Alison M. Jagger explores relationships between local feminist discourse communities and the imagined global feminist discourse community.  The work she presents here is part of a larger ongoing project on feminist discourse ethics, a form of ethical theory that seeks to identify universal criteria for consensus and legitimate agreement.  Many feminists question the possibility of establishing such a universal criteria, precisely because of the power difference between different members of a given society. Because not all members of a society enter into ethical and political conversations on equal terms, it is difficult to know what would count as legitimate agreements among there members. Taking a global perspective on this issues renders the problem still more vexing, because disparities of power (economic, political, cultural, etc.) are often even more pronounced–as, for example, between North American and European feminists and their counterparts in developing or Third World countries.  Despite these difficulties, feminists are beginning to talk to each other across global boundaries.  What further developments might a global perspective bring?  As a distinguished and internationally recognized philosopher, widely published in the field of feminist theory, ethics, and social and political philosophy, Jagger expresses theoretical issues skillfully and in an accessible and engaging manner.

Inaugural Annie Pritchard Lecture    

A graduate student in the Department of Philosophy from 1986 until her early death in 1994, Annie Pritchard worked extensively in feminist theory.

Cosponsored by:

College of Law, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Department of Anthropology, Department of the Classics,  Department of English, Department of Educational Psychology, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Department of French, Department of History, Department of Kinesiology, Department of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, Department of Sociology, Department of Speech Communications, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Institute for Communications Research, Program in Comparative Literature, Program for the Study of Religion, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, Women's Studies Program, Graduate Philosophy Organization