Feminist Philosophy Commons^™

The Existential Ambiguity Of Authentic Love In Alice Diop's Saint Omer, Kelli Fuery

CCI Articles and Research

Using Simone de Beauvoir's and Frantz Fanon's existentialist phenomenology, this article examines an existentialist ethics of recognition as an act of authentic love in Alice Diop's Saint Omer (2022). Loosely based on a true story, Saint Omer tells a story of filicide: Laurence Coly leaves her baby on a beach to die and we follow the subsequent courtroom drama as it unfolds. The film also follows Rama, a literature professor intending to write up the case as a contemporary version of the Medea myth. I suggest Saint Omer presents an ethics of recognition in its avoidance of the superficial question …

Neither Academy Nor Convent: Reconciling Religious And Feminist Readings Of Mary Astell, Hannah E. Brown

Honors Theses

Mary Astell is frequently interpreting through competing frameworks: as either a feminist advocate of women’s rational autonomy or a religious conservative committed to Anglican orthodoxy. This division reflects a broader tendency in Astell scholarship to separate her intellectual, moral, and theological commitments into distinct and often conflicting domains. This paper argues that such fragmentation is not grounded in Astell’s own philosophy but is instead the result of interpretive assumptions—particularly the view that intellectual autonomy and religious obedience are incompatible. By examining Astell’s account of reason, education for women, and spiritual development, this paper demonstrates that these elements form an integrated …

Finding Luis: A Creative Nonfiction Account Of Law & Society, Jason M. Leggett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This essay explores the contradictions in legal theory and human experience through creative nonfiction. Its main purpose is to argue that a truly just society requires acknowledging the profound influence of individual narratives on the law. This is supported by blending personal narratives, critical analysis, and philosophical inquiry to reveal the gap between codified law and lived realities for marginalized individuals. This unique Legal Poetics methodology employs a series of six vignettes, such as the author's and Luis's shared experiences with traumatic brain injury and the denial of justice, as data. By integrating autoethnography, law as narrative, and performativity theories, …

The Dialectic Of Airless Space, Ophelia Arc

Masters Theses

The Dialectic of Airless Space is a cumulative, cross-disciplinary research project that explores ‘airless space’ as a somatic and psychological condition shaped by institutional environments. Unfolding over time through five interrelated books, the project weaves together writing, ephemera, textile sculpture, and drawing to archive the invisible architectures of bodily and mental experience.

Navigating Climate Action: The River As Teacher For Eco-Literacy, Educational Regeneration And Creative Participation, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cultures' engagements with land and its more-than-human elements reveal their attitudes toward these dimensions, spanning a spectrum from reciprocal to transactional practices. In time, these engagements form a body of knowledges that nurtures the culture and its land, or arrests their vital and diverse qualities. This research project aims to bring to light how the different ways of engaging with and relating to land are embedded in knowledge production, distribution and communication—in short, in general educational endeavors and their philosophies—to promote a better understanding of the principles of eco-literacy. Additionally, a purpose of this project is to provide insights into …

Eros And The Sublime: Tools For Reaching Toward An Altered Ecological Consciousness, Aineka Carlson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores connections between the Kantian sublime and Anne Carson’s ideas regarding “eros.” Since Kant’s Critique of Judgement was published in 1790, the Kantian sublime has grown in popularity and been utilized by theorists and creative writers alike. While the Kantian sublime is often associated with nature in popular culture, there are certain egocentric and phallocentric elements of this mode of thinking that might inhibit a biocentric mindset. Through a character study of Oryx from Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake, this thesis draws relations between the subjugation of women, nature, and the ways in which the popularized …

Non-Conformity As Queerness: The Phenomenology Of Gender Identity Beyond The Binary, Gretl Josselyn

Honors Scholar Theses

Gender non-conformity is a defiance of fixed binary ideas of gender identity and expression which are enforced within societies. The phenomenological concept of breaking free from expectations based on one’s gender assigned at birth allows freedom of expression and an acceptance of non-conformity. Building on the works of Judith Butler, Sara Ahmed, María Lugones, and Iria Marion Young, among others, the act of performance and queering one’s identity and actions are explored. Gender identity is constantly evolving, and each expectation of what one’s gender expression should look like is a performance put on to conform. Individuals are not born with …

