Conference: “The Contribution of Mary Wollstonecraft to Contemporary Issues in Philosophy,” A-130, 10AM-6:30PM June 1; 10:40AM-6:30PM June 2 (EN)

The Contribution of Mary Wollstonecraft to Contemporary Issues in Philosophy

Date: 1-2 June
Room: A130
Conference Webpage: http://www.sandrineberges.com/wollstonecraft-at-bilkent.html

Mary Wollstonecraft worked primarily on social and political philosophy, with an emphasis on republicanism, education and women’s rights. But she also touched on other topics: slavery, aesthetics, marriage, work, family, masculinity, virtue, reason, passions, theology and epistemology.
The driving motivation for this workshop is not primarily to develop Wollstonecraft scholarship, but to show how the issues she discussed are still philosophically relevant and that her arguments sometimes can cast light on contemporary problems. A second aim is to show that the study of women philosophers of the past is a highly productive part of academic philosophy, and to model how it may be done.

Thursday 1 June (A130)

10:00 Welcome: Wollstonecraft in the world Sandrine Bergès (Bilkent).

10:40-11:30 Patrick Fessenbecker (Bilkent) “What do you have to do to get read philosophically? On Wollstonecraft and philosophical readings of the history of philosophy.”
Respondent Zacharus Gudmunsen.

11:40-12:30 Alan Coffee (KCL) “Wollstonecraft’s Idea of Independence as Relational Social Freedom”
Respondent: Bill Wringe

13:40-14:30: Laura Brace (Leicester) “The Unhappy Marriage of Gender and Slavery: Wives as Slaves, Wives and Slaves”
Respondent: Gizem Kavas

14:40-15:30 Roberta Wedge “Mary the life, Wollstonecraft the legacy. Engaging with undergrads online and neighbourhood groups on the ground.”

15:40-16:30 Zübeyde Karadağ Thorpe (Hacettepe)”Turkish Women from Late Ottoman Empire to Early Turkish Republic”
Respondent: Saniye Vantansever

16:40-18:30 Keynote: Sarah Hutton (York) Becoming a feminist philosopher: Mary Wollstonecraft and the history of philosophy’.

Friday 2 June (A130)

10:40- 11:30 Özlem Duva (Dokuz Eylül) Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinity with Mary Wollstonecraft”
Respondent: Sena Yalçın

11:40- 12:30 Burcu Gürkan (Independent scholars) Swimsuits and Chocolate Chip Cookies: Women’s Bodies, Self-Knowledge, and Moments of Erasure.
Respondent: Mustafa Yıldız

13:40-14:30 Saniye Vatansever (Işık and Yediteipe) and Bensu Arican (Bilkent) : Presentation of SWIP-TR

14:40-15:30 Lucas Thorpe (Boğazici): “Is virtue relative? A problem with Wollstonecraft’s argument against ‘sexual virtues’.”
Respondent: Sandrine Berges

15:40-16:30 Gözde Yıldırım (Boğaziçi) Is Wollstonecraft’s Republican Freedom from Domination Justified? – A Kantian Answer.
Respondent: David M. Kovacs

16:40 – 18:30 Keynote: Hatice Nur Erkızan (Muğla) The Psychology of Capabilities: A journey from Wollstonecraft to Nussbaum.

Saturday 3 June

19:30 – 21:00 : debate on Republicanism and the Family at the Holiday Cave Hotel in Göreme, Cappadocia.