The Eugene Weekly’s February 20 issue features a piece by UO M.A. alum Henry Houston on How We Became Our Data, the new book by Colin Koopman, UO Philosophy Associate Professor and Director of New Media & Culture. The article, “Blessed Be Thy Data” anticipates a book launch talk coming up on Thursday, February 27th at 6:30pm at the UO Law School, Room 110.

Camisha Russell, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, will be giving a CAS IR Talk “Race and Choice in the Era of Liberal Eugenics” on Monday, 2 March 2020, 3:30–5:00pm in the Knight Library Browsing Room.

Camisha joined the Department of Philosophy in 2017. She is currently Co-Editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Her primary research and teaching interests are in Critical Philosophy of Race, Feminist Philosophy, and Bioethics. The Assisted Reproduction of Race is her first book. Other recent publications include “Rights-holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice” in Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online (2018) and “Eugenics” in The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race (2017).

Talk abstract: What role does race play in assisted reproduction in a reproductive era of what we might call liberal eugenics? In this talk, I argue that this question can be addressed in terms of what Foucault called technologies of the self. By considering some examples of how identity features, including race, are used by people and couples in sperm donor selection, I show how these decisions (and their privatization) serve political (and indeed depoliticizing) purposes. Moreover, I suggest that pressure for racial matching in assisted reproduction serves not only to renaturalize notions of race, but to defend the new liberal eugenics by denying any racialized agenda.

Thursday February 6
2:00-3:50pm
Colloquium with Dwayne Tunstall
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Non-Peirce Editor, Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society
Co-editor, APA Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience
Executive Director, Philosophy Born of Struggle
Secretary, Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy at Grand Valley State University
“Idealism in Black: Reclaiming William H. Ferris’s Idealism and Philosophy of History”
110 Willamette
Flyer
Contact: Erin McKenna

On January 30, Philosophy Graduate Student Jane Nam will present a noon talk entitled, “Escape the Corset: Radical Korean Feminism.” Nam received a 2019-20 graduate student research award for her work from the Center for the Study of Women in Society. The talk will be held 12-1:30 p.m. in the CSWS Jane Grant Room, 330 Hendricks Hall, 1408 University Street.

South Korea is often deemed the beauty capital of the world, as the cosmetic surgery hub and home to one of the largest beauty industries in the world. The faces of female K-pop idols and K-drama celebrities have come to symbolize the K-beauty standard: perfection.

Beginning in the summer of 2018, however, young Korean women began posting pictures of themselves on social media, with shaved heads, androgynous clothing, and smashed makeup products. “Why do I want to be pretty?” “Do I want to be pretty?” These are the questions young women are asking themselves as they partake in what they call, the Escape-the-Corset Movement, or Tal-Corset (in Korean). The goal? Freedom to be human, and not “woman.”

Nam connected with over fifty women following the #escapethecorset movement. Her research brings to light, the strength, intelligence, and courage of Korean women who have demonstrated not just their potential but also a capacity for activism through concrete acts of feminism.

More upcoming Center for the Study of Women in Society events can be found on the CSWS Events page.

A joint UO-OHSU interdisciplinary team was selected for funding to organize a series of workshops on topics in “Responsible Data Science: Social Impacts and Ethical Challenges”. The team includes Colin Koopman, Department of Philosophy; Nicolae Morar, Department of Philosophy & Environmental Studies; Kristen Bell, Law School; Ramon Alvarado, Department of Philosophy; and graduate student Paul Showler, Department of Philosophy. The OHSU side of the collaboration is headed up by bioethicist and neurologist Eran Klein along with computer scientist and ethicist Steven Bedrick. The team will deliver workshops for research faculty and their lab researchers on both campuses beginning this spring term. Topics will include: algorithmic bias & discrimination, data privacy, and the impacts of information systems in human agency & identity. Other projects funded through the Data Science Initiative are noted at AroundtheO: https://around.uoregon.edu/content/six-uo-researchers-awarded-data-science-seed-funding-grants?utm_source=ato01-21-20&utm_campaign=workplace.

Thursday January 16
2:00-3:50pm
Colloquium Panel I: Environmental Philosophy
*Nicolae Morar / Barbara Muraca
*Rebekah Sinclair (poststructuralism, animal studies, deconstruction)
*David Craig Baumeister (ethics, environmental philosophy, Kant)
110 Willamette
Flyer
Contact: Panel I Coordinator & Moderator Barbara Muraca

Russell Duvernoy (Ph.D, 2017) and Larry Alan Busk (Ph.D, 2018) have co-authored an article on political philosophy and climate change that will appear in a special issue of Radical Philosophy Review.

The DOI for the article can be found at: https://www.pdcnet.org/radphilrev/content/radphilrev_2019_0999_10_3_100

Dear faculty and colleagues,

We are excited to announce that the second issue of Puncta: Journal of Critical Phenomenology, is now available. The open-access issue can be found by following the following link, http://journals.oregondigital.org/index.php/pjcp, and selecting “current issue.” The second issue features pieces by Johanna Oksala and Beata Stawarska, among others.

As you may know, Devin, Sarah, Shannon, Kaja, Amie, and Martina launched the journal in 2017. Puncta is an open-access, peer-reviewed philosophical journal established with the specific intention of redirecting phenomenological intentionality. It is our belief that phenomenology is not a mere descriptive practice, but an enactment of critique, that is, an ongoing process of revealing and interrogating the concrete conditions, institutions, and assumptions that structure lived experience, phenomenological inquiry, and thinking. If you are not foamier with the journal and its mission, and would like to learn more, you can find more information here: http://journals.oregondigital.org/index.php/pjcp.

This fall, we moved to a rolling submissions policy. To continue generating visibility for the journal, we invite you to share the issue with colleagues to whom you think the work here would be of interest, as well as to submit to the journal.

We also are pleased to inform you that a special issue on Critical Phenomenology and Disability is forthcoming in 2020.

If you would like to get involved with the journal, do not hesitate to contact one of us.

We thank Daniela and, more broadly, the department for the support they have given us.

Sincerely,

The Editors of Puncta

Martina Ferrari, Devin Fitzpatrick, Sarah McLay, Shannon Hayes, Kaja Jenssen Rathe, and Amie Zimmer

Friday October 18
10:00-11:50am
Workshop with Dee Mortensen, editorial director of Indiana University Press
“Good Writing Practices for Scholars: Argumentation, Clear Thesis Statements, and Tables of Contents”
191 Anstett Hall
Contact: Daniela Vallega-Neu

Dr. Bonnie Mann, Professor of Philosophy, has written an article for the New York Times: “The Toxic Masculinity of the Trump Administration” which discusses how it took a woman to break the spell that appeared to put the president above the law.

A link to the article is available at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/19/opinion/the-toxic-masculinity-of-the-trump-administration.html