Informal Proceedings from the Panel Discussion on Diversity
By Carmen Maria Marcous and
Recently, Anglo-American philosophy has become something of a scandal. The disturbing lack of women and minorities in the field, combined with revelations of institutional discrimination and sexual harassment in several departments of Philosophy, have placed philosophy in the national and international spotlight. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, and other under-represented groups in the discipline have created blogs, conferences, task forces, guides, and other sites to give voice to, and address the concerns of, the philosophically marginalized. It is this background that gave rise to the formation of our panel on diversity at the 59th annual meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association. Our remarks here participate in a much larger, continuing conversation that we are inviting the reader to join. A list of resources for those interested in addressing philosophy’s “diversity problem” is attached at the end of the panel.
Carmen Maria Marcous and
Carmen Maria Marcous is a graduate student in the Department of Philosophy at Florida State
University. The topic of diversity serves as a thematic cornerstone in a number of her current
research projects, and she has recently published elsewhere on the subject (see How to Solve the
Diversity Problem in the APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy, Spring 2014: Volume 13,
Number 2). Her interests include feminist and critical race theory, social and political philosophy,
and the history and philosophy of science and society. [email protected]
Shelley Park is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at the University of Central Florida.She is the author ofMothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood: Resisting Monomaternalism in Adoptive, Lesbian, Blended, and Polygamous Families (NY: SUNY Press, 2013) and is currently working on a monograph on the ethics of care in a technological age. Her interests include feminist philosophy, critical race theory, postcolonial theory, kinship studies and [email protected]
Brook J. Sadler is an Associate Professor of philosophy in the Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University of South Florida. She has published philosophical articles and philosophy, feminism, philosophy of emotion, and philosophy of film. [email protected]