group. Feminist Studies (PhD-granting) graduate program offers graduate Minor: faculty includes philosopher Jacquelyn Zita. Feminist bioethicist Deb DeBruin in Bioethics Center (minor available there as well). Younger ethicists in Phil. Dept. (Sarah Holtman, Valerie Tiberius, and Michelle Mason) all feminist-knowledgeable and feminist-friendly. The University of Minnesota is one of the departments with the longest record of being supportive of feminist philosophy graduate students (alumnae include Nancy Potter, Peg O'Connor, Amy Hilden, Melissa Burchard, Heidi Grasswick, Anne Phibbs, and Lisa Bergin). Several students have done or are doing a graduate minor in Feminist Studies in the Women's Studies department, which is where Jacquelyn Zita is. All grad students have outside members of their dissertation committees and can work with her or with a large number of feminist faculty in a wide range of other departments. The graduate students in Philosophy are about half women; the current first year class is all women. Four out of six recent hires were women, three of whom work in ethics (Sarah Holtman: philosophy of law, political philosophy, and Kant; Michelle Mason: moral philosophy and moral psychology; and Valerie Tiberius: moral philosophy and environmental ethics); although none of them specializes in feminist ethics, all of them are sympathetic, interested, and happy to work with graduate students who do. Current graduate students have organized a new seminar (led by the current chair, Doug Lewis, who has been very active in working with feminist graduate students both as a dissertation supervisor and on projects of transformiing and revising the curriculum), at which a number of faculty will discuss the impact of feminism on their own fields (ethics, aesthetics, history of ancient and of modern philosophy, philosophy of science, philosophy of social science, and epistemology). Minnesota has a strong Center for Bioethics, with faculty who are members of the Philosophy Graduate faculty, notably Deb DeBruin, who does feminist bioethics, and Carl Elliott, whose work includes issues related to mind and body modification and who has worked with feminist philosophy graduate students interested in, for example, transexual and transgender issues.
At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, out of 46 graduate students, 24 are women. This year 3 of these received their Ph.D.s and all received tenure-track positions: one to Columbia, one to Michigan State, and one to Tulane with a joint appointment in Women's Studies. All three have taught and will likely teach feminism. Fall 2005 incoming class of 8 includes 5 women. Despite the fact that Carolina has only 4 women on the faculty of 18, our graduate students do very well. This is not to say everything is perfect. We do have a women's brunch once a term to discuss particular issues, and this seems to be a good forum.
Faculty include Bonnie Mann, Naomi Zack, Beata Stawarska, Scott Pratt, and John Lysaker. At the University of Oregon, feminist philosophy is recognized as a tradition on the level of the Continental, Analytic, and American traditions, even as we recognize that feminist philosophers work in and across other philosophical traditions. Our concentrations include feminist continental philosophy, social and political philosophy, ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of science. We have particular interests in philosophies of sexuality, and the intersections between feminist theory, race theory, and other liberatory theories. Faculty members are active in FEAST (Feminist Ethics and Social Theory), the IaPh (International Association of Women Philosophers), SWIP (the Society for Women in Philosophy), and SSWP (the Society for the Study of Women Philosophers), as well as the National Women's Studies Association. An active feminist research group, including graduate students and faculty members, meets regularly to read the work of feminist philosophers who are then invited to campus as guests of the research group to conduct seminars on their work and speak. The University has a very strong Women's Studies Program with more than 70 affiliated faculty. Graduate Students may complete a certificate in Women's Studies in addition to master's and doctoral degrees in philosophy. Students will find additional research and scholarship activities at the Center for the Study of Women in Society, a well-endowed, multidisciplinary research center devoted to scholarship on women and gender.
University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (contributed by Jennifer Saul)
The philosophy department is very supportive of work in feminist philosophy. Although only Jennifer Saul publishes on the subject, 6 other members of staff have either (a) been involved in supervising graduate work on feminism or (b) incorporated feminist philosophy into their courses. In 2005, the department hosted a conference on Gender, Objectification and The Body. There is a long-established feminist philosophy reading group, and interdisciplinary interests can be pursued in the Centre for Gender Studies in Europe and the Social Science Gender Research Network. There is also a Political Theory MA offered jointly with the politcs department (along with MAs, MPhils and PhDs in philosophy.) Finally, although the proportion of female graduate students varies year by year, most of the last 6 years it has been around 50% (out of roughly 50 students).
University of Western Ontario * ^
Notes: feminist department chair (Samantha Brennan) and a feminist philosopher as Dean (Kathleen Okruhlik). Other faculty include Tracy Isaacs (ethics, feminist ethics, collective responsibility), Carolyn McLeod (feminism, moral philosophy, and health care ethics), and Helen Fielding (feminism and phenomenology). We currently have graduate fields in moral, political, and legal philosophy as well as philosophy of science and history of philosophy. We are in the process of having graduate fields in philosophy of mind and language, and feminist philosophy recognized by the Ontario College of Graduate Studies. In the past few years we have been host to conferences of the Canadian Society for Women in Philosophy and the Society for Analytical Feminism. We also hosted an independent conference simply called Feminist Moral Philosophy.
Notes: Claudia Card on faculty, and the university and the city of Madison offer a sizeable feminist community.
