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24Subjugation and Bondage: Critical Essays on Slavery and Social Philosophy (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1998.This volume addresses a wide variety of moral concerns regarding slavery as an institutionalized social practice. By considering the slave's critical appropriation of the natural rights doctrine, the ambiguous implications of various notions of consent and liberty are examined. The authors assume that, although slavery is undoubtedly an evil social practice, its moral assessment stands in need of a more nuanced treatment. They address the question of what is wrong with slavery by critically exam…Read more
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622The Seriously erotic Politics of feminist laughterSocial Research: An International Quarterly 79 (1): 217-246. 2012.
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36Overcoming habits of whiteliness: Reading Shannon Sullivan's revealing whitenessJournal of Speculative Philosophy 21 (3). 2007.
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34Interspecies EthicsColumbia University Press. 2014.Interspecies Ethics explores animals' vast capacity for agency, justice, solidarity, humor, and communication across species. The social bonds diverse animals form provide a remarkable model for communitarian justice and cosmopolitan peace, challenging the human exceptionalism that drives modern moral theory. Situating biosocial ethics firmly within coevolutionary processes, this volume has profound implications for work in social and political thought, contemporary pragmatism, Africana thought,…Read more
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87Theorizing Multiculturalism: A Guide to the Current Debate (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 1998.This wide-ranging anthology of classic and newly-commissioned essays brings together the major theories of multiculturalism from a multiplicity of philosophical perspectives
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26Hegel, Antigone, and the Possibility of Ecstatic DialoguePhilosophy and Literature 14 (2): 268-283. 1990.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Cynthia Willett HEGEL, ANTIGONE, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF ECSTATIC DIALOGUE In his lectures on aesthetics, Hegel argues that drama is the highest form of art. Only drama can resolve, or sublate (auflieben), an opposition between objective and subjective poles ofaesthetic experience.1 This opposition takes its penultimate form in the difference between epic and lyric poetry. Subjective feelings expressed in lyric and the objective repre…Read more
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Theorizing Backlash: Philosophical Reflections on the Resistance to Feminism (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2002.Contrary to the popular belief that feminism has gained a foothold in the many disciplines of the academy, the essays collected in Theorizing Backlash argue that feminism is still actively resisted in mainstream academia. Contributors to this volume consider the professional, philosophical, and personal backlashes against feminist thought, and reflect upon their ramifications. The conclusion is that the disdain and irrational resentment of feminism, even in higher education, amounts to a backlas…Read more
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446Visionary Pragmatism and an Ethics of Connectivity: An Alternative to the Autonomy Tradition in Analytic EthicsIn Maurice Hamington Celia N. Bardwell Jones (ed.), Contemporary Feminist Pragmatism, Routledge. pp. 258-287. 2012.In an era of global interdependence, the concept of autonomy may no longer name our core moral need. Shifting friendships and enmities across political boundaries bear significant consequences for the individual. Perhaps social alliances and hostilities have always had an impact on the flourishing of individuals and communities. But globalization (especially as viewed through the technology of the information age) magnifies the impact of external forces on sovereign bodies. These forces remind i…Read more
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76Racism and Sexual Oppression in Anglo-America: A GenealogyJournal of Speculative Philosophy 23 (4): 373-376. 2009.
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30Family Matters: Feminist Concepts in African Philosophy of Culture. By Nkiru Uwechia Nzegwu. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY, 2006Hypatia 23 (3): 224-226. 2008.
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11Philosophical Feminism and Popular Culture (edited book)Lexington Books. 2012.The eight essays contained in this book explore the portrayal of women, and various philosophical responses to that portrayal in contemporary post-civil rights society. They bring feminist voices to the conversation about gender and attests to the importance of feminist critique in what is sometimes claimed to be a post-feminist era
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The Sting of Shame: Ridicule, Rape, and Social BondsIn Naomi Zack (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race, Oxford University Press. forthcoming.
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27Irony in the Age of Empire: Comic Perspectives on Democracy and FreedomIndiana University Press. 2008.Comedy, from social ridicule to the unruly laughter of the carnival, provides effective tools for reinforcing social patterns of domination as well as weapons for emancipation. In Irony in the Age of Empire, Cynthia Willett asks: What could embody liberation better than laughter? Why do the oppressed laugh? What vision does the comic world prescribe? For Willett, the comic trumps standard liberal accounts of freedom by drawing attention to bodies, affects, and intimate relationships, topics whic…Read more
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34Book review: Joan Williams. Unbending gender: Why family and work conflict and what to do about it. oxford: Oxford university press, 2000 (review)Hypatia 19 (3): 228-231. 2004.
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