We Need to Talk About the Backlash – What is to Be Done?
Stephanie Kapusta, Dalhousie University
Margaret Robinson, Dalhousie University
Jennifer Saul, University of Waterloo
Moira Howes, Trent University
Laura Mae Lindo, University of Waterloo
On June 28, 2023, a man violently attacked a feminist philosopher in her classroom just because she was teaching about gender. The attack has been identified as a hate crime by police and the attacker has been charged with, among other things, attempted murder and terrorism.
Hate crimes across North America have risen sharply in the last few years. This appears to be strongly correlated with radical right-wing political movements that have vilified so-called “woke-ism,” “gender ideology”, and “cancel culture” — new names for the “political correctness” that was vilified in previous decades. However, the mainstreaming of this backlash and its explicit targeting of academics is something new. Troublingly, the sometimes frantic and disproportionate vilification of voices from these (and other progressive) perspectives is not simply external to the university, but is sometimes proffered by our own colleagues, often in the name of academic freedom.
The goal of this panel will be to understand the current moment, employing the philosophical tools at our disposal, while acknowledging the diversity of projects and perspectives among those particularly targeted, e.g., women, people of colour, Indigenous folks, sexual minorities and trans people and the liberatory academic work associated with them. We intend this to be an opportunity to brainstorm about what is to be done, in practical terms, in academic institutions and in the classroom.
This symposium is cohosted by the Canadian Philosophical Association, the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, and the Canadian Society for Women in Philosophy.