The next session of the UvA Philosophy and Public Affairs colloquium will take place on Wednesday 24 April, 16.00-17.45 pm.

Veronica Vasterling (Radboud University) will give a lecture entitled

Why is it so difficult to get rid of (implicit) sexist and racist bias? A phenomenological answer

Location: Faculteitskamer/Faculty Room, Oude Turfmarkt 147 (entrance at 141), Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam.

Abstract
Implicit bias has become a widely acknowledged phenomenon both in academic research and public debate, in particular in the case of sex and race. Research on implicit bias is mainly done from a cognitivist perspective. Though helpful, the cognitive approach is limited in that it hardly addresses the important dimension of embodiment. In this paper I will argue that, by focusing on embodiment, a phenomenological account first highlights what sets sexist and racist bias apart from many other biases, namely that they are linked to visible bodily differences. Second, and most importantly, it clarifies how sexist and racist bias become embodied in various ways. Though there will not be time for a full analysis of these processes of embodiment, I hope to be able to provide enough phenomenological considerations to argue that embodiment and its consequences go a long way toward explaining the persistence and prevalence of sexist and racist bias.

Veronica Vasterling is Associate professor Gender & Philosophy at the Radboud University. She specializes in theories of embodiment and methodological questions. She has published widely on the work of Judith Butler and Hannah Arendt. She co-edited books on female philosophers from Antiquity to the present time Vrouwelijke filosofen: Een historisch overzicht, on interdisciplinarity Practising Interdisciplinarity in Gender Studies, and on feminist philosophy Feministische Phänomenologie und Hermeneutik.