Feminist Philosophy Graduate Programs
NOTE: What follows is an
incomplete, collectively assembled report. This is not an exhaustive report, and schools are listed in the
order in which their information was received; it should be taken as narrative
testimonial and not as scientific data.
Programs are listed because faculty and/or students within the program
suggested them; no program below was listed based on third-hand accounts of
reputation.
Edited by Kathryn J. Norlock - - please contact me with
updates and corrections, which I can continue collecting to add to a later
version of this list: kjnorlock@smcm.edu.
What
follows are, first, general information sources, second, individual
institutions that were either recommended overall by grad students and
professors, or recommended for housing feminist philosophers even if not
described as feminist-supportive, and third, a summary of comments on the state
of the situation for feminist women in graduate study.
Informational
sites:
1. The Leiter report released in November 2004 does have a list of
"feminist philosophy" programs:
http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/breakdown.htm#29
2. A list
of the percentage of female faculty (tenured/tenure-track) at 94 doctoral
programs, including every department on Leiter's
"top-50", maintained by Julie Van Camp – ("a
different matter, of course, from feminist philosophy, but worth looking
at" [--JVC]):
http://www.csulb.edu/%7Ejvancamp/doctoral_2004.html
(Some
departments have one notable feminist, but no others. Some department
with a decent representation of women don't necessarily have many
feminist philosophers.)
3. And future sources
cometh: From Lisa Tessman, “FEAST (The Association
for Feminist Ethics and Social Theory) is in the process of putting together
links from the FEAST website <www.afeast.org> to the departments of FEAST
members that offer graduate degrees and are feminist friendly.” And it’s
been noted on this listserve that the APA’s CSW is doing similar work.
Individual institutions and philosophers
[14 so far, 4 of which – SUNY Stony Brook, Stanford, Western Ontario and U. of
Minnesota -- overlap with the Leiter Report; 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]:
1. SUNY Stony Brook
Notes: described as
definitely feminist friendly. 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.
2.
Notes: Amazing strength
in feminist philosophy. Four faculty members do feminist philosophy here:
Lisa Schwartzman --- political theory sort of stuff
Hilde Lindemann
--- editor of HYPATIA; ethics, medical ethics, other
"applied" ethics
Me (M. Frye) --- language, ontology, radical feminism
Judy Andre --- ethics, health care, value theory
and two more faculty members are women: Debra Nails (ancient) and Jennifer Susse (metaphysics and philosophy of mind), and both are
feminists in their own selves, though not doing feminist philosophy as
such. We also have two people doing 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.
3.
Notes: feminist as
department chair (me[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.
4.
Notes: MTL is an
interdisciplinary PhD program, but it has a strong relationship with
philosophy. Described as extremely supportive of feminist
graduate work. Debra Satz and (soon)
Helen Longino on staff
5.
Notes: Offers a unique
autonomous interdisciplinary program, Philosophy, Interpretation, and Culture
(PIC), leading to MA and PhD degrees, independent of the Department of
Philosophy, though members of that department are members of the PIC faculty
and serve on student committees. Grad program in philosophy includes Social,
Political, Ethical and Legal Philosophy (SPEL) and several feminists on the
faculty of both, [Maria Lugones, Lisa Tessman, Jeffner Allen, Bat-Ami
Bar On, Melissa Zinkin] and
a few other faculty members who are reasonably supportive of feminist
philosophy. Many graduate students do feminist work in the department. MA
and PhD students can earn a Graduate Certificate in Feminist Theory (alongside
their degree in Philosophy) from the Women's Studies Program.
6.
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.
7.
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).
8.
Notes: Naomi Scheman on faculty; Helen Longino
going to Stanford
9. Northwestern U.
Notes: Penelope Deutscher on faculty
10.
Notes: Claudia Card on faculty,
and as it’s a large school, offers a decently sized feminist graduate school
community
11. Union Institute
Notes: a
low residency program (accredited Ohio Board of Regents) with many feminist
scholars helpful in designing an interdisciplinary program.
12.
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).
13.
Notes: Feminist-friendly and lgbt-friendly MA programs.
We have five women, all of whom are feminists: Sharon Bishop, Talia Bettcher, Jenny Faust, Kayley Vernallis and me.
Some of our six men are feminists, too.
14.
Notes: Faculty and grad
student research interests include (but are not limited to) feminist
psychoanalysis, Global feminisms, feminist
political philosophy, Second-wave feminism, feminist ethics of care, black
feminist theory, critical race theory, post-colonial theory, queer theory,
sexual difference and phenomenology, and feminist critiques of the canon. Those
who are not embedded in feminist discourse are nonetheless supportive of
feminist interpretations and projects. Twenty-two of our forty-eight grad students are women, and
eight faculty members are women. This means that women are not only doing
explicitly feminist scholarship, but are making their presence felt in all specializations,
including ancient and early modern philosophy.
Summary of Comments:
Graduate students in general report 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. Feminist faculty in several graduate programs report knowing of no source of information on pro-feminist philosophy departments.
Most professors and students agreed that it was best to start by identifying programs with at least one feminist faculty on staff, although all recognized this would not or did not yield a necessarily feminist-friendly department.
Many students and faculty still 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. This mitigates against communicative community. Having said that, no respondent ever 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.
Kathryn Norlock
Philosophy and Religious Studies
St. Mary's
kjnorlock@smcm.edu