Hypatia Lecture 2023

SWIP-NL

With: Dianna Taylor, Tammie Schoots, Seunhyun Song, and Liesbeth Schoonheim (moderator)

When: May 20, 3-6 PM (General Assembly: 1.30-2.30 PM)

Where: Perdu, Kloveniersburgwal 86, 1012 CZ Amsterdam, Netherlands

The biannual Hypatia Lecture, organized by SWIP-NL, showcases groundbreaking work in philosophy and feminism. This year’s lecture takes place on May 20 in Amsterdam, and focuses on gender-based violence. The keynote by Dianna Taylor will be followed by responses by Tammie Schoots and Seunghyun Song. The event is open to all interested, and no registration is needed. Prior to the lecture, SWIP-NL will hold its annual General Assembly (members only).

Program:

13.00: Doors open

13.30-14.30: General Assembly SWIP-NL (in Dutch: members only)

14.30-15.00: Break

15.00-17.00: Lecture by Dianna Taylor, “Gender-based Sexual Violation: Its Manifestations, Its Effects, and How It Can Be Resisted.” Followed by responses by Tammie Schoots and Seunghyun Song; moderation by Liesbeth Schoonheim

17.00: Drinks

18.00: End

Abstract:

Gender-based Sexual Violation: Its Manifestations, Its Effects, and How It Can Be Resisted

Several recent reports by federal agencies in the United States reveal pervasive and increasing rates of sexual violence against women and girls. This talk presents the reality such data portrays, as well as the lack of societal outcry in the face of it, as worthy of outrage but not surprising. Through analyzing specific forms of gender-based sexual violation, including sexual harassment, rape and sexual assault, and reproductive oppression, I show that women are deemed inferior and subordinated on the basis of their sexed and sexualized embodiment. Embodied sexual violation and the sexual humiliation such violation produces will, therefore, continue to be the most effective ways of maintaining oppressive gendered relations of power. It also follows that embodied practices which oppose women’s reduction to mere sexualized and sexually humiliated bodies will most effectively counter women’s oppression, and the talk concludes by exploring specific forms these resistant counter-practices might take.

About the speakers:

Dianna Taylor is Professor of Philosophy at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is author of Sexual Violence and Humiliation: A Foucauldian-Feminist Perspective (Routledge, 2020) editor of Michel Foucault: Key Concepts (Acumen, 2010), and co-editor of Feminist Politics: Identity, Difference, Agency (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007) and Feminism and the Final Foucault (University of Illinois, 2004). Her current research analyzes rage and counter-violence as feminist resources for resisting and preventing sexual violence and the sexual humiliation such violence produces.

Tammie Schoots is a writer and freelance journalist. She regularly writes for literary platform De Reactor and magazine Linda Meiden. She made a name for herself with personal essays in which she reflects on her own transidentity. Mostly recently, she contributed to the collection of essays on gender related violence called Voorbij de Verbijstering. She is also a regular guest on Radio 1 and BNR Newsradio, where she comments on the news. She studied Philosophy and European Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Seunghyun Song is assistant professor at Tilburg University. Before coming to Tilburg, she was at KU Leuven, where she held FWO junior postdoc mandate. She also completed her PhD at KU Leuven prior to her postdoc there. Her main area of expertise is in linguistic justice and intergenerational justice. While her interest lies in issues of reparative justice, historical injustice, and structural injustice approach, she is also invested in the field of social epistemology, especially on epistemic injustice and reparation, and lived experiences of marginalisation.

The event is organized by SWIP-NL, the society of Women in Philosophy for the Netherlands. Membership of SWIP-NL is open to anyone who supports their mission. For more information, and to become a member, please visit https://swip-filosofie.nl/