A Broad Umbrella

(Post by Kevin Timpe)

I want to go on record, here at the very start of this blog, and thank Thomas for all the excellent work behind the scenes to get this blog organized and running. As with Flickers of Freedom and the X-Phi blog, he does a lot of work to get these blogs set-up and to keep them running smoothly.

The kinds of issues that we see the blog focusing on are not new to the sphere of philosophical reflection. But it seems, to me at least, that the past few years have seen an increase in this kind of reflection: the Gendered Conference Campaign, the UPDirectory, discussions about ESL philosophy and the role of class in the discipline, etc.... 

Many of the issues raised by these and other discussions are issues of ethics or (inclusive) political philosophy. These approaches are certainly welcome here. But it's our hope that this blog won't just be about ethics and political philosphey. 

As is mentioned in the first post here, this blog began (if one can point to a 'beginning moment' at all) with a  question posted  on Facebook concerning the perceived need for a group blog or FB page for discussing the philosophy of disability. I'm a parent of a multiply disabled child. I'm on sabbatical this semester, and turning for the first time in my career to some of the philosophical issues involved with disability (with a particular interest in agency). I suspect that my posts in the coming months will reflect this interest. In fact, disability was part of the original title for the blog and can still be found in the URL for the blog.

We decided to change the name to 'Discrimination and Disadvantace' in order to reinforce the following: we intend this blog to cover a wide range of issues. We think of both discrimination and disadvantage broadly to include but not be restricted to race, class (both economic and within the discipline), sex, gender, dis/ability, exclusion, power dynamics, etc....

We're both very optimistic about this venue. We thank you for stopping by, and we hope that you'll engage the content here going forward.

Comments

[Thomas Nadelhoffer]

Thanks to Kevin for kicking things off. I just wanted to add that in the days and weeks ahead, I will continue to add new content to the resources and to the list of books. As things stand, the content is most disability-related (which is unsurprising given our initial impetus). But I will include more resources related to race, gender, class, sexual identity, and related topics. If you have suggestions, please send them my way!

[observer]

Great initiative. Looking at the faculty rosters of leiterrific departments it would seem that one key aspect in which they fail to be representative of the population at large is the paucity of graduates of non-elite BA programs. This is closely related to the much-discussed issues of class and race, but not gender.

[Thomas Nadelhoffer]

Dear Observer,

Given that both Kevin and I did not attend top ranked PGR programs (St. Louis University and Florida State University, respectively), this is an issue that interests us both. Indeed, there was a very interesting and illuminating discussion over at Daily Nous recently that focused on poverty/socio-economic status in philosophy. As a first generation college student who received my BA from a program that is unranked by the PGR (namely, University of Georgia), I am especially interested in these and related issues. That said, it's important not to dismiss the intersectionality of discrimination and disadvantage based on class with other forms of discrimination and disadvantage. Fortunately, this is one of the issues we hope to discuss here on D & D in the weeks and months to come! So, hopefully, you will join the discussion. Our goal is raise consciousness about the myriad ways certain classes of individuals are disadvantaged when it comes to finding a home in academic philosophy. While sexism, racism, and heterosexism are often discussed (and for good reason)...ableism and classism deserve close consideration as well.

[Nameless]

As a female philosopher with research and teaching interests in philosophy & disability and as someone who has begun reflecting more on how coming from a background of low socioeconomic status and domestic violence affects my experience in the profession, I am extremely pleased to hear about the launch of this blog. I look forward to joining the discussion.

[Clement Loo]

I just wanted to say that I'm quite excited at the advent of this blog. As I see it, there needs to be more public discussion of privilege and disadvantage in our field and consideration of how such disparity might have an effect on scholarship.

I look forward to reading more posts.

[Shelley Tremain]

I too want to say how happy I am that this blog has emerged. Ableism and classism are usually left out of discussions about privilege and oppression, underrepresentation, bias, and so on in philosophy. It is wonderful that there is now a place in which they will be given centrality alongside of, and on a par with, other axes of subjecting power. I am delighted that I was invited to be a contributing blogger here and look forward to thought-provoking discussions, some of which I hope that my posts to the blog will generate. Thank you to everyone who will make this blog a transformative influence in the profession and discipline, and especially to Thomas and Kevin for their bold idea to initiate it.