A warm welcome goes out to Dr. Anne Wachtler of Solana Beach, California who joined SSWP in November, 2015 Left: Christine de Pizan. Illustration from her City of Ladies.

SSWP Member Laura Weed of the College of St. Rose, will chair a session at the International Institute for Field Being on Friday 8 January from 11:15 - 1:15 at which SSWP Member Melanie Johnson-Moxley of Columbia College will present Friday 8 January "A Whitheadean Assessment of Disruption." 

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Philosophy A-Level Courses

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Uberlandia, Brazil: Conference on Women Philosophers

The Universidade Federal de Uberlândiais is located between Brasilia and Sao Paolo. Last month it hosted an International Colloquium at its Santa Monica Campus:  Women in Philosophy 23  November 27, 2015. 

From the Catholic Pontifical University of Minas Gerais (the Brazilian State that is home to the Santa Monica Campus of the Federal University of Uberlandia), Magda Guadalupe dos Santos spoke on “Feminism as a philosophical practice of life.” Berlendis Vinicius de Figueiredo, of the host institution presented on “The Ethical, the Moral and Women.” SSWP member  Ruth Hagengruber of the Universität Paderborn, Germany presented “2600 years of women philosophers - a critical view into history.” She was followed by Georgia Amitrano of the host institution who discussed  “The myth of the genesis of women: women as "something" a 'be another' beyond the phallus” and Rafael Haddock-Lobo of the Federal University of Rio de Janiero who spoke about the transgendered philosopher Paul (formerly Beatriz) Preciado and the concept of contrasexuality: an introductory prosthesis.”

There were also several Round Tables. One was a discussion featuring  host university scholars Carlos Gonzales who presented "The thought of Julia Kristeva;" Fabio Nascimento who spoke on "Susan Haack - mediation between scientism and anti-scientific attitudes, "and Diego Avedagno whose presentation was "The theoretical overview of GEM Anscombe: exposition of philosophical development of a British thinker."  

A second Round Table featured Fernanda Miguens of the Federal University of Rio de Janiero: "The evening gender: considering the woman in Sufism; " Luciene Torino and Suellen Teixeira, both of the host university, each gave a presentation on Defining. 

Alexandre Guimarães of the host institution spoke on Elisabeth of Bohemia and the mind-body interaction problem;  Wojciech Starzyński from the Polish Academy of Sciences, gave a a presentation on WW II - era Polish philosopher Irena Krońska and her philosophical life as seen from her correspondence with Czech philosopher Jan Patočka.  

Another session featuredAndré Duarte of the Federal University of Parana, speaking on“ Judith Butler and Hannah Arendt in dialogue: rethinking ethics and politics,” followed by Alcino Eduardo Bonella of the host institution exploring the subject of Women and Rationality.

In an evening session, Alejandra Ciriza of the National University of Cuyo Argentina, offered a paper Women in Philosophy: Reflections from the South. At the same session, Francesca Izzo of the Eastern University of Naples, Italy presented a paper on the philosophical roots of feminist culture as opposed to the liberation of gender.

The conference concluded with the film Àgora, on the life of Hypatia of Alexandria  It is extremely heartening to realize that scholarly work on women in the history of philosophy has spread as far as central Brazil.

To our colleagues there, we offer congratulations for such a diverse and substantive conference, and a heart-felt Bem-vindo à pesquisa sobre as contribuições das mulheres na filosofia!

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Emilie du Chatelet Conference: Paderborn, Germany

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Conference Announcement: The University of Groningen, Netherlands will sponsor a conference Early Modern Women on Metaphysics, Religion and Science, 21-23 March, 2016. Confirmed invited speakers include SSWP members Jacqueline Broad and Ruth Hagengruber.

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Conference Announcement: University of Paderborn, Germany under the direction of SSWP member Ruth Hagengruber will sponsor a conference Women Phenomenologists on Social Ontology, February 11-12, 2016. 

Nancy Tomaselli's lay audience for DVD Volume 1,

   Busted!! A Pictorial History of Women Philosophers Part 1:       Ancient Women Philosophers

About a year ago SSWP member Nancy Tomaselli came across information about the work SSWP members have done with regards to women philosophers.  Nancy is a retired RN, a Health Care Administrator and a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator in Florida.  She reports feeling overwhelmed with the impact this work will have on women's place in society.  She has read seven philosophy books including Waithe’s A History of Women Philosophers Volumes 1 and 2, as well as several published articles about women philosophers. She joined SSWP at the Philosopher-Queen level in order to obtain Busted!! A Pictorial History of Women Philosophers Volume 1 and is eagerly awaiting the second DVD. 

