Feminist Epistemology

The following two-part file contains a discussion of feminist epistemology 
that took place on WMST-L in February 1996, along with a reading list on
feminist epistemologies and research methods contributed by WMST-L participant
Lauraine Leblanc.  For a listing of other WMST-L files available on the Web,
see the WMST-L File List.

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PAGE 1 OF 2
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I am in a reading group with faculty colleagues in which we study various
books and/or topics and discuss them at length over a period of several
weeks.  My colleagues have expressed an interest in reading about and
discussing feminist epistemology.  Can any one recommend books and/or
articles on the subject?  I have come across the topic--but only
tangentially--in some of the readings that I have done.  There is a wealth of
material on feminist pedagogy, but I haven't been able to locate much on
feminist epistemology.  I realize the two are connected, but I am looking for
references that deal directly with feminist epistemology. Any suggestions
will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.
Tamara Agha-Jaffar
WSKCKCC  @  aol.com
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How about Feminist Epistemologies
          Linda Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter (eds)
          1993 Routledge
It includes 11 articles from a range of positions.
Brenda
beagan  @  unixg.ubc.ca
 
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Contract Barbara Thayer Bacon.  She taught Feminist Epistemology and
Education for Women's Studies in the Fall here at Bowling Green State
University.  Her email is bthayer  @  bgnet.bgsu.edu
 
Arlene Spoores
aspoore  @  bgnet.bgsu.edu
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Tamara Agha-Jaffar asked about resources on feminist epistemology:
two books to consult - I'm sure there are many more - are:
_Feminism and Epistemology: Approaches to Research in Women and Politics
edited by Maria Falco (NY: Haworth Press, 1987) (originally published
as Vol. 7, no. 3 of Women and Politics, Fall 1987) and Feminism
and Methodology edited by Sandra Harding.
WINKLER  @  wvnvms.wvnet.edu
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I would suggest:
 
Lorraine Code (1991) What Can She Know?  Feminist Theory and the Construction
of Knowledge   Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
 
Katherine Side
klside  @  YorkU.ca
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Tamara Agha-Jaffar asked about resources on feminist epistemology:
Dr. Evelyn T.Beck is currently teaching such a graduate seminar at the
University of Maryland, College Park, so she would be a good resource
person for not just a list of readings but analysis and rationale as
well (she has wone several Excellence in Teaching awards). Her e-mail is:
eb13  @  umail.umd.edu.
 
 
Liora Moriel
University of Maryland
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Try _Breaking Out Again, Feminst Ontology and Epistemology_ by Liz
Stanley and Sue Wise, Routledge 1993.
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As I read more, it seems to me that to grasp what epistemology is about, it's
necessary to read about epistemology and also read what diverse women say they
know, how they know, who they are and how they deal with their culture knowing
them.  If this sounds murky, I guess it's because I've come to think that "a"
theory of knowledge is an elusive thing.  So, I'd suggest reading Sandra Hard-
ing, whose subject is epistemology, her "Whose Science? Whose Knowledge" and a
book she edited, "Feminist Methodology."  But then see Shirley Geok-lin Lim's
essay, `Asians in Anglo-American Feminism' in Gayle Green and Coppelia Kahn's
"The making of feminist criticism"; Stanlie James & Abena Busia (Eds.) "Theori-
zing Black feminisms"; Susie Tharu's essay, `Slow pan left: Feminism and the
problematic of rights' in Jasodhara Bagchi's "Indian women"; and essays on wom-
religion, and development from India and Pakistan: "Against all odds" edited by
Kamla Bhasin, Ritu Menon and Nighat Said Khan and you have different ideas
about knowing and knowledge - at least I did.   beatrice  bfdgc  @  cunyvm.cuny.edu
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A few responses to the request for ideas suggested people that teach courses
on the subject. Could these women be encouraged to post their syllabi to
Joan for inclusion in the syllabus file. I'm sure many of us would find them
useful at some point either to run such a course ourselves or to include a
section in other courses we run.
 
Thanks,
 
 
Dr. Jo VanEvery
Dept. of Cultural Studies
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
United Kingdom
 
0121-414-3730
 
J.Van-Every  @  bham.ac.uk
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In addition to the sources already mentioned in today's digest you might want
to see:
 
Louise Antony and Charlotte Witt, A Mind of One's Own: FEminist Essays on
Reason and Objectivity. Boulder CO:Westview. 1993
 
Hypatia:A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Almost every issue, but, in
particular, the recent Special Issue on Analytic Feminism in which most of the
articles are on feminist epistemology in one way or another. It's Vol 10(3),
Summer 1995.
 
There was a special issue of the journal The Monist in 1994 77(4) on feminist
epistemology pro and con.
 
There's also Lynn Hankinson Nelson's book Who Knows: From Quine to Feminist
Empiricism.
 
Jane Duran, Toward a Feminist Epistemoloogy. Totowa, NJ Rowman and
Littlefield, 1991.
 
The oldie but goodie: Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on
Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Schience, ed Sandra
Harding and Merrill Hintikka. Dordrecht: Reidel. 1983.
 
And of course Sandra Harding's work including but not limited to:
 
The Science Question in Feminism. Cornell UP 1986. Whose science: Whose
knowledge? Thinking from women's lives. Cornell UP 1991.
 
Phyllis Rooney's "Recent Work in Feminist Discussions of Reason" in the
American Philosophical Quarterly 31(1) 1994 might be a good place to start.
 