Complicity, Eliana Luxemburg-Peck

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What does it mean to be complicit in diffuse collective wrongs like structural racism, gender-based oppression, or environmental damage, and what responsibilities are entailed by complicity? Moral philosophers have often understood complicity to consist in some degree of inherited culpability, arising from knowing or intentional contributions to the bad acts of a primary wrongdoer. But these theories fail to explain complicity in the foregoing contexts, and cannot justify needed efforts to hold individuals accountable for unwitting contributions to systemic wrongs and injustices. In response to this gap, my dissertation defends a novel reconceptualization of complicity as participation in collectively perpetrated …

An Existentialist Love, Garrett T. Harrison

The Corinthian

This paper seeks to establish an existentialist concept of virtuous Love by discussing the works of famous modern Existentialist thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus within the realm of Love as discussed by Bell Hooks and Skye Cleary. It also seeks to express the significance of this Love within modern society. Our notion of Existentialist Love is built upon Sartre’s concept of authenticity, and branches into the inter-personal through Beauvoir’s notion of reciprocal, virtuous love. It is then expounded into the greater collective through a discussion of fear as the breeder of inauthenticity and is …

Recognition And Domination: A Hegelian Approach To Evolving Gender And Technology Paradigms, Zachary Davis

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to develop a strong account of recognition. It begins with a Hegel-inspired account of recognition as a fundamental desire that drives humanity. This account establishes recognition as fundamental to the initial subject formation of independent self-consciousnesses as agents. I offer the lord-bondsman dualism to provide a critique of domination as oppositional to securing the means for recognition. This entails that, as history progresses the world ought to move towards universally adopting mutual recognition relationships without domination. I adopt this goal as an ideal form of recognition. In Chapter 2, I apply this recognitional framework to gender. Through …

Recognition, Subject Formation, And Agency: Marginalization And Agency In Feminist Dystopian Narratives, Samantha J. Quade

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Though more frequently discussed in regard to freedom and intersubjectivity, subject formation and recognition have significant potential in helping us understand the structures of power, domination, and resistance in our lived experiences. Through the portrayal of recognition within literature - particularly within feminist dystopian literature - we can see significant examples of not only recognition experiences between characters, but also the acknowledgement of or resistance against unjust and oppressive power structures through recognition. To explore this phenomena, I begin by assessing the experience of empathy – or moral imagination, according to Martha Nussbaum – in reading and in writing, along …

Japanese-English Translation: Nishida Kitarō––“Self-Determination Of The Eternal Now” 「永遠の今の自己限定」、西田幾多郎著（昭和六年七月） (July 1931) §1 Of 4; Complete Draft (Supersedes Draft Of 2 Jan 19); Translated By Christopher Southward; Revision And Expansion Underway, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Japanese-English Translation: Nishida Kitarō––“Self-Determination of the Eternal Now” (July 1931) 「永遠の今の自己限定」、西田幾多郎著（昭和六年七月）

§1 of 4; Complete Draft (Supersedes Draft of 2 Jan 2019)

Translated from the Japanese by Christopher Southward; Revision and Expansion Underway, October 2023

Feminist Pragmatism In The Nonprofit Sector, Elise Lael Kieffer

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Many nonprofit organizations are founded with passion and energy, rather than with expertise. Meanwhile, theorists and researchers write about that sector with distance from the day-to-day practice. This article relies on the analogy of a bicycle wheel to understand the inter-workings of the nonprofit sector, as a whole. The analogy is understood and interpreted through the philosophical lens of Feminist Pragmatism and aims to begin a conversation among and between nonprofit researchers, practitioners, educators, and recipients of services. When all are in communion, the wheel functions perfectly.

Artistic, Artworld, And Aesthetic Disobedience, Adam Burgos, Sheila Lintott

Faculty Journal Articles

Jonathan Neufeld proposes a concept of aesthetic disobedience that parallels the political concept of civil disobedience articulated by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice. The artistic transgressions he calls aesthetic disobedience are distinctive in being public and deliberative in their aim to bring about specific changes in accepted artworld norms. We argue that Neufeld has offered us valuable insight into the dynamic and potent nature of art and the artworld; however, we contend that Neufeld errs by constraining aesthetic disobedience to the artworld. Through a reconsideration of the parallel between aesthetic and civil disobedience, we illustrate how aesthetic disobedience …

