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513The Anonymous intentions of transactional bodiesHypatia 17 (4): 187-200. 2002.: This review offers a critical analysis of Shannon Sullivan's "feminist pragmatist standpoint theory" as a framework for thinking about issues of identity and truth. Sullivan claims that Maurice Merleau-Ponty's emphasis on an anonymous or pre-personal quality to bodily experience commits him to a false universality and that his understanding of bodily intentionality traps him in a subjectivist philosophy that is incapable of doing justice to difference. She suggests that phenomenology in genera…Read more
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252The normal, the natural, and the normative: A Merleau-Pontian legacy to feminist theory, critical race theory, and disability studiesContinental Philosophy Review 48 (1): 77-93. 2015.This essay argues that Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment can be an extremely helpful ally for contemporary feminist theorists, critical race theorists, and disability studies scholars because his work suggests that the gender, race, and ability of bodies are not innate or fixed features of those bodies, much less corporeal indicators of physical, social, psychic, and even moral inferiority, but are themselves dynamic phenomena that have the potential to overturn accepted notions of nor…Read more
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133Ambiguity, Absurdity, And Reversibility: lndetenninacy In De Beauvoir, Camus, And Merleau-pontyBulletin de la Société Américaine de Philosophie de Langue Française 5 (1): 71-83. 1993.none
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96Reading/writing between the linesContinental Philosophy Review 31 (4): 387-409. 1998.This paper critically examines the practices of reading and writing through the differing perspectives offered by Kierkegaard, Sartre, Barthes, Foucault, and Derrida. Although Kierkegaard''s and Sartre''s respective views on reading and writing do not receive much attention today, I argue that both articulate (albeit in different ways) a notion of shared responsibility between reader and writer that is compatible with their respective emphases on absolute responsibility for oneself, for others, …Read more
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94Perspectives on Embodiment: The Intersections of Nature and Culture (edited book)Routledge. 1999.First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
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62De-Naturalizing the Natural Attitude: A Husserlian Legacy to Social PhenomenologyJournal of Phenomenological Psychology 47 (1): 1-16. 2016.This essay focuses on Husserl’s conception of the natural attitude, which, I argue, is one of his most important contributions to contemporary phenomenology. I offer a critical exploration of this concept’s productive explanatory potential for feminist theory, critical race theory, queer theory, and disability studies. In the process, I draw attention to the rich, multi-faceted, and ever-changing social world that can be brought to life through this particular phenomenological concept. One of th…Read more
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57Telling Flesh: The Substance of the Corporeal. Vicki Kirby. New York: Routledge, 1997Hypatia 17 (4): 244-247. 2002.In Telling Flesh, Vicki Kirby addresses a major theoretical issue at the intersection of the social sciences and feminist theory -- the separation of nature from culture. Kirby focuses particularly on postmodern approaches to corporeality, and explores how these approaches confine the body within questions about meaning and interpretation. Kirby explores the implications of this containment in the work of Jane Gallop, Judith Butler, and Drucilla Cornell, as well as in recent cyber-criticism. By …Read more
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54Sex-Selective Abortion: A Relational ApproachHypatia 10 (1): 202-217. 1995.A critical application of Ruddick's model of maternal thinking is the best way to grapple with the ethical dilemmas posed by sex- selective abortion which I view as a "moral mistake." Chief among these is the need to be sensitive to local cultural practices in countries where sex- selective abortion is prevalent, while simultaneously developing consistent international standards to deal with the dangers posed by the use of sex- selective abortion to eliminate female fetuses
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52The Perils and Pleasures of the “I Can” BodySymposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy/Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale 21 (2): 63-80. 2017.Though Young’s “Throwing Like a Girl” has been praised for pre-senting the “I can” body as more of an aspiration than a reality for many women in the world today, she has also been criticized for claiming that women’s typical modes of bodily comportment are contradictory, and thus that their experience of the “I can” body is compromised. From her critics’ perspective, Young’s account seems to imply that women’s experiences of embodied agency are inferior or deficient in comparison to men who hav…Read more
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44The Shame of ShamelessnessHypatia 33 (3): 537-552. 2018.An important question that is often raised, whether directly or indirectly, in philosophical discussions of shame‐inducing behavior concerns whether the experience of shame has unique moral value. Despite the fact that shame is strongly associated with negative affective responses, many people have argued that the experience of being ashamed plays an important motivating role, rather than being an obstacle, in living a moral life. These discussions, however, tend to take for granted two interrel…Read more
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43Feminist Interpretations of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (edited book)Pennsylvania State University Press. 2006.The essays presented here by Olkowski and Weiss attempt to situate Merleau-Ponty in the larger context of feminist theory, while impartially evaluating his contributions, both positive and negative, to that theory.
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41Refiguring the Ordinary (edited book)Indiana University Press. 2008.If social, political, and material transformation is to have a lasting impact on individuals and society, it must be integrated within ordinary experience. Refiguring the Ordinary examines the ways in which individuals' bodies, habits, environments, and abilities function as horizons that underpin their understandings of the ordinary. These features of experience, according to Gail Weiss, are never neutral, but are always affected by gender, race, social class, ethnicity, nationality, and percep…Read more
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29Beauvoir and Merleau-PontyIn Shannon M. Mussett & William S. Wilkerson (eds.), Beauvoir and Western Thought From Plato to Butler, State University of New York Press. pp. 171-189. 2012.
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29Ambiguity, absurdity, and reversibility: responses to indeterminacyJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 26 (1): 43-51. 1995.
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28Review of Penelope Deutscher, The Philosophy of Simone De Beauvoir: Ambiguity, Conversion, Resistance (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (2). 2009.
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27Dilthey's conception of objectivity in the human studies: A reply to Gadamer (review)Man and World 24 (4): 471-486. 1991.
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26Fifty Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology (edited book)Nothwestern University Press. 2019.Phenomenology, the philosophical method that seeks to uncover the taken-for-granted presuppositions, habits, and norms that structure everyday experience, is increasingly framed by ethical and political concerns. Critical phenomenology foregrounds experiences of marginalization, oppression, and power in order to identify and transform common experiences of injustice that render “the familiar” a site of oppression for many. In Fifty Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology, leading scholars present …Read more
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24Book review: Vicki Kirby. Telling flesh: The substance of the corporeal. New York: Routledge, 1997 (review)Hypatia 17 (4): 244-247. 2002.
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23The Anonymous Intentions of Transactional BodiesHypatia 17 (4): 187-200. 2002.This review offers a critical analysis of Shannon Sullivan's “feminist pragmatist standpoint theory” as a framework for thinking about issues of identity and truth. Sullivan claims that Maurice Merleau-Ponty's emphasis on an anonymous or pre-personal quality to bodily experience commits him to a false universality and that his understanding of bodily intentionality traps him in a subjectivist philosophy that is incapable of doing justice to difference. She suggests that phenomenology in general …Read more
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20Splitting the Subject: The Interval between Immanence and TranscendenceIn Dorothea Olkowski (ed.), Resistance, flight, creation: feminist enactments of French philosophy, Cornell University Press. pp. 79. 2000.
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1850 Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology (edited book)Northwestern University Press. 2020.This volume is an introduction to both newer and more established ideas in the growing field of critical phenomenology from a number of disciplinary perspectives.
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |
Continental Philosophy |