Alison Assiter

Last updated

Alison Assiter
FRSA, AcSS
Born (1949-10-23) 23 October 1949 (age 74)
Academic background
Alma mater Bristol University
Somerville College, Oxford
University of Sussex
Thesis The limits of Althusserianism  (1984)

Alison Assiter (born 23 October 1949), [1] FRSA, FAcSS [2] is the Professor of Feminist Theory at the University of the West of England. [3]

Contents

Education

Assiter gained her degree from Bristol University, her B.Phil. from Somerville College, Oxford, [3] and her D.Phil. from Sussex University in 1984. [4]

Career

In the early 2000s, Assiter was the dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Science at UWE Bristol, [5] and the London School of Economics visiting professor of sociology in January 2006. [6]

Assiter's book Kierkegaard, Eve and Metaphors of Birth was described as "an important contribution to the general subject matter of realizable well-being" [7] and "illuminating and thought-provoking". [8] It has also been reviewed by Times Higher Education . [9]

Bibliography

See also

Related Research Articles

An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied primarily to economic, political, or religious theories and policies, in a tradition going back to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, more recent use treats the term as mainly condemnatory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Althusser</span> French Marxist philosopher (1918–1990)

Louis Pierre Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Continental philosophy</span> Philosophical traditions from mainland Europe

Continental philosophy is a term used to describe some philosophers and philosophical traditions that do not fall under the umbrella of analytic philosophy. However, there is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Prior to the twentieth century, the term "continental" was used broadly to refer to philosophy from continental Europe. A different use of the term originated among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the 20th century, who used it to refer to a range of thinkers and traditions outside the analytic movement. Continental philosophy includes German idealism, phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction, French feminism, psychoanalytic theory, and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School as well as branches of Freudian, Hegelian and Western Marxist views. There is widespread influence and debate between the analytic and continental traditions; some philosophers see the differences between the two traditions as being based on institutions, relationships, and ideology rather than anything of significant philosophical substance.

Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist politics in a variety of fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication, media studies, psychoanalysis, political theory, home economics, literature, education, and philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy E. Smith</span> British-Canadian sociologist (1926–2022)

Dorothy Edith Smith was a British-born Canadian ethnographer, feminist studies scholar, sociologist, and writer with research interests in a variety of disciplines. These include women's studies, feminist theory, psychology, and educational studies. Smith was also involved in certain subfields of sociology, such as the sociology of knowledge, family studies, and methodology. She founded the sociological sub-disciplines of feminist standpoint theory and institutional ethnography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avedon Carol</span> British writer and feminist

Avedon Carol is an American-born British feminist, anti-censorship, and civil liberties campaigner and a researcher in the field of sex crime, residing in England. She is a member of Feminists Against Censorship, and as part of their publishing group co-edited Bad Girls & Dirty Pictures (1993). She is the author of Nudes, Prudes and Attitudes (1994), and has also worked on other books by Feminists Against Censorship. On her own website, "Avedon's Sideshow", she publishes and compiles links to a wide array of stories and events.

Postmodern feminism is a mix of post-structuralism, postmodernism, and French feminism. The goal of postmodern feminism is to destabilize the patriarchal norms entrenched in society that have led to gender inequality. Postmodern feminists seek to accomplish this goal through rejecting essentialism, philosophy, and universal truths in favor of embracing the differences that exist amongst women to demonstrate that not all women are the same. These ideologies are rejected by postmodern feminists because they believe if a universal truth is applied to all women of society, it minimizes individual experience, hence they warn women to be aware of ideas displayed as the norm in society since it may stem from masculine notions of how women should be portrayed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antihumanism</span> Philosophical and social theory, critical of traditional humanism

In social theory and philosophy, antihumanism or anti-humanism is a theory that is critical of traditional humanism, traditional ideas about humanity and the human condition. Central to antihumanism is the view that philosophical anthropology and its concepts of "human nature", "man" or "humanity" should be rejected as historically relative, ideological or metaphysical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillian Rose</span> British philosopher

Gillian Rosemary Rose was a British philosopher and writer. Rose held the chair of social and political thought at the University of Warwick until 1995. Rose began her teaching career at the University of Sussex. She worked in the fields of philosophy and sociology. Her writings include The Melancholy Science, Hegel Contra Sociology, Dialectic of Nihilism, Mourning Becomes the Law, and Paradiso, amongst others.

Feminist philosophy is an approach to philosophy from a feminist perspective and also the employment of philosophical methods to feminist topics and questions. Feminist philosophy involves both reinterpreting philosophical texts and methods in order to supplement the feminist movement and attempts to criticise or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a feminist framework.

