Location: Australian Catholic University’s Rome Campus (Villa Maria)
Dates: May 30-June 1, 2024
Confirmed Speakers: Virginia Cox (Cambridge), Jana Matuszak (University of Chicago),
Katarzyna Jażdżewska (Warsaw), Julia Hairston (Rome)
Organizer: Dawn LaValle Norman (Australian Catholic University)
At various times and places in history, it was attractive to write philosophy as a conversation
between characters. Only very rarely are any of the philosophical speakers female. When the
female voice was used by male or female authors, it frequently leaned on gendered
associations, such as women’s expertise in certain ‘female’ topics such as love and
reproduction.
Yet, the story is not always so simple. This conference will explore when the female voice
was used, how it was deployed, and what it can illuminate about changing gender norms
and views about the definition and limits of philosophy.
The conference will bring together scholars on philosophical dialogues (as either genre or
discourse mode within other genres) from various time periods and languages, from the 2nd
millennium BCE to the modern day, who are working on theoretical issues around the use of
the female voice in philosophical discussion and drama.
We welcome papers dealing with the use of the female voice in philosophical dialogues
especially outside of the area of Classical and Renaissance literature, for which we already
have some coverage (although abstracts about these areas will certainly be considered).
Non-western topics are especially welcome, as are papers dealing with the 18th century and
later.
We expect to be able to cover housing and meal costs during the conference for accepted
participants but are unable to subsidize travel to Rome. We hope to gather approximately
fifteen scholars together for the workshop, and plan to publish the papers as a special issue
of a journal, subject to peer review.
This conference is sponsored by Dawn LaValle Norman’s Australian Research Council’s
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) on ‘The Female Voice in Ancient
Philosophical Dialogues’.
For consideration, please send your name, affiliation, and a 200-300 word abstract to
dawn.lavallenorman@acu.edu.au by Dec. 15th.
Feminist History of Philosophy 