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Education .
B.A. Sweet Briar College; Ph.D. Columbia University (1983)
Fields of Interests .
Recent Continental Philosophy, Feminist Theory, Foucault, Critical Theory, Queer Theory, Social and Political Philosophy
Regularly Taught Courses
Phil 101 Introduction to Moral and Political Philosophy
Phil/WGST 225 Classics in Feminist Thought
Phil/WGST 271T Woman as Other
Phil 304T Authenticity: Rousseau to Poststructuralism
Phil 305 Phenomenology and Existentialism
Phil/WGST 327 Foucault: Power, Bodies, Pleasures
Courses Previously Offered
Recent Continental Philosophy: Hegel to Poststructuralism; Foucault, Gender and the Body; Jr/Sr Seminar in Women's Studies; Existentialism and Phenomenology
Selected Publications .
Disciplining Foucault: Feminism, Power and the Body. New York: Routledge Press, 1991.
Articles and Contributions to Books .
"Foucault's Pleasures: Desexualizing Queer Politics" in Feminism and the Final Foucault (eds.) Taylor and Vintges (University of Illinois Press, 2004), 163-182.
"Queering Foucault and the Subject of Feminism," in The Cambridge Companion to Michel Foucault, Updated and Revised Edition (ed.) Gary Gutting (Cambridge U. Press, 2005), 379-400.
"Foucault, Michel," Sex from Plato to Paglia: A Philosophical Encyclopedia, ed. Alan Soble (Greenwood Press, 2006), 361-370.
"Le Feminism et Foucault en Amerique du Nord: Convergence, critique, possibilite" (trans. from English by Colette Pratt), in Aux risques de Foucault (Paris: Supplementaires, 1997), pp. 87-93.
"Feminism, Foucault, and "Subjects" of Power and Freedom," in Feminist Interpretations of Michel Foucault. Ed. Susan Hekman. Penn State University Press, 1996. (Reprinted in The Late Foucault, ed. Jeremy Moss, Sage Press, 1998.)
"Foucault, Feminism and Questions of Identity," in The Cambridge Companion to Foucault. Ed. Gary Gutting. Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 286-313. (Trans. and reprinted as "Foucault, Feminismus und Identitaetsfragen," Deutsche Zeitschrift fuer Philosophie (4/1994): pp. 609-631.
"Feminism and Foucault: A Critical Reappraisal," in Critique and Power: Recasting the Foucault/Habermas Debate. Ed. Michael Kelly. Reprinted from Disciplining Foucault. MIT Press, 1994.
"Disciplining Mothers: Feminism and the New Reproductive Technologies," excerpt from Disciplining Foucault reprinted in Women's Studies: A Reader. Ed. Stevi Jackson et. al. Harvester Press, 1993, pp. 394-396.Current Course Offerings / Descriptions :
- PHIL 327(F) Foucault: Power, Bodies, Pleasures (Same as Women's and Gender Studies 327)
- PHIL 225(S) Introduction to Feminist Thought
- PHIL 271T Woman as "Other" (Same as Women's and Gender Studies 271T) (W)
PHIL 327(F) Foucault: Power, Bodies, Pleasures (Same as Women's and Gender Studies 327) (W)
Anglo-American feminist appropriations of the work of French poststructuralist Michel Foucault have resulted in pathbreaking and provocative social and cultural criticism. Original analyses of anorexia nervosa, masculinity and femininity, sexual desire and identity, and rape law have been developed from this collaboration. Of course, the feminist reception of Foucault has not been uncritical. Many have argued that Foucault's analysis of power and subjection is nihilistic, normatively confused, and pessimistic. Others point to the gender-blind nature of his inquiries and to the allegedly masculinist features of his emphasis on pleasure and power and his later turn to a virile Greek ethics. This course begins with a brief introduction to some of Foucault's early writings but focuses on a close reading of middle and late texts that have become central to feminist debates about the significance of his work; i.e., Discipline and Punish, The History of Sexuality (Vols. I-III), Herculine Barbin, and selected interviews and lectures. We examine debates about Foucault as well as uses of his critical and genealogical tools in an effort to assess the value of his work for emancipatory politics. Requirements: weekly critical essays or outlines and three 5- to 7-page papers. Prerequisite: Philosophy 101 or 102 or 201 or Women's and Gender Studies 101 or permission of instructor.
SAWICKI
PHIL 225(S) Classics in Feminist Thought
This course provides an introduction to feminist thought through readings of seminal feminist texts from the Enlightenment to the present. Special attention will be given to feminist revisions (including those by woman of color) of traditional and contemporary emancipatory theories such as liberalism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and queer theory as well as transnational feminism. Authors read include the following: Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alexandra Kollantai, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Jacobs, Emma Goldman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Adrienne Rich, Marilyn Frye, Gloria Anzaldua, Audre Lorde, Catherine MacKinnon, Judith Butler, Iris Young, Nancy Fraser, Gayatri Spivak, and Chandra Mohanty. We conclude the course with an exploration of the wide range of feminist analyses of issues concerning prostitution and pornography. Format: discussion. Requirements: several 2-page essays, one 4-page essay, one 6-page essay (including a draft) and participation in in-class exercises including short oral presentations. Prerequisite: Women's and Gender Studies 101, or Philosophy 101, or permission of instructor. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 10). This course is part of the Critical Reasoning and Analytical Skills initiative.
SAWICKI
PHIL 271T Woman as "Other" (Same as Women's and Gender Studies 271T) (W)
At mid-century, Simone de Beauvoir, perhaps the greatest feminist theorist of the twentieth century, described woman as "living is a world where men compel her to assume the status of the Other." In other words, man is the absolute subject, and woman takes on all of the negative qualities (bodily, mortal, irrational) that he prefers not to see in himself. At the same time, Beauvoir asserts: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one." How, given the fact that woman historically have been reduced to objects for men, that they have internalized the gaze of men, can they become subjects for themselves? How can (and do?) they become self- rather than other-determined? What are the conditions of possibility for authentic, self-determining womanhood? For authentic personhood? Is authenticity even possible? Must the relation between self and other inevitably be one of objectification and domination? Is reciprocity and mutuality in self- other relations possible? In our effort to deepen our understanding of these important philosophical questions, questions that have been at the center of social and political thought at least since Hegel introduced the dialectic of master and slave, we will engage in close readings of influential works by Beauvoir, Luce Irigary and Judith Butler. Format: tutorial; students will work in pairs. Requirements: each student will write and present orally a five-page essay every other week. Students not presenting essays will prepare oral critiques of their partners' essays. Evaluation will be based on written work, oral presentations of essays, and oral critiques. Prerequisites: one course in either Philosophy or Women's and Gender Studies. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 6-8).
SAWICKI