Nancy is interested in knowing how our work has impacted academia and courses in philosophy, and whether works by women philosophers have been integrated into philosophy programs.

“I also read about Project Vox and wonders whether there are others who are exploring the inclusion of women philosophers.”

Ms. Tomaselli took her first course in philosophy about a year ago, a two-semester program, an introduction to philosophy at the Senior Learning Program held at the College of Central Florida in Ocala.  She reports that

“…it was a total shock to see the negative and emotional reaction of my male teacher when I asked him why there were no women [philosophers covered] in his course. That experience began my passionate research into the area of women in philosophy when I discovered all that you have accomplished.  When I share this information with other people they are as shocked as I was: this is so new to those of us who never studied philosophy and even those that have.”  

She has strong feelings that information about women philosophers  needs to  

“be mainstreamed, so that everyone, not just academics, is exposed to this information, hence [I propose] the idea [of [creating] non-academic books for popular consumption and philosophy teaching in high schools.  . . . [M]y concern is that this movement not die out with our generation.”

The Senior Learning Program asked her to present information on the subject of women’s contributions throughout the history of philosophy.  She presented a brief overview to a meeting of the teachers in this program and reports that the interest and response was very positive.  

She writes: 

“I expected that what you have done would have hit the world like an explosion, so I don't understand why I never heard about it.  I feel that this new information should have hit women with the same excitement that finding the Dead Sea Scrolls had on Biblical scholars . . . I feel that this information that you are unearthing is so important that I feel compelled to share it at local senior learning programs. We are old enough to have experienced gender bias and to have witnessed the waves of the feminist movement, and being retired, we have enough time now to explore new subjects.”

On Wednesday October 14, 2015 Ms. Tomaselli presented Busted!! DVD Volume 1 to a group of senior citizens at the Senior Learning center in Ocala.  She reports that it was received with tremendous interest.

 “They asked so many questions and there was such interesting discussion that we couldn't finish the DVD. They asked for another session so they could watch the remainder of the DVD and continue the discussion, which is being arranged.”

When Nancy was setting up the session, more people wanted to register than she had anticipated, so the Director of the Senior Learning Program asked her to repeat the presentation. 

“DVD 1 was received very well by the small group I spoke with.  The group was amazed at the incredible wealth of information within it and some even want to hear it a second time.  The Director of the program attended and said it was very powerful and received rave reviews.”

The second presentation of DVD 1, part 1 Ancient Women Philosophers, will take place in January, with  part 2 Women Philosophers of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance being presented in February.  Due to the enormous interest, the program has requested that Ms. Tomaselli present DVD Volume 2 Early Modern Women Philosophers in March.

Nancy also attends the Socrates Cafe where she raised a question about women philosophers for possible discussion and several in the group loudly responded that there are no women philosophers.  

She notes:

“It seems that the revolution/revelation you began in academia has not yet reached our little corner of mainstream Florida.  The only article I have seen in non-academic literature was something I found in Cosmopolitan while doing research which reviewed about twelve women philosophers. The amazed reaction I experienced in learning about your work is shared by anyone I share this information with.  Thank you [Mary Ellen Waithe & SSWP] for all of the groundwork you and other scholars have laid. I appreciate your appendix in Volume 3 [of A History of Women Philosophers] as it helps me put information in perspective as I move on in this new study. I have spent forty-five years in Nursing and Health Care Administration, so in retirement it is exciting to find such a new and exciting subject to pursue.”

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John Conley:

Writings of Resistance

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Therese Boos Dykeman presents at the National Coalition of Independent Scholars

In June, 2015, SSWP member Therese Boos Dykeman conducted a workshop for the National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS) meeting at Yale University. She reports that "it was wonderful seeing so many women involved in really important scholarly work. Like the 19th century meetings in the Midwest where women and men read Aristotle and Plato in the original Greek, small groups or maybe even of a couple of women continue to come together from all across the US to work with profound ideas."  Her workshop, (jointly facilitated by another Independent Scholar) "How To Transform Research Into Reality: Writing For Your Venue And Audience" helped other scholars explore the best ways of transforming research into an interesting oral presentation (including the use of images and quotes). Then, attendees learned about the aspects of style, register and target audience which come into play when transforming an oral presentation into a publishable article.

