How does gender affect our understanding and construction of knowledge (or ignorance)? Who counts as a knower and why? Do our social positions, for instance being gendered in a specific way, affect our access to knowledge (and if so, how)? Who is excluded from knowledge practices and how is this exclusion related to gender or race? Is scientific inquiry gendered and what could it mean to make such a claim? What could a feminist conception of knowledge look like? To address these and other questions we will discuss different theoretical views and concepts within feminist epistemology, including theories about situated knowledge, standpoint theory, feminist empiricism and feminist philosophy of science. The readings will involve texts from Elizabeth Anderson, Patricia Hill Collins, Sandra Harding, Nancy Hartsock, bell hooks, Helen Longino, María Lugones, Charles Mills and Uma Narayan among others.
To participate in this class, you will need to submit a short essay by the second session of the class (second week of term). Further information will be made available on the Moodle page of this class soon.
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Mirjam Müller