Intentional Passing And Closeted Agency, Logan Bohlinger

Theses

It is characteristic of closeted queer agents that they behave so as to pass as heterosexual, cisgender, or otherwise as non-queer. Thus, I take it that an action-theoretic account of the phenomenon of straight-passing is essential to developing an action-theoretic account of the practical disposition of being “in the closet.” To progress towards a broader account of closeted queer agency, I endeavor in this thesis to clarify the patterns of practical reasoning involved in straight-passing with an aim to demonstrate that straight-passing, in all its forms, is something that a queer agent can intentionally do. However, a queer agent often …

Mexica Monism And Daoist Ethics In The Philosophy Of Gloria Anzaldúa, Saraliza Anzaldúa

Comparative Philosophy

Critical scholarship regarding the philosophy of Gloria Anzaldúa has proliferated in recent decades, especially in the fields of feminist theory, phenomenology, and epistemology. However, there is little analysis of the metaphysics which undergird their work and make possible their views on identity, experience, and community politics. First, this article will explore the significance of Anzaldúa’s ‘nos/otras’ and its relation to Mexica (Aztec) monistic metaphysics. Such a concept resists an us/them construction of the world because it situates the other as us: the Spanish word for ‘we’ is ‘nosotros’ and holds the ‘other/otros’ as its …

Decolonizing Genderqueer: An Inquiry Into The Gender Binary, Resistance, And Imperialistic Social Categories, Lauren E. Abruzzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines core metaphysical properties of nonbinary and genderqueer categories in dominant U.S. contexts. I address a prevailing argument that these categories, by definition, resist the gender binary and are therefore radical modes of existing. In response, I put forth a view of ‘nonbinary’ and ‘genderqueer’ that I call the Diachronic Approach, which describes these categories as yet another set of tools within an imperialistic gender system, much like ‘man’ or ‘woman.’ In other words, they are what I refer to as imperialistic social categories. While nonbinary and genderqueer people do not fall perfectly within the U.S. gender …

Posthuman Ethics In The Science Fiction Of Rosa Montero And Rita Indiana, Brittany Frodge

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

In this dissertation I put Posthumanist theory in tension with the ‘lived’ experiences of the posthuman protagonists of two recent Science Fiction trilogies. My aim in doing so is to uncover the shortcomings of Posthumanist accounts of ethics and discover alternative paths forward.

The first chapter of my dissertation is an overview of Posthumanist theory and Science Fiction, with a particular emphasis on the contributions Hispanic authors and women have made to the genre. In the second chapter, I develop a critique of Posthumanist ethics that place the onus of ethical-political intervention on marginalized subjects through a close reading of …

Who Gets To Know? Combating Colonial Epistemic Oppression, Timothy J. Cotter

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Independent Study thesis is divided into five chapters. In the introduction, I explain the focus of the paper. In the second chapter, “Landscapes of Epistemic Injustice,” I clarify the concept of epistemic injustice by breaking it down into hermeneutical injustice and testimonial injustice. I argue that we have obligations to each other as knowers and producers of knowledge, and the content of these obligations within a given situation depends upon the social position of both the speaker and the audience or audiences. In the third chapter, “Epistemic Oppression and Colonialism,” I contend that Western colonial projects frequently enact third-order …

Desde El Fuego Que En Mí Arde: Performance, Literatura Y Cine Afro-Latinoamericano Producidos Por Mujeres Afrodescendientes En Perú, Cuba Y Brasil (1960–2000), Elena Ekatherina Chavez Goycochea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines different films, literary, and performance art pieces created by contemporary afro-descendant women from Peru, Cuba, and Brazil after the sixties with emphasis on the most relevant works of Conceição Evaristo, Sara Gómez, Victoria Santa Cruz, and Lucía Charún-Illescas. I focus my research on the crucial role these artists played in the cultural identity formation of Latin America when inserting ‘race’ as a category of socio-political analysis and cultural production. How did their films, performances, and texts challenge national narratives and imaginaries after 1960? Although in the sixties, women improved their civil rights in different countries, the ‘mujer …