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Mary Ellen Waithe and Dorothy Rogers article on the Busted DVD Series (forthcoming)

As announced in 2014, Mary Ellen Waithe and Dorothy Rogers received a grant from the Americaan Philosophical Association to help with the production costs associated with the production of the Busted!! DVD series. As a part of the grant requirements we were to write an article about the project.  We are pleased that our article: "Busted!! A Pictorial History of Women Philosophers DVD series: Pedagogical Tool to Improve Inclusiveness and Diversity?" Will appear in the APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy, forthcoming, Spring, 2016. In this article we discuss the lack of diversity regarding women in the profession of philosophy and suggest reasons why women students do not pursue the profession. We offer SSWP's DVD series as a pedagogical tool that will encourage more women to consider entering the profession while enlightening [clueless] professors as to earlier women's myriad contributions.

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Through a series of email exchanges with Mary Ellen Waithe, Emerita member Kate Lindemann has proposed that student and un/underemployed members (AXIOTHEA level) as well as faculty (SOPHIA level or PHILOSOPHER-QUEEN level) be invited to submit an article on a woman philosopher for the Kate's Pages section of the SSWP website.  Beginning January 2016, articles that have been peer-reviewed will be designated as such. Eventually, all articles will have undergone rigorous peer review. So we will be gradually transforming those pages from simple informational pages to peer-reviewed articles, creating in effect, an electronic encyclopedia of women in the history of philosophy.

For student members: Have your Philosophy faculty advisor or other Philosophy professor agree to allow you to do an Independent Study, Independent Research or similar course OR to do a term paper about a woman philosopher selected from the list below.  Have your faculty member contact Mary Ellen Waithe at sswpdues@gmail.com to reserve a philosopher for you. That page will be reserved for you until the end of your term (NO extensions!). Submit to your faculty member a paper in MS Word or Doc that follows the format of articles in Kate's Pages / Women Philosophers. It may have footnotes/endnotes and must include a bibliography of original works by that philosopher and secondary articles/books about her.  Have your faculty member comment on and grade your paper as though it were being peer-reviewed. This is a higher standard than an "A" Graduate Student paper is held to, so you may need to make revisions as suggested by your faculty member. Have your faculty member submit the paper to SSWP by emailing it to sswpdues@gmail.com.  You will be informed when it has been published to our website, and your faculty member will receive a letter confirming that they have refereed a paper for the Society for the Study of Women Philosophers.

For faculty: Email Mary Ellen Waithe at sswpdues@gmail.com to reserve a philosopher for you. That page will be reserved for you for four months. Submit to sswpdues@gmail.com a research paper on that philosopher, following the format of articles in Kate's Pages/Women Philosophers. The paper must be in MSWord or Doc. It may have footnotes/endnotes, and must include a bibliography of original works by that philosopher and secondary articles/books about her.  It will be peer-reviewed by a SSWP member who may make suggestions for revising and re-submission.  

Kate is quite right in noting that we are now in an era where electronic publications --if peer reviewed-- are worth (to a student seeking admission to a graduate program, or to faculty member seeking tenure) every bit as much as a print publication.   

Here's a list of women philosophers about whom articles are solicited:

If you've already published a book or an article or a chapter about one of the above philosophers, won't you please consider writing up a brief article about her for the women philosophers pages? Those pages are such an important resource for undergraduate students. If we hope to integrate the canon of philosophy along lines of gender, we must "grow" the next generation of scholars who have an interest in doing so. That "cultivation" begins with undergraduate students. And it is they who use Kate's Pages. 

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In the course of your research have you come across public commemoration of a woman philosopher?  Is there a street, a plaque, a statue in a public space where a woman philosopher is commemorated?  If so, submit a JPEG photo and a caption indicating the name of philosopher and the type of artifact (street sign, statue, etc.) to sswpdues@gmail.com and in the Subject line indicate "Where in the World?" and your submission will appear in a future newsletter.  Our last newsletter featured Olympe de Gouges, Mary Astell, Caroline Herschell, Anne Conway, Mary Wollstonecraft, Oliva Sabuco, Simone de Beauvoir and Mechtild of Magdebourg. Below, an image of a reconstructed model of Fort Christina, in Fort Christina National Park on the Christina River in Delaware, USA. 