20th-century French philosophy is a strand of contemporary philosophy generally associated with post-World War II French thinkers, although it is directly influenced by previous philosophical movements.

Culturology or the science of culture is a branch of the social sciences concerned with the scientific understanding, description, analysis, and prediction of cultures as a whole. While ethnology and anthropology studied different cultural practices, such studies included diverse aspects: sociological, psychological, etc., and the need was recognized for a discipline focused exclusively on cultural aspects.

Beverley Skeggs is a British sociologist, noted as one of the foremost feminist sociologists in the world. Currently, she works as a "Distinguished Professor" in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University, developing a Center for Social Inequalities in the North West of England. She continues to run the "Economics of Care" theme at the International Inequalities centre at the London School of Economics (LSE) and is a visiting professor at Goldsmiths University. She has been the head of two of the UK's leading Sociology Departments, at the University of Manchester and Goldsmiths, as well as co-director of Lancaster's Women's Studies. In addition, she played a part in transforming Britain's oldest sociology journal, The Sociological Review, into an independent foundation devoted to opening up critical social science and supporting social scientists.

This is a list of articles in continental philosophy.

Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that originates in the works of 19th century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism analyzes and critiques the development of class society and especially of capitalism as well as the role of class struggles in systemic, economic, social and political change. It frames capitalism through a paradigm of exploitation and analyzes class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development – materialist in the sense that the politics and ideas of an epoch are determined by the way in which material production is carried on.

Neo-Marxism is a collection of Marxist schools of thought originating from 20th-century approaches to amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory, psychoanalysis, or existentialism. Neo-Marxism comes under the broader framework of the New Left. In a sociological sense, neo-Marxism adds Max Weber's broader understanding of social inequality, such as status and power, to Marxist philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Critical theory</span> Approach to social philosophy

A critical theory is any approach to humanities and social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to attempt to reveal, critique, and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from social structures and cultural assumptions rather than from individuals. Some hold it to be an ideology, others argue that ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation. Critical theory finds applications in various fields of study, including psychoanalysis, sociology, history, communication theory, philosophy and feminist theory.

<i>Grundrisse</i> Unfinished manuscript by Marx on critique of economics

The Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie is an unfinished manuscript by the German philosopher Karl Marx. The series of seven notebooks was rough-drafted by Marx, chiefly for purposes of self-clarification, during the winter of 1857–8. Left aside by Marx in 1858, it remained unpublished until 1939.

Margaret Chilla Bulbeck was the emeritus professor of women's studies at Adelaide University from 1997 until 2008, and has published widely on issues of gender and difference.

The Schools Action Union (SAU) was a British students' union for school children active in the early 1970s. It formed at the Free School Campaign (FSC) conference of January 1969 from attendees who did not want to follow the non-political path chosen by the FSC. The SAU set out a list of aims that included the abolition of corporal punishment in schools and the transition of all schools to become comprehensive and co-educational. A number of journals were published and the union, which became dominated by Maoists, organised significant school strikes in May 1972. The SAU dissolved in 1974 but the abolition campaign continued and saw corporal punishment banned nationally in all state schools in 1986; though non-comprehensive and single sex schools continue.

References

  1. "Assiter, Alison". Library of Congress. Retrieved 16 March 2017. data sheet (b. 10-23-49)
  2. Assiter, Alison. "Member Academicians (list)". Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS). Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 Assiter, Alison. "Professor Alison Assiter". University of the West of England. Archived from the original on 9 October 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  4. Assiter, Alison (1984). The limits of Althusserianism (PhD thesis). University of Sussex. OCLC   223725836.
  5. "UWE awarded excellent results for economics and politics (press release)". info.uwe.ac.uk. University of the West of England. 21 December 2001.
  6. Rose, Nikolas (November 2005). "Message from the Convenor" (PDF). Sociology Research News (LSE Newsletter). London School of Economics. 4 (1): 2.
  7. Morgan, Jamie (2011). "Beyond the liberal self". Journal of Critical Realism. 10 (3): 392–409. doi:10.1558/jcr.v10i3.392. S2CID   144202293.
  8. Richardson, Janice (May 2011). "Book Review: Alison Assiter, Kierkegaard, Metaphysics and Political Theory: Unfinished Selves". European Journal of Women's Studies . 18 (2): 205–207. doi:10.1177/13505068110180020703. S2CID   145492369.
  9. Sands, Danielle (30 July 2015). "Kierkegaard, Eve and Metaphors of Birth, by Alison Assiter". Times Higher Education . TES Global.