In this talk, Professor Russell describes how notions of race have organized the American concept of kinship. She argues that this history of the association of race and kinship in the American imaginary allows race to serve as a proxy for kinship in the contemporary fertility clinic.
Camisha Russell received her PhD in Philosophy from Penn State University in 2013. Her first book, The Assisted Reproduction of Race: Thinking Through Race as a Reproductive Technology, forthcoming with Indiana University Press, explores the role of race and racial identity in the ideas and practices surrounding assisted reproductive technologies. Her primary research and teaching interests are in Critical Philosophy of Race, Feminist Philosophy, and Bioethics. Her publications include “Black American Sexuality and the Repressive Hypothesis: Reading Patricia Hill Collins with Michel Foucault” in Convergences: Black Women & Continental Philosophy, “Questions of Race in Bioethics: Deceit, Disregard, Disparity, and the Work of Decentering” in Philosophy Compass, and “The Race Idea in Reproductive Technologies: Beyond Epistemic Scientism and Technological Mastery” in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry. She has held both a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (2012-13) and a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013-15). Before attending graduate school, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer for the Girls’ Education and Empowerment program in Togo, West Africa. She is currently a Riley Scholar-in-Residence in the Philosophy Department at Colorado College.
Free and open to the public | ID required
Burning Issues in African Philosophy builds off of the sophisticated work that has now become part of an international conversation on how African philosophy makes unique interventions into almost every important question of politics, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and epistemology. Indeed, the very definition of these fundamental philosophical conceptions is both challenged and enriched. In this way, African philosophy is not only crucial in understanding what constitutes its uniqueness but also in providing us with new and innovative ways to think about some of the most burning issues of our time as far reaching as what is the meaning of being human to how we can effectively challenge climate change. The aim of this seminar then is not simply to bring some of the most important African philosophers to participate so that their work can be known, but perhaps more importantly that they can bring African philosophy into the political and ethical debates about what it might mean to have a more just future. The series begins by challenging the conventional Afro-pessimistic view of time as being unable to organize a future perspective that would allow for adequate industrialization and development. If time is what happens inseparable from events, this does not mean that there is no future in African philosophy. What it means is that there is no future that can be foreclosed or known in advance and thus possibilities for the future remain open. It is therefore up to our actions to bring about the future that we want.
All Seminars are held on Wednesday evening (7-9PM) in the Heyman Common Room.
Wednesday September 28, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Discussant: Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday November 2, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Michael Monahan, Marquette University
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University and Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday January 25, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nkiru Nzegwu, SUNY-Binghampton
Discussant: Doug Ficek, University of New Haven
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University
Discussant: Jane Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday March 8, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Univeriste Paris 8
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday April 19, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Discussants: Max Hantel, Dartmouth College and Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Location: Heyman Common Room
This series is made possible by financial support from the Provost Office and Arts & Sciences at Columbia University and the Partnership University Fund (PUF) of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The venue for this series is provided by the Heyman Center for Humanities.
Free and open to the public | ID required
Burning Issues in African Philosophy builds off of the sophisticated work that has now become part of an international conversation on how African philosophy makes unique interventions into almost every important question of politics, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and epistemology. Indeed, the very definition of these fundamental philosophical conceptions is both challenged and enriched. In this way, African philosophy is not only crucial in understanding what constitutes its uniqueness but also in providing us with new and innovative ways to think about some of the most burning issues of our time as far reaching as what is the meaning of being human to how we can effectively challenge climate change. The aim of this seminar then is not simply to bring some of the most important African philosophers to participate so that their work can be known, but perhaps more importantly that they can bring African philosophy into the political and ethical debates about what it might mean to have a more just future. The series begins by challenging the conventional Afro-pessimistic view of time as being unable to organize a future perspective that would allow for adequate industrialization and development. If time is what happens inseparable from events, this does not mean that there is no future in African philosophy. What it means is that there is no future that can be foreclosed or known in advance and thus possibilities for the future remain open. It is therefore up to our actions to bring about the future that we want.
All Seminars are held on Wednesday evening (7-9PM) in the Heyman Common Room.
Wednesday September 28, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Discussant: Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday November 2, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Michael Monahan, Marquette University
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University and Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday January 25, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nkiru Nzegwu, SUNY-Binghampton
Discussant: Doug Ficek, University of New Haven
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University
Discussant: Jane Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday March 8, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Univeriste Paris 8
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday April 19, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Discussants: Max Hantel, Dartmouth College and Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Location: Heyman Common Room
This series is made possible by financial support from the Provost Office and Arts & Sciences at Columbia University and the Partnership University Fund (PUF) of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The venue for this series is provided by the Heyman Center for Humanities.
Upcoming events:
3/23 – Elvira Basevich, “W.E.B. Du Bois’s Racialism and Two Liberal Conceptions of Plurality” @ the Dweck Center // 7:00 P.M.
4/27 – Christia Mercer on women in the history of philosophy @ the Dweck Center // 7:00 P.M.
5/18 – Chris Lebron on the philosophy of Black Lives Matter @ the Dweck Center // 7:00 P.M.