The Philosophy Department includes Marilyn Friedman and Larry May in the philosophy department; May’s done work on masculinity, among other things relevant to feminist philosophy. Linda Nicholson, in the history department, is also Director of the Women's Studies Program, which offers a graduate certificate in Women's Studies.
Judy Pelham is chair of the Philosophy Department at York University and under her leadership the department is noticeably becoming a very collegial place to work and study. There is currently a large and active population of female graduate students.
[edit] Group II: Programs offering Master’s degrees in philosophy or related field
Philosophy has an MA program. There is a graduate certificate in Women's and Gender Studies starting in 06-07, but no MA in Women's and Gender Studies (though one can be constructed through a special interdisciplinary MA). The Philosophy Dept is feminist-friendly and LGBT-friendly; the faculty includes five women, all of whom are feminists: Talia Bettcher, Sharon Bishop, Jennifer Faust, Ann Garry, and Kayley Vernallis. Some of our six male colleagues are feminists, too. Theses on feminist or LBGT topics are welcomed. The campus is a highly multicultural, urban LA place.
Notes: feminist philosopher on faculty works with students creating an interdisciplinary Master's degree; feminists in Women's Studies program, philosophy, and religious studies and the student can design an interdisciplinary program. There is a great Women's Studies program there with lots of feminists teaching various disciplines (i.e., religious studies, sociology, gender studies).
Carleton University in Ottawa
Notes: A small and intensive program with lots of personal attention and a long history of successful female grads. As of 2007, out of the 11 full-time faculty members, 6 are women, four of whom have an AOS in feminst philosophy: Rebecca Kukla (reproductive ethics, feminist epistemology/philosophy of science) Christine Koggel (feminist political philosophy and ethics) Geraldine Finn (feminist continental philosophy)] Wendy Donner (feminist political philosophy and ethics) A few men in the department have substantial interests in feminist philosophy, and almost everyone is feminist-friendly.
The new MA in philosophy at George Mason University is well suited for students interested in studying feminist philosophy and examining gender issues in a female friendly philosophy department. The MA program has concentrations in ethics and in the history of philosophy and is also a feeder MA for GMU’s Ph.D. in Cultural Studies. The faculty includes: Debra Bergoffen whose areas of specialization are existentialism, phenomenology, psychoanalytic, and French feminist theory. She works on questions of the lived body and issues at the intersection of feminist theory epistemology, ethics and politics. Most recently she has focused on questions of gender and justice, especially with reference to human rights. Carol Gould who has written extensively in feminist philosophy, especially on its implications for democratic community as well as on the idea of embodied politics. Her recent work develops feminist understandings of care, empathy, and solidarity for global democracy and human rights. Rose Cherubin whose areas of research and teaching are ancient Greek philosophy, especially metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy and contemporary applications of ancient Greek thought. Her recent work examines the philosophical role of goddesses in Parmenides' poem, and the metaphysics of justice and gender in Aeschylus' Eumenides. The GMU MA program will also work closely with faculty across the university, e.g. in the Public and International Affairs department, with its offerings in feminist theory and women and politics, in the English department, in the Women’s Studies Program, and in the Conflict Resolution program, which offer a range of courses in feminist theory. GMU is a member of the Washington area consortium which gives students access to the libraries and courses of other universities in the D.C. area. For more information, please contact tkinnama@gmu.edu.
Tufts University The master's degree program in Philosophy at Tufts University, in metro Boston, specializes in preparing talented students who lack a solid background in the discipline for the most competitive Ph.D. programs. The Tufts program is especially interested in providing a way into professional philosophy for members of groups that are traditionally underrepresented in it and actively seeks to promote the advancement of women in the profession. Consistently ranked first among terminal MA programs by the Philosophical Gourmet Report, the Tufts program is best known for its strengths in the analytic tradition of philosophy. However, more than a third of its faculty teach texts by continental philosophers on a regular basis and concentrate in their teaching and writing on issues in ethics and social and political philosophy. The Director of Graduate Studies is Nancy Bauer, who specializes in feminist philosophy.
University of Windsor Program focus: Argumentation and Informal Logic, Social and Political Philosophy, and contemporary continental philosophy Feminist Faculty: Catherine Hundleby. Related Programs at Windsor: Interdisciplinary M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Justice]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Feminist philosophy is often coincident with continental philosophy. John Hartman, for one, attempts some ranking of continental philosophy programs, cross-checking with which may yield helpful results for prospective graduate students. The Society for Phenomenology & Existential Philosophy (SPEP) debates the methods and merits, if any, of ranking Continental programs and offers a nonranked list of such programs.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Margaret Urban Walker, "Waiter, There's a Fly in My Soup!: Reflections on the Philosophical Gourmet Report," Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Vol. 19.3 (2004) 235-239.
- ^ Walker, "Diotima's Ghost: The Uncertain Place of Feminist Philosophy in Professional Philosophy," Hypatia, Vol.20 (3), Summer 2005.
- ^ This has been eloquently argued by, among others, Mary Ellen Waithe. See her four-volume History of Women Philosophers in bibliography below. See also Hypatia's Daughters: Fifteen Hundred Years of Women Philosophers edited by Linda L. McAlister (Indiana University Press, 1996) and this partial list of female philosophers.
- ^ Walker (2005). See the more extensive discussion of the difficulties of determining the proportion in the Women in philosophy entry.
- ^ Corrections and amendations are necessary to an entry of this nature, and can be entered directly onto this page or discussed on the talk page for this report.