Model of Fort Christina. Named for Philosopher-Queen Kristina of Sweden

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Amazon.com wants to give us money!  All you need to do is shop!

Now, how hard can that be???

5. Click the Select button, and voila!

Even if you forgot and started at Amazon.com, you will be asked if you want to go through Amazon Smile. It's an instant transition that won't cause you to lose any data if you're in the middle of shopping.

SSWP receives ½ of 1% of qualified purchases (does not include subscriptions). So if you buy $100 worth of books, or a $100 Barbecue grill, SSWP will receive 50 cents. That might not sound like much, but if 20 members each spend $100/month on Amazon by going through Smile.amazon.com, that’s $120/year contributed to our Scholarship fund. That amount alone will enable a student member to stay a night in the hotel in order to present a paper at our session!  Please enable this no-cost contribution to our organization by taking the time to set up your Amazon smile account. If you also have Amazon Prime, your purchases will still ship for free.I 

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Pay Your Dues.  We know you're embarrassed, but...

Oh, you haven't paid your dues? Hmm.. If you haven't paid your 2016 dues, please do so NOW!  Click here: Pay Dues. We can't make it any easier.  When you pay via PayPal, you can authorize automatic renewal. In that case, your membership will NOT run according to a calendar year (January through December), but from the date of your dues payment until its anniversary.

Why pay dues?  

• Just look at the increasing number of conferences, professional societies, web sites and publications now devoted to women in the history of philosophy.  Help scholars who find them find you. (Plus, you save us the work of removing your books from our site.)
• Renew at the Philosopher-Queen or Salon level to receive one of our premiums.  Sorry, the popular Busted!! Photo Album is now out of stock. Ah! the cost of procrastination!

You've already paid your dues for 2016?  Thank You!

This website has been lovingly constructed to help promote your work, your research interests and your professional life. Your dues pay for it: so use it!  

• Please complete your online member bio and research interests form so that others can network with you.
• Visit our "Must Buy" pages and if one of your books (or your chapter in a book) about women in philosophy is not there, email a jpeg of the book cover together with full bibliographic publishing information to sswpdues@gmail.com. in the Subject box write:  "Display My Book." If the title of your book is not in English, kindly also provide an English translation of the title.  If you don't provide a jpeg of the cover, Mary Ellen Waithe will no longer go searching for one. Sorry. 

No officer of SSWP receives a salary or reimbursement of any kind for their work. Despite this, the following all get done (mostly by Mary Ellen Waithe and Dorothy Rogers) :

• The Website is maintained and updated, alternate spellings of our name and our research area are paid for and "parked" so that traffic generated by those searches comes to our site,
• Newsletters are prepared: emails are sent to members soliciting contributions, news, etc., the newsletter itself is composed and created using the webhost's program, another email is sent to members giving the password for accessing the newsletter. Time involved: about 40 hours.
• Dues are collected by check, credit card, sometimes cash, and via PayPal and banked in a SSWP account.
• Records of members, their dues payments and contact information are updated,
• Premiums are created, packaged and mailed to members. (Time involved: hundreds of hours for each DVD.)
• Grants are applied for, projects (the DVDs, articles about them) completed, and reports filed with grantors.
• US tax returns are completed and filed.
• Accounts at PayPal, Square and the PNC Bank are monitored, balanced, and income is deposited to the PNC Bank checking account.
• CFPs are issued, and meetings are scheduled with the APA.  Posters advertising the meetings are created and posted at the conference.
• A FaceBook page (barely maintained, mostly contains posts by non-members but with semi-regular contributions by Ruth Hagengruber, John Conley, Melanie Johnson-Moxley and Mary Ellen Waithe).

If these tasks must be outsourced, the costs would consume our financial assets.

Thanks to Board Member and co-head honcho John Conley for volunteering to monitor the PayPal account and the PNC bank account. Mary Ellen and John will meet during January to transfer the documentation and access to these accounts.

Won't you help with some of these necessary (if unglamourous) tasks?  Consider it part of your university-required service to the profession.  I've already had to cut back on the frequency of this Newsletter, and have had to totally ignore our FaceBook page in order to manage other necessary tasks. 

Send an email to sswpdues@gmail.com with "I'LL HELP OUT" in the Subject line.

Thanks,

Mary Ellen Waithe