Below is an interview with Lauren Freeman, the newly appointed editor of the APA Feminism and Philosophy Newsletter. The interview was conducted via email.
Congratulations on the editorship, Lauren. Tell us about yourself.
Thanks so much for interviewing me, Adriel! I’m really energized about my position as editor of the Newsletter.
I’m an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. I’m also an affiliated faculty member in Women’s and Gender Studies, a core member of the M.A. in Bioethics and Medical Humanities, a collaborator with University of Louisville’s School of Medicine’s eQuality Project, and a former collaborator with the Center for Mental Health Disparities (in the Department of Psychology). I do research in feminist bioethics, philosophy of medicine, feminist philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy of emotion, and philosophical pedagogy.
Currently, I’m editing Philosophy and Microaggressions (forthcoming 2019, Routledge) with Jeanine Weekes Schroer and writing a book called Microaggressions in Clinical Medicine with Heather Stewart. I also guest edited the Fall 2018 issue of The International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, entitled Feminist Phenomenology, Medicine, Bioethics, and Health. All of these projects combine my interests in a variety of different areas in philosophy.
Outside of my professional life as a philosopher, with my partner (another philosopher) we co-parent a reserved six-year-old and a wildly precocious three and a half year old both of whom keep us extraordinarily busy and who compel us to use our skills and training in reasoning and argumentation in ways that we never imagined we’d have to (thanks, philosophy!). I’m also a runner, biker, and avid ashtanga yoga practitioner.
I was just looking at the Submission Guidelines and Information for the Newsletter, which says, “The purpose of the newsletter is to publish information about the status of women in philosophy and to make the resources of feminist philosophy more widely available.” How do you understand this purpose?
I’m really excited about the mission of the Newsletter and in particular, in interpreting it as broadly as possible. I hope that the Newsletter will address both academic issues in contemporary feminist philosophy, but also issues that might affect and be relevant to feminist and female-identified philosophers outside of the academy, outside of the classroom, and in our personal and public lives. As such, I hope that the Newsletter can be a forum in which feminist and female-identified philosophers can do solid academic philosophy and also public philosophy.
For example, and to whet your palate for what’s to come, my first issue of the Newsletter (Spring 2019) will be dedicated to a critical review of Dr. Kate Manne’s book, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. Due to the nature of the subject matter of this book, I look forward to seeing the ways in which the six commentators develop and extend Dr. Manne’s argument and the discussion that is generated by her response to all of the commentators.
My second issue (Fall 2019) will be dedicated to the topic of #MeToo and Philosophy, which now, perhaps more than ever, is in need of some good critical, analytical review and discussion. The CFP just came out.
Another topic that I’d like to cover in a future issue is that of motherhood/parenthood and philosophy. Several years ago, I attended a conference on the topic of women in philosophy. There was a panel on motherhood and philosophy and I regret to say that I left feeling helpless, hopeless, and completely demoralized about the possibility of having children and a successful career in philosophy (at the time I had a 20-month old, was newly pregnant with my second child, and was just finishing up my first year of a tenure-track job). All of the panelists spoke almost entirely about their negative experiences trying to negotiate parental leave (and failing), trying to get tenure with children (and almost failing), trying to navigate their daily lives with children; almost all of them seemed pretty miserable even to the point of regretting having had children at all. Though many of these experiences are common, I do not think that this is the norm, nor do I think that this should be the dominant narrative on the issue. In no way do I mean to undermine how difficult it is to be a parent and also to succeed in the profession, but it is certainly possible.
My goal for the issue on motherhood/parenthood and philosophy is for people to share their philosopher parenting wins (and failures) and also to serve as a resource for those trying to navigate and to creatively conquer the often outdated (and in this country, entirely lacking) institution of parental leave. I hope that this issue will generate further discussion on the topic, which is important for many philosophers who have and who are thinking about having children. I do not think that this topic has been given enough attention. So stay tuned for that issue! I’d like to underscore to those reading this interview that if you have an idea for an article, a book review, or a musings that would fit with this topic, please be in touch as it is still very much in its initial stages.
Another idea that I’m toying with is to dedicate an issue of the Newsletter to recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in philosophy. This is something in which I’ve been interested for years (and which I’ve also written about) and I think it would be valuable to the profession for those of us who have had success in the area to share our strategies and ideas.
So as you can see, there are a variety of different directions in which I’d like to take the Newsletter. I’m also open to co-editing issues with people if they have a topic they’d like to propose. So for those of you with wonderful and exciting ideas for the Newsletter, please be in touch.
What role do you think the newsletter plays or can play in the field?
As my answers to the previous question indicate, I hope for the Newsletter to be an outlet for solid academic work in feminist philosophy, but more broadly, I also hope that it can be a resource for feminist philosophers to share their experiences in the field, both positive and negative. I hope that the forthcoming issues of the Newsletter will appeal to feminist philosophers of broad stripes.
What are your ideas for new directions and possibilities for the newsletter?
Something I’d like to try out for the Newsletter would be to have a new category of submissions in addition to articles and book reviews, namely, musings. Some journals such as Hypatia have this category of submission, other journals such as The International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics have the category of narratives. I like the idea of this kind of submission that is somewhere between an academic article and a blog post. Musings fit quite nicely with my desire to have the Newsletter cover both academic philosophy but also issues and problems that philosophers face outside of the academy in our public and personal lives. Personal narratives can be a powerful tool. We need to hear more of them.
As you know, I’m the editor of the Women in Philosophy series here at the APA blog. I think of the series as having a three-pronged focus: 1) it addresses issues of concern to women in the field of philosophy; 2) it includes work done by or about women philosophers; 3) it puts philosophy to work to address issues that women face in the world at large. Some readers might think that the newsletter is doing a print version of what the blog series is doing. Is that how you see it? How do you think of the Newsletter as distinct from and related to the work of the blog series? Are there things we can do to work together to make both better?
I love this question! It so wonderfully captures how we are both aiming to address similar issues using slightly different venues. I think that our aims and goals are very much in line. The only difference I see is that the Newsletter provides the opportunity to do more formal work in philosophy whereas the blog might be seen as a venue to determine what that work might be and how it might look.
Some of my favourite projects in professional philosophy have been those on which I’ve collaborated with other (feminist) philosophers and so I love the idea of working together with you in the future! I know that (sadly) the Philosop-her blog is no longer operating. What I really liked about that blog was that it was a forum in which philosophers could both share their work, but also begin to develop new ideas that were still very much works-in-progress. It would be fantastic to work together with you in ways that could help feminist philosophers begin to think through new ideas (in the blog) and then develop and polish them (in the Newsletter).
How can people reading this interview support the newsletter?
Of course, the most obvious way of supporting the Newsletter would be to contribute to it (with academic articles, book reviews, or musings) and to read it. I also very much welcome ideas for future thematic issues.
Thanks for your time.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about the Newsletter. It was lovely doing this interview with you and I look forward to the work that we might do together in the future.
Lauren Freeman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Louisville. She is also an affiliated faculty member in Women’s and Gender Studies, a core member of the M.A. in Bioethics and Medical Humanities, a collaborator with University of Louisville’s School of Medicine’s eQuality Project, and a former collaborator with the Center for Mental Health Disparities (in the Department of Psychology). She does research in the areas of feminist bioethics, philosophy of medicine, feminist philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy of emotion, and philosophical pedagogy.
Congrats to Lauren Freeman!