Free and open to the public | ID required
Burning Issues in African Philosophy builds off of the sophisticated work that has now become part of an international conversation on how African philosophy makes unique interventions into almost every important question of politics, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and epistemology. Indeed, the very definition of these fundamental philosophical conceptions is both challenged and enriched. In this way, African philosophy is not only crucial in understanding what constitutes its uniqueness but also in providing us with new and innovative ways to think about some of the most burning issues of our time as far reaching as what is the meaning of being human to how we can effectively challenge climate change. The aim of this seminar then is not simply to bring some of the most important African philosophers to participate so that their work can be known, but perhaps more importantly that they can bring African philosophy into the political and ethical debates about what it might mean to have a more just future. The series begins by challenging the conventional Afro-pessimistic view of time as being unable to organize a future perspective that would allow for adequate industrialization and development. If time is what happens inseparable from events, this does not mean that there is no future in African philosophy. What it means is that there is no future that can be foreclosed or known in advance and thus possibilities for the future remain open. It is therefore up to our actions to bring about the future that we want.
All Seminars are held on Wednesday evening (7-9PM) in the Heyman Common Room.
Wednesday September 28, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Discussant: Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday November 2, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Michael Monahan, Marquette University
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University and Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday January 25, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nkiru Nzegwu, SUNY-Binghampton
Discussant: Doug Ficek, University of New Haven
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University
Discussant: Jane Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday March 8, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Univeriste Paris 8
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday April 19, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Discussants: Max Hantel, Dartmouth College and Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Location: Heyman Common Room
This series is made possible by financial support from the Provost Office and Arts & Sciences at Columbia University and the Partnership University Fund (PUF) of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The venue for this series is provided by the Heyman Center for Humanities.
5/18 – Chris Lebron on the philosophy of Black Lives Matter @ the Dweck Center // 7:00 P.M.
Critiques of beauty in art and in everyday life assume the traditional idea that aesthetic value is a kind of power to please. An entirely new picture comes from a close look at intricately structured networks of agents who interact with each other in aesthetic enterprises. Aesthetic values give us reasons to act in the context of social practices. The “network theory” explains why, despite the critiques, beauty never disappeared from art, why it’s as humanly important as ever, and how it can be harnessed to address pressing social problems.
Introduction by Noël Carroll, CUNY Graduate Center
a lecture by Dominic McIver Lopes
Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, the author of Understanding Pictures, Sight and Sensibility, Computer Art, Beyond Art, Four Arts of Photography, and Being for Beauty (in progress).
6pm, Wednesday, 27 September
Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College
(North Building, 4th Floor)
Sponsored by the departments of
Art and Philosophy
The Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Race Reading Group‘s first Fall semester meeting will be:
Tuesday September 4th from 11:15 am to 12:45pm in room 5489 at The Graduate Center, CUNY.
The Graduate Center is located at 365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10016.
We will read:
Emmalon Davis’ “On Epistemic Appropriation.”
The CUNY Graduate Center Advanced Research Collaborative (ARC) and the Philosophy Program present a talk and book panel on:
RACIAL JUSTICE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3 (Rooms 9204-5)
4:15-5:00 PHILOSOPHY COLLOQUIUM LECTURE:
“Racial Justice”: Charles W. Mills, Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center
5:00-5:05 Break
5:05-5:45 BOOK PANEL on Charles W. Mills’s 2017 book, Black Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism
Frank M. Kirkland (CUNY Hunter College & the Grad Center)
John Pittman (CUNY John Jay College)
5:45-6:30 Q & A
6:30-7:30 BOOK PARTY—Philosophy common room, 7113 (food and drink)
What does a philosopher look like? Inevitably, our mental pictures are shaped by the dominant imagery of the white male marble busts of Greco-Roman antiquity—Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca—and their modern European heirs—Hobbes, Descartes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Mill. Even today Western philosophy is largely male and overwhelmingly white—about 97 percent in the U.S., close to 100 percent in Europe. Diversifying the field requires expanding our corporeal imaginary of its practitioners. This conference, timed to honor Professor Anita Allen-Castellitto (Penn), the first black female President in the 100-year-plus history of the American Philosophical Association, aims to showcase the work of a traditionally under-represented population, challenging these preconceptions. Allen and fifteen other black women will speak on their research across a wide variety of philosophical topics.
ORGANIZED BY:
Charles W. Mills & Linda Martín Alcoff
LIST OF SPEAKERS
Anita Allen-Castellitto, University of Pennsylvania
Kathryn Belle, Penn State University
Emmalon Davis, New School for Social Research
Nathifa Greene, Gettysburg College
Devonya Havis, Canisius College
Janine Jones, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Axelle Karera, Wesleyan University
Michele Moody-Adams, Columbia University
Mickaella Perina, University of Massachusetts Boston
Camisha Russell, University of Oregon
Jackie Scott, Loyola University Chicago
Kris Sealey, Fairfield University
Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou, Georgia College, College of the Holy Cross
Anika Simpson, Morgan State University
Briana Toole, CUNY Baruch College
Yolonda Wilson, Howard University
Stay tuned for schedule details!
Hosted by: The Center for the Humanities and the PhD Program in Philosophy at the The Graduate Center, CUNY.
Co-sponsored by: The American Philosophical Association Committee on the Status of Black Philosophers, and the Advanced Research Collaborative at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
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Free and open to the public, but please register for Friday, March 15th here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-women-philosophers-conference-day-1-march-15th-2019-registration-56225763773
Please register for Saturday, March 16th here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-women-philosophers-conference-day-2-march-16th-2019-registration-56225886139
The venue is wheel-chair accessible.
To download a PDF version of the flyer, click here.