 Sandra Harding
UCLA Professor Sandra Harding is a prominent figure in philosophy of science and philosophical feminism. She is the author of many books widely discussed within and outside academic philosophy, including Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?: Thinking from Women's Lives (1991) and Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies (1998). We are excited that she will give the 2011 Guelph Lecture in Philosophy, entitled “Objectivity and Diversity” (audio).
Abstract: Must objective research be disinterested? When formerly excluded social groups begin to enter universities and research labs, all too often the research questions that interest them are seen as inappropriately biased and self-interested and, therefore, unsuitable topics for research. Yet often philosophers as well as the general public have tended to conflate the disinterestedness of researchers with the potential reliability of the results of their research. However, disinterest and reliability are not in fact linked in that way. For example, most of us are not at all disinterested in such prevailing and presumedly reliable research as that conducted on health and environmental issues. Can previously disvalued interests serve to increase the objectivity of research? This presentation will examine how feminist and postcolonial research in particular has attempted to sort out these issues.
March 23, 2011
5:30 - 7:00 p.m. in the ground floor open area of McLaughlin Library. Reception to follow.
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