Linda Lopez McAlister <hypatia  @  cfrvm.cfr.usf.edu>
Dept. of Women's Studies, University of South Florida
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Nancy A. Tuana, Univ. of Oregon, is organizing an NEH seminar on Feminist
Epistemologies this summer. Her email is  ntuana  @  darkwing.uoregon.edu
Postmark deadline is March 1, 1996.
 
Wolf
 
[Note for non-US subscribers: NEH is the The National Endowment for the
Humanities, a publicly funded entity in the US]
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        I am forwarding this reply to the query about feminist epistemology
readings for a subscriber w/posting problems.  Joan Korenman
****************************************
 
Actually, your best bet is to begin with a symposium on Feminist
Epistemology in the journal _Metaphilosophy_ (Volume 26, No. 3, July 1995).
Naomi Scheman, her critics, and her responses discuss the core issues.
Personally, I think Catherine MacKinnon does the best job in _Towards a
Feminist Theory of the State_.  While MacKinnon is a marxist, a really good
psychoanalytic approach is by Luce Irigaray (any of her books, or read about
her in an article by Margaret Whitford, _Feminist Perspectives in
Philosophy_).  Another good book is by Helen Longino--_Science as Social
Knowledge_.
 
There are a number of different perspectives on feminist epistemology.
Unfortunately, alot of them are complicated.  I'd at least try to get a copy
of the journal articles.  If you can't get a copy, email me with your
mailing address and I will send you one.  Though I am not a member of the
listserv (my wife is), I am a graduate student in philosophy whose eye is
attracted to words like 'epistemology'.  Feel free to email or listserv any
questions.  I'd be happy to help in any way I can.
 
Paul Miranda       email:  Paul.Miranda  @  dol.net
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Thanks to the many of you who responded to my request for references on
feminist epistemology.  Several of you asked to see the bib.  So here it is.
 Some of the citations are incomplete, but I am sending them out as I
received them.
 
Alcoff, Linda and Elizabeth Potter, eds.  Feminist Epistemologies.
 Routledge, 1993.
 
Antony, Louise and Charlotte Witt.  A Mind of One's Own: Feminist Essays on
Reason and Objectivity.  Boulder: Westview, 1993.
 
Belenky, Mary Field, et al.  Women's Ways of Knowing.
 
Bhasin, Kamla, et al.  Against All Odds
 
Code, Lorraine.  What Can She Know.  Cornell UP, 1991.
 
Collins, Patricia Hill.  Black Feminist Thought.
 
Collins, Patricia Hill.  "The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought."
Signs 14: 1989.
 
Duran, Jane.  Toward a Feminist Epistemology.
 
Elshtain, Jean Bethke.  Public Man, Private Woman.
 
Falco, Maria, ed.  Feminism and Epistemology: Approaches to Research in Women
and Politics.  New York: Haworth, 1987.
 
Fonow, Mary Margaret and Judith Cook, eds.  Beyond Methodology: Feminist
Scholarship as Lived Research.
 
Haraway, Donna.  Primate Visions.
 
Haraway, Donna.  "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and
the Privillege of Partial Perspective."  Feminist Studies 14, Fall 1988.
 
Harding, Sandra, et al.  Feminism and Methodology.
 
Harding, Sandra.  The Science Question in Feminism.  Cornell UP, 1986.
 
Harding, Sandra.  Whose Science, Whose Knowledge?  Thinking From Women's
Lives.  Cornell UP, 1991.
 
Harding, Sandra and Merrill Hintikka, eds.  Discovering Reality: Feminist
Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of
Science.  Dordrecht: Reidel, 1983.
 
Hawkesworth, Mary.  "Knowers, Knowing, Known."  Signs: Journal of Women in
Culture and Society (1989 or 1990)
 
Hekman, Susan J.  Gender and Knowledge: Elements of a Postmodern Feminism.
 Northeaster UP, 1990.
 
James, Stanlie and Abena Busia, eds.  Theorizing Black Feminisms.
 
Lim, Shirley Geok-Lin.  "Asians in Anglo-American Feminism."  The Making of
Feminist Criticism.  Eds. Gayle Green and Coppelia Kahn.
 
Longino, Helen.  Science as Social Knowledge. (1990?)
 
MacKinnon, Catherine.  Towards a Feminist Theory of the State.
 
Magolda, Marcia Baxter.  Knowing and Reasoning in College: Gender-Related
Patterns in Students Intellectual Development.  Josey-Bass, 1992.
 
Nelson, Lynn Hankinson.  Who Knows: From Quine to Feminist Empiricism.
 
Rooney, Phyllis.  'Recent Work on Feminist Discussions of Reason."  American
Philosophical Quarterly 31, 1, 1994.
 
Scheman, Naomi.  Metaphilosophy 26, no. 3, July 1995.
 
Stanley, Liz and Sue Wise.  Breaking Out Again: Feminist Ontology and
Epistemology.  Routledge, 1993.
 
Tharu, Susi.  "Slow Pan Left: Feminism and the Problematic of Rights." Indian
Women. Ed. Jasodhara Bagchi.
 
Whitford, Margaret.  Feminist Perspectives in Philosophy.
 
1995 Summer issue of Hypatia 10, no. 3
 
1194 issue of The Monist 77, 4
 
The work of Evelyn Fox Keller
 
The work of Elizabeth Minnich, Alison Jaggar, and Shulamit Reinharz
 
The work of Lucy Irigaray.
 
 
Well, that's it.  Please excuse any typing errors.  I hope I got everything
in.  Thanks again to all of you who responded.  I am constantly amazed and
gratified by the suggestions and support that come flooding through
cyberspace every time I ask for help in anything.
Take care and all best,
 
Tamara Agha-Jaffar
WSKCKCC  @  aol.com
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