Uma Narayan | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Rutgers University |
Thesis | Offensive conduct: what is it and when may we legally regulate it? (1990) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Vassar College |
Main interests | Feminism Postcolonialism Postcolonial Feminism |
Notable works | Dislocating Cultures:Identities,Traditions and Third World Feminism |
Uma Narayan is an American feminist scholar and a current professor of philosophy at Vassar College on the Andrew W. Mellon Chair of Humanities. Narayan's work focuses on the epistemology of the inequities involving postcolonial feminism.
Narayan finished high school at Bombay Scottish School,Mahim,received her B.A. in philosophy from Bombay University and her M.A. in philosophy from Pune University,India. Uma Narayan received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1990. In Singing in the Fire:Stories of Women in Philosophy she reveals her experience of moving to the United States in 1987 for graduate studies and being disheartened by the revolutionary feminist thinking progressing outside academia,while stating there was,"not a trace of feminist philosophy in the curriculum."[ This quote needs a citation ] Narayan defined the most valuable experience from graduate school to be joining the newly formed Laurie Chair women's studies seminar. This opportunity allowed connections to other original member,Allison Jaggar as well as article publications and lead to the acceptance of her current position at Vassar College. [1]
Dislocating Cultures:Identities,Traditions and Third World Feminism is Narayan's most notable work,in which feminism is disputed as a Western notion and challenges the assumption that Indian feminism is derivative of Western models. Critical of the identifying Indian culture as unified and homogeneous through historical contextualization of the nationalist uses and defenses of the Indian practices of sati and dowry murders. Narayan rejects the charges of "Westernization" on Indian feminism and the historicization of the condition of Indian women is used to criticize radical feminist claims that all women everywhere are constituted by the same concerns and interests. These arguments align her with theorists such as Chandra Mohanty and Gayatri Spivak. [2] The emphasis of Narayan's work lies in decolonizing feminism and articulating the issues surrounding global feminism. [3]
Related to her work in Dislocating Cultures,Narayan has criticized culture-reductionist forms of postcolonial feminism which,"in attempting to take seriously these cultural differences...risk replacing gender-essentialist analyses with culturally essentialist analyses that replicate problematic colonialist notions about the cultural differences between 'Western culture' and 'non-Western cultures' and the women who inhabit them." [4] She dubs this view of culture which covers up divisions and differences of both cultures to be neatly packaged. This false view can be avoided,for instance,through historical analysis of culture. [5]
Her early research and writing began in the field of Indian legal studies and progressed to her graduate thesis Offensive Conduct:What is it and When May We Regulate It? [6] Her published work includes considerations of Bengal Narsing Rau's influence on the provisions of the Constitution of India [7] and writing primers on Indian legal literature. [8]
Narayan coedited Reconstructing Political Theory:Feminist Perspectives with Mary L. Shanley, [9] Decentering the Center:Philosophy for a Multicultural,Postcolonial,and Feminist World with Sandra Harding,and Having and Raising Children:Unconventional Families,Hard Choices,and the Social Good with Julia Bartkowiak. [10] She currently is a professor of philosophy at Vassar College on the Andrew W. Mellon Chair of Humanities. Her regular philosophy courses offerings include Contemporary Moral Issues,Social and Political Philosophy and Feminist Theory. As well as courses for the Women's Studies program,such as Introduction to Women's Studies and Global Feminism. [11]
Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Platonic idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In Categories, Aristotle similarly proposed that all objects have a substance that, as George Lakoff put it, "make the thing what it is, and without which it would be not that kind of thing". The contrary view—non-essentialism—denies the need to posit such an "essence". Essentialism has been controversial from its beginning. In the Parmenides dialogue, Plato depicts Socrates questioning the notion, suggesting that if we accept the idea that every beautiful thing or just action partakes of an essence to be beautiful or just, we must also accept the "existence of separate essences for hair, mud, and dirt".
Difference feminism is a term developed during the equality-versus-difference debate in American feminism to describe the view that men and women are different, but that no value judgment can be placed upon them and both sexes have equal moral status as persons.
Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures and former colonies. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long-lasting political, economic, and cultural effects of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in the postcolonial world. Postcolonial feminism originated in the 1980s as a critique of feminist theorists in developed countries pointing out the universalizing tendencies of mainstream feminist ideas and argues that women living in non-Western countries are misrepresented.
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Sandra G. Harding is an American philosopher of feminist and postcolonial theory, epistemology, research methodology, and philosophy of science. She directed the UCLA Center for the Study of Women from 1996 to 2000, and co-edited Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society from 2000 to 2005. She is currently a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Education and Gender Studies at UCLA and a Distinguished Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University. In 2013 she was awarded the John Desmond Bernal Prize by the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S).
Intersectionality is a sociological analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, height, physical appearance, age, and weight. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing.
Nancy Fraser is an American philosopher, critical theorist, feminist, and the Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science and professor of philosophy at The New School in New York City. Widely known for her critique of identity politics and her philosophical work on the concept of justice, Fraser is also a staunch critic of contemporary liberal feminism and its abandonment of social justice issues. Fraser holds honorary doctoral degrees from four universities in three countries, and won the 2010 Alfred Schutz Prize in Social Philosophy from the American Philosophical Association. She was President of the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division for the 2017–2018 term.
Sarah Lucia Hoagland is the Bernard Brommel Distinguished Research Professor and Professor Emerita of Philosophy and Women's Studies at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.
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The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory is a 1983 collection of feminist essays by philosopher Marilyn Frye. Some of these essays, developed through speeches and lectures she gave, have been quoted and reprinted often, and the book has been described as a "classic" of feminist theory.
Gender essentialism is a theory which attributes distinct, intrinsic qualities to women and men. Based in essentialism, it holds that there are certain universal, innate, biologically based features of gender that are at the root of many of the group differences observed in the behavior of men and women.
A variety of movements of feminist ideology have developed over the years. They vary in goals, strategies, and affiliations. They often overlap, and some feminists identify themselves with several branches of feminist thought.
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Sally J. Scholz is an American Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University and former editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Her research focuses on social philosophy, political philosophy, and feminist theory. Her early work involves issues of violence against women, oppression and peacemaking, and then progresses to ethics of advocacy and violence against women in conflict settings, including war rape and just war theory. Her recent research involves these issues in addition to solidarity. She has published four single-author books and edited three academic journals, among many other publications.
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