Diverse Philosophical Approaches to Sexual Violence

FAIN: EH-250879-16

Elon University (Elon, NC 27244-9423)
Ann Joy Cahill (Project Director: February 2016 to May 2018)

A two-week institute for twenty-five college and university teachers to explore the issues in philosophy relating to sexual violence.

This summer seminar will gather emerging and established scholars to consider the philosophical questions surrounding the persistent social problem of sexual violence. Participants will explore the different meanings of sexual violence in distinct social contexts, diverse ways of framing the harms that sexual violence imposes, the relation (or lack of same) between sexual violence and other sexual acts, the value of various forms of individual and collective resistance, the role of the state in responses to sexual violence, and other questions. Conversations will be grounded in cutting-edge philosophical scholarship and will address some of the most pressing themes in the humanities as a whole, including difference, embodiment, vulnerability, and justice. Informed by a wide spectrum of philosophical approaches, this seminar aims not only to prompt deep, wide, and meaningful discourse in the moment, but to build the knowledge base and analytical approaches of the future.