Feminism and Liberalism

The philosophy graduate students at the University of Memphis are proud to announce our 2012 conference on the topic of Feminism and Liberalism. The conference will be held at the University of Memphis on February 10-11, 2012. Our keynote speaker will be Lisa Schwartzman, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Michigan State University.

Feminism has a long and fraught relationship with the liberal tradition in political philosophy. Both in theory and practice, feminists have used the liberal framework to articulate and give force to demands for improvement in the situation of women. However, at the same time feminist thinkers have produced some of the strongest critiques of the liberal-normative model of political theory to date. At this conference, we hope to expand and deepen the relationship, whether supportive or critical, between these two ways of thinking in order to develop a more thorough understanding of both.

We welcome papers that address the relationship between major feminist texts and the liberal canon, feminist critiques of liberalism, and attempts to productively revise liberal theory from a feminist perspective. Papers should be prepared for blind review with a cover page stating the author's name and institutional affiliation, the paper title, and the authors contact information, including email address, phone number, and mailing address. Submissions should be of a length suitable for 20-30 minute presentation and submitted electronically in .doc, .rtf, or .pdf formats to [email protected]. The deadline for submitting papers is December 20th, 2011.

If you have any questions about the conference, please contact us by email at [email protected].