Feminism and Empowerment Workshop

Once a relatively obscure term, empowerment has recently enjoyed a remarkable rise to ubiquity in contemporary Anglophone public feminist discourse. Despite this—and with some notable exceptions—philosophers have been reluctant to take the concept seriously. Pervasive yet under- theorised, empowerment now circulates in increasingly malleable forms, its radical potential diluted as it is enlisted to legitimise and celebrate a wide range of practices, from eating ice cream and buying sanitary towels to undergoing cosmetic surgery or climbing the corporate ladder—each framed as an unassailable expression of personal agency. The aim of this workshop is to explore the concept of empowerment, and related themes, in order to examine the uses and abuses of this term, and explore what empowerment is in a feminist context, and what we want it to be.

Registration is free, but essential. If you would like to attend this workshop, please register here.

Schedule

Arrival and coffee from 9.30

9.55 Intro and Welcome

10.00 – 11.00 Ruby Schofield, ‘Rethinking Empowerment: An Ameliorative Analysis’

11.00 – 12.00 Filipa Melo Lopes, ‘Goddess Feminism as a Patriarchal Trap’

Lunch break 12.00 – 1.20pm (lunch not provided)

1.20 – 2.20 Charlotte Knowles, ‘Does Parenthood have an Epistemic Problem?’

2.20 – 3.20 Paula Keller, ‘What’s in a Name? Imposter and Imposter Syndrome’ 

3.20 – 3.45 Coffe Break

3.45 – 5.15 Keynote: Heather Widdows, ‘Beauty, Agency, Choice and Empowerment’

5.15 Drinks

6.30 Dinner for speakers

Speaker abstracts can be found here. For questions about the event, please contact Charlotte Knowles at c.e.knowles@rug.nl