Philosophy Program Presents
Complicit Responsibility for White Ignorance
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Olin Humanities, Room 102
4:45 pm EST/GMT-5
4:45 pm EST/GMT-5
Eva Boodman
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy
at William Paterson University
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy
at William Paterson University
White ignorance is a pervasive, insidious form of structural racism linked to knowledge-production that operates in habits, norms, laws and institutional practices. Some attempts to address it, however, reproduce it. This is because an inappropriate framework of responsibility tends to be used: a "liability" framework that emphasizes the preservation of innocence through disavowal, with the effect of essentializing racial identity. In this talk I’ll offer an alternative model of responsibility inspired by Iris Young’s social connection model by which dominant identities can be deflated and de-supremicized without disavowal: a model of complicit responsibility.
Eva Boodman is a One-Year Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Her work focuses on questions of political responsibility, complicity, and the institutional reproduction of structural racism through prisons, schools, nursing homes, and the non-profit sector. Her most recent publications are on the impact of mass incarceration on women, and for the last 5 years she has taught political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and the philosophy of race in universities and jails.
Eva Boodman is a One-Year Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Her work focuses on questions of political responsibility, complicity, and the institutional reproduction of structural racism through prisons, schools, nursing homes, and the non-profit sector. Her most recent publications are on the impact of mass incarceration on women, and for the last 5 years she has taught political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and the philosophy of race in universities and jails.
For more information, call 845-758-7208, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 4:45 pm EST/GMT-5
Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102