CFP: Feminism & Philosophical Women in Russell’s Circle

The workshop organizers invite abstract submissions for the upcoming online workshop, “Russell and Women.” Abstracts are due on or before 31 October 2020.

Workshop Purpose

For an era finally starting to reflect on the historical marginalization of women in philosophy, Bertrand Russell should be an enigma. On the one hand, Russell constructively engaged with a host of female philosophers like Dorothy Wrinch, Victoria Welby, and Susan Stebbing. He wrote pioneering work on issues of interest to modern feminism, often in close collaboration with some feminist pathbreakers with whom he was either personally or professionally involved (such as Dora Black Russell). What is more, he long supported women’s suffrage, and could be counted on as an ally in many political causes important to women.

But on the other hand, Russell’s advocacy of sexual freedom, though often done under the guise of women’s rights, shaded into personal relationships with women that have long been a source of concern, even outrage. He has been called “a formidable philanderer” (by a respected Russell scholar, 1992), “a notorious philanderer” (in a critical biography that was itself notorious in its harsh portrayal of Russell, 2000), and even a “sexual predator” (by a Pulitzer Prize winner in the New Yorker, 2002).

This workshop aims to reexamine Russell’s complicated relationship to women and to the emergence of modern feminism. Philosophy is now enjoying a surge of feminist writing; but it is also wrestling with some of the lowest rates of advancement for women in all of the humanities. And so Russell’s historical impact should be of special relevance right now. He was a founding father of analytic philosophy, and an important collaborator and supporter of some founding mothers of this school as well. But his influence on the women around him (and their influence on him) was anything but straightforward, and the time is ripe for a more wide-ranging evaluation than has yet been attempted.

Submission Instructions

Submissions should be in PDF format and must include an anonymized abstract submission and a cover page as separate files. Abstracts should be 500-to-1000 words and include a title. Submit the abstract and title in a standalone file titled “Russell and Women workshop abstract.” A separate cover page should include your name, e-mail, affiliation, and submission title (so that we may link your blinded submission to you after the review process is completed). E-mail these two files to [email protected] and [email protected] with the subject heading “Russell and Women workshop submission.” Please do not include further information in the e-mail body.

Confirmed speakers

William Bruneau (University of British Columbia)

Sophia Connell (Birkbeck, University of London)

Siobhan Chapman (University of Liverpool)

Landon D. C. Elkind (University of Alberta)

Allauren Forbes (McMaster University)

Frederique Janssen-Lauret (University of Manchester)

Carrie Jenkins (University of British Columbia)

Teresa Kouri Kissel (Old Dominion University)

Scott Metzger (McMaster University)

Marjorie Senechal (Smith College)

Additional information

Please see the workshop website for any program-related (or Covid-related) updates: https://russellevents.humanities.mcmaster.ca/. Please contact [email protected] or [email protected] with further questions. This workshop is generously supported by McMaster University and the Bertrand Russell Society.