Introduction I recently came across this article on Vice.com asking filmmakers to “stop making hot actors play normal people.” The author indicts filmmakers for casting too few “normal” people. I think that this is a much-needed critique, but it lacks philosophical nuance, which I intend to provide here. My analysis will explore the harms of mainstream beauty […]
Registration NOW OPEN for Philosophy, Disability and Social Change 3 (#PhiDisSocCh3), Dec. 6-9, Online!
I am very happy to let you know that registration is NOW OPEN for Philosophy, Disability and Social Change 3 (#PhiDisSocCh3), the third edition of the pathbreaking conference that I co-organize with Jonathan Wolff under the auspices of the Alfred Landecker Programme at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Registration is free and […]
About the Ableism That Conditions Your Criticisms of Zoom (Again)
I’ve reposted (from June 2022) this explanation of how ableism undergirds the veneration and continued production of in-person-only philosophy conferences and workshops because I increasingly see notices and announcements about them in philosophical venues. For my part, I have made the decision to not promote in-person-only conferences on BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. That is why you see […]
Preliminary Program for Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 3 (#PhiDisSocCh3), Zoom/Online, Dec. 6-9, 2022
Below you will find the preliminary program for the amazing Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 3 (#PhiDisSocCh3) conference that takes place December 6-8, 13:00-18:20 GMT/8:00-13:20 EST/5-10:20 PST and Dec. 9 13:00-19:00 GMT/8:00-14:00 EST/5:00-11:00 PST. Registration and additional information for this pathbreaking conference will be made available soon! The schedule below (and henceforth) is in GMT. […]
Nursing Home Incarceration and the Fate of One Canadian Philosopher
Throughout the pandemic, I have written a number of posts on BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (e.g. here, here here, here, here) and more formal publications about the horrors of nursing homes in Canada and abroad and the ageism and ableism that the institutionalization of elders and disabled people reinforces. In “Philosophy of Disability, Conceptual Engineering, and the […]
What Can Deans Do?
Samantha Brennan is the Dean of the College of Arts at the University of Guelph. Hence, she is one of the most influential and powerful members of that university community. Brennan is also one of the most influential and powerful members of the philosophical community in Canada and, I would argue, the most influential and […]
Whose Academic Freedom? (Feminist) Bioethics, MAiD, and the Professionalization of Ableist Exceptionism
Since the last months of 2020, I have written numerous posts about MAiD and Bill C-7 at BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY in order to inform its international readership about these events in Canada and to explain the links between the events, the disproportionate influence of bioethics in Canadian philosophy, and the eugenic culture in Canadian philosophy that […]
Dialogues on Disability on Wednesday, August 17th, at 8 am EST
I have read almost all of your interviews and they are always wonderful. … I am really looking forward to the next installment of Dialogues on Disability.” — Adrian Piper “I’ve learned so much from Shelley Lynn Tremain’s Dialogues on Disability through the years (and found out about so much exciting work being done by disabled […]
Canadian Philosophers: Your Ableism is Killing Us (CW: Suicide)
If you pay some attention to Canadian philosophy Twitter, you might have gotten the impression over the last week that the most pressing issue for Canadian philosophers was the closure due to the Emancipation Day holiday on Monday of stores that sell high-quality coffee beans. If you scrolled through Twitter a bit longer, however, you […]
Full List of Participants for Philosophy, Disability and Social Change 3, Online, Dec. 6-9, 2022
The planning for Philosophy, Disability and Social Change 3 is gearing up. I expect to post a preliminary program for the third edition of this pathbreaking online conference in September. Registration will open at that time. In the meantime, however, the full list of participants–presenters and chairs–of this exciting conference has now been finalized and […]