The question of whether the “general public” should wear masks to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 continues to be debated. In Canada, the consensus among medical authorities such as the impressive Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, has been that for a number of reasons only medical professionals should wear masks. Tam […]
I’m Disabled and Need a Ventilator to Live. Am I Expendable During This Pandemic?
In the fifth chapter of Foucault and Feminist Philosophy of Disability, I develop the argument that bioethics is a eugenic technology of government that facilitates normalization of the population through strategies such as “quality of life” assessments. I also argue that the intentional and nonsubjective forms of power that motivate bioethics require the exclusion of […]
COVID-19 and The Naturalization of Vulnerability
Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and especially since its effects began to be more directly experienced in Canada, I have carefully watched growing discussions about the pandemic, “seniors,” disabled people, “vulnerability,” and nursing homes unfold on social media and in the mainstream popular press. In particular, I am attentive to the ways that […]
Happy Trans Day of Visibility!
Today is Trans Day of Visibility, so it seems like the ideal time to remind you that in December of last year, Ray Briggs wrote a fantastic guest post for BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY entitled, “Practical Suggestions for My Cis Colleagues in Philosophy.” You can find Ray’s guest post on BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY here. On Facebook, Ray linked […]
Facing the COVID-19 Crisis in Japan With a Disability*
By Mark Bookman and Michael Gillan Peckitt Michael [The Limping Philosopher]: I am an academic living in Kobe and I work at Osaka University. I have cerebral palsy and, while I can get around with the aid of a walking stick, I have very little movement in the left side of my body. My disability also […]
COVID-19 Pandemic: A Crisis of Care*
By The Care Collective (Andreas Chatzidakis, Jamie Hakim, Jo Littler, Catherine Rottenberg, Lynne Segal) We are in a global crisis: a new historical moment. The days pass, the virus expands its reach, fatalities rise and the world goes into unprecedented lockdown. Yet the current crisis is not only the result of a new pathogen circulating around […]
CFP: What Is Gender and What Do We Want It To Be? Manchester, Sept. 9-11, 2020 (deadline: May 15, 2020)
MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory The subject of this workshop is metaphysics of gender. For the three days the participants of the workshop will concentrate on studying together what is gender, what are genders, and closely related phenomena. Politics invariably involves gender. Even when this is not apparent, just scratch the surface and there it is, […]
Fabulous Syllabi and Free Content from Duke University Press
Duke University Press has compiled a series of fabulous syllabi on a variety of topics including trans rights, climate change, care, and police violence. Some of the content is free to read online, most of it available through September 30, 2020. Click on each link to get to the exciting content and start reading! Care […]
CFP: Conversations on African Philosophy of Mind, Consciousness and AI (deadline: Mar. 30, 2020)
Modern philosophers such as Rene Descartes, William Amo, and Patricia Churchland, have all sought to unravel the mind-body dilemma in many ways. What is immediately noticeable is the fact that the salient perspectives of modern African philosophers like Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye and Jonathan Chimakonam – are rarely engaged. Furthermore, the 21st century has seen the […]
#COVID19DecarcerateSyllabus
A Political Education Resource Curated by the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) CCWP is a grassroots social justice organization, with members inside and outside prison, that challenges the institutional violence imposed on women, transgender people, and communities of color by the prison industrial complex (PIC). We see the struggle for racial and gender justice as central […]