Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Feminist philosopher to present Distinguished Scholar Lecture
 Nancy Tuana, director of the Rock Ethics Institute and Dupont Class of 1949 professor of philosophy and women’s studies at The Pennsylvania State University, will deliver the College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Scholar Lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 16, in Carter Hall in the University Center. The lecture is free and open to the public.In “The Women's Health Movement and Epistemologies of Ignorance,” Tuana argues through the example of the women’s health movement that “epistemologies of ignorance” are a crucial addition to traditional theories of knowledge. Epistemologies of ignorance are processes, strategies and norms that produce and maintain ignorance. “Feminist theorists who have looked at science have asked, ‘Whose knowledge?’ and the flip side of that is looking at what we don’t know, theorizing ignorance as more than a simple gap in knowledge. Sometimes ignorance is cultivated,” Tuana said. In her paper, Tuana explores how feminist health activists uncovered the ways women’s bodies had been ignored; examined knowledge that had been withheld from women and certain groups of men; reclaimed knowledge that had been denied or suppressed; and developed new knowledge freed from the confines of traditional frameworks. “One of the key issues is to uncover knowledge and look at women’s bodies and women’s health, and what kind of forces keep that knowledge hidden," Tuana said. "You can’t just identify facts; you look at what kinds of institutions keep those facts.” While at USI, Tuana also will present a student lecture, “Consuming Male Bodies: Advertising and the Sexual Sell” at 10 a.m. Friday, March 17, in Couch Renner Hall (Room 1101) in the Science and Education Center. In a multi-media presentation, she will demonstrate how the use of erotically displayed male bodies has recently moved into the U.S. advertising scene. The lecture is free and open to students, faculty, and staff. Tuana’s research and teaching specialties include science studies (especially issues in science and ethics), feminist philosophy and feminist theory, and environmental ethics. Her books include Feminist Interpretations of Plato (Penn State Press); Feminism and Philosophy: Essential Readings in Theory, Reinterpretation and Application (Westview Press); Engendering Rationalities (SUNY Press); Feminism and Science (Indiana University Press); The Less Noble Sex: Scientific, Religious, and Philosophical Conceptions of Woman’s Nature (Indiana University Press); Revealing Male Bodies (Indiana University Press); Women and the History of Philosophy (Paragon House); and Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance (SUNY Press). She served as co-editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy and is currently series editor of the Penn State Press series Re-Reading the Canon. Tuana also is a co-editor of the feminist entries for the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Tuana received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, where she specialized in philosophy of science and wrote her dissertation on the work of William V.O. Quine. For more information, contact Maurice Hamington, assistant professor of philosophy, at 812/464-1722. |
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