(Un)Becoming Human: The Systemic Exclusion Of Transgender/Gender Nonconforming/Nonbinary Individuals Through Hegemonic Conceptions Of Personhood, Lucy Sloan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this essay, I explore the issue of transgender/nonbinary/gender nonconforming (henceforth referred to as TNBGNC) oppression and exclusion through a philosophical lens. To do so, I use the notion of personhood. I ask the question: How are TNBGNC individuals excluded from personhood and its associated rights? To be a person is the first qualification for rights such as political involvement and social inclusion. I argue that societal conceptions of personhood are rooted in the gender binary, and that sexual difference and gender performance are essential for recognition as a person worthy of such rights. Therefore, TNBGNC oppression and exclusion is …

"La Llorona": Evolución, Ideología Y Uso En El Mundo Hispano, Raquel Sáenz-Llano

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis studies the evolution, ideology and use of the myth of La Llorona through time in the Hispanic World. Considering this myth as one of the most known traditional narratives of the American continent, I begin by providing visual, ethnohistorical and ethnographical insights of weeping in Mesoamerica and South America and the specific mention of a weeping woman in some Spanish chronicles to say how western values were stablished in “the new continent” through this legend. I suggest that during the postcolonialism the legend did not tell anymore about a mother that cries and search a place for their …

Inviting Others In: How Oppression Affects The Self, Mylo Apollo Parker-Emerson

Senior Independent Study Theses

Broadly, the focus of this thesis is to consider how oppression affects the self. More specifically, this project supports the claim that there is a conflicting imposition (by being oppression) placed on queer folk in black (American) Christian spaces that affects the self. The position is elucidated through a four-chapter structure. In the first chapter, I provide a charitable reading to Mead’s theory of the self. I end the chapter by considering how a dissonance may occur. In chapter two, I define identity through a hermeneutical lens and supplement this theory by considering the ways identity can be imposed and …

Experimental Philosophy And Feminist Epistemology: Conflicts And Complements, Amanda Huminski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The recent turn toward experimental philosophy, particularly in ethics and epistemology, might appear to be supported by feminist epistemology, insofar as experimental philosophy signifies a break from the tradition of primarily white, middle-class men attempting to draw universal claims from within the limits of their own experience and research. However, the relationship between the two is not so straightforward, and an analysis of their connection bears on broader questions concerning intuitions, philosophical methodology, and epistemic standards more generally. This dissertation project aims to 1) examine the conception of intuitions that appears to underpin many projects in experimental philosophy, 2) levy …

Feeling As Knowing: Trans Phenomenology And Epistemic Justice, B. Lee Aultman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a critical intervention into the literatures on epistemic and phenomenological claims about trans experiences, and embodied knowledge more generally. It also addresses the conception of ordinary affects, or feelings of self-adjustment in everyday life, and their political implications for trans people. Traditional literatures on the political tend to avoid questions of embodiment and the experiences of everyday life in favor of institutional interpretations of courts, elections, and protest movements. This has become particularly true of scholarship on trans politics and theories of ordinary life. These literatures often reduce political movements to their presumed universal intentions for constitutional …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Enact In Disappearance, Stephanie Demer

Theses and Dissertations

Enact in Disappearance excavates the unseen through the medium of photography in order to chart a new strategy for knowing and communing with a complicated world.

Ecofeminism: The Path Towards Healing The Earth, Jamie Thompson

Dialogue & Nexus

The concept of the patriarchy, or any concept in which one group dominates another, is inseparable from the formation of human kind’s domination of nature. This domination of nature has led to the current the ecological crisis humanity faces. Those who deny climate change can admit to the massive amounts of pollution, trash, and deforestation. Despite this worsening economic crisis, those in power have been slow to react. Women can ultimately provide and lead the movement to solve this ecological crisis through the growing movement of Ecofeminism. In the philosophy of Ecofeminism, individuals recognize and reject western dualistic thinking that …

Volume 3 Editorial, Daniel Brannan

Dialogue & Nexus

No abstract provided.

Beauvoir, Abortion, And Women’S Liberation, Xhulia Gjokaj

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will present an argument for not restricting abortion. I will argue, based on Simone de Beauvoir’s views on women’s freedom and abortion, that it is important for women to receive safe and legal abortions if they wish to do so. I will then discuss Supreme Court rulings, such as Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and show how Beauvoir would defend the court’s rulings for not placing restrictions on abortion. And finally, I am going to apply her views to the recent state attempts to restrict access to safe abortions. My ultimate conclusion is that laws …