Mary Beatrice Midgley (1919-2018)

This piece was originally published at The Institute of Art and Ideas Mary Beatrice Midgley, collaborator and inspiration for the Women In Parenthesis project has died. Mary was a giant among philosophers, though she only published the first of her 19 books at the age of 59, a feat which is unfathomable today in more than one […]

Speaker Vulnerability and the Patriarchal University. By Lara Coleman

A Response and Tribute to Pamela Sue Anderson I never quite crossed paths with Pamela Sue Anderson. She returned to Oxford in 2001 to take up a post at my former college the year after I finished my undergraduate studies.  In February 2017, we were both invited to speak at a British Academy conference on […]

‘Rings and Books’ by Mary Midgley

Midgley wrote this essay in the mid-1950s for BBC radio. In her memoir The Owl of Minerva, she recalls:

“I wrote it because I had suddenly been struck by the fact that nearly all the famous philosophers whose lives we know about were lifelong bachelors…

Philippa Foot ‘Sir’ letter

In May 1983, Philippa Foot was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was sent a rather grand certificate informing her of the honor. As you may notice, the certificate is addressed: ‘Sir’. In 1983! Foot wrote this wonderful letter to the AAAS in reply. Photo of Certificate, Photo of […]

Silencing and Speaker Vulnerability: Undoing an oppressive form of (wilful) ignorance

 by Pamela Sue Anderson Essay, Photo, Guidance Qs (t.b.w.) Pamela wrote this paper for our International Women’s Day Conference 2016 [link], Resounding Voices: Women, Silence and the Production of Knowledge. It is with her permission that we publish the full script here. Tragically, Pamela passed away in March 2017. Her beautiful paper offers a way […]

In Memoriam: Pamela Sue Anderson

Last year, Pamela Sue Anderson was to be the keynote speaker at our International Women’s Day conference ‘Resounding Voices’. She couldn’t make it and, in her stead, Liza Thompson read out the text of her beautiful paper. You can read it below. It offers a way of conceptualising what we are, or should conceive ourselves […]

Philippa Foot’s response to being addressed as ‘Sir’

In May 1983, Philippa Foot was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was sent a rather grand certificate (click to enlarge) informing her of the honor: As you may notice, the certificate is addressed: ‘Sir’. In 1983! Foot wrote this wonderful letter to the AAAS in reply.   […]

Pamela Sue Anderson: ‘Silencing and Speaker Vulnerability: Undoing an oppressive form of (wilful) ignorance

Presented at International Women’s Day Conference Durham University, UK 8 March 2016 Silencing and Speaker Vulnerability: Undoing an oppressive form of (wilful) ignorance Pamela Sue Anderson ABSTRACT The French feminist philosopher, Michèle Le Doeuff, has taught us something about ‘the collectivity’, which she discovers in women’s struggle for access to the philosophical, but also about […]

Interview with Mary Warnock

Last week Liza, Clare and I went along with Lindsay (our film-crew!), to interview Mary Warnock at her London home. We’ll be posting some sound-extracts from the interview here in the coming weeks (along with some from our Mary Midgley interview). Here are some photos to get you in the mood.   It’s going to take us a […]