Papers by Millicent Churcher
Journal of Social Philosophy, 2022
To address persistent asymmetries of power and privilege in philosophy, I argue for the construct... more To address persistent asymmetries of power and privilege in philosophy, I argue for the constructive potential of strategies that incorporate a robust commitment to what I call the principle of 'obverse apprenticeship.' This commitment involves positioning those who occupy positions of privilege as apprentices to underprivileged actors. In this context I reflect on how the nexus between institutional structures, embodiment, and power bears on the promise of obverse apprenticeship as a guiding framework for change, and the institutional shifts that this principle prescribes for the discipline of philosophy, and for universities more broadly.
Philosophy and Social Criticism , 2023
This paper develops the concept of epistemic apprenticeship as a response to failures among privi... more This paper develops the concept of epistemic apprenticeship as a response to failures among privileged social actors to perceive the knowledge bases of unjustly marginalised groups as sources of valuable insight. Inspired by Elizabeth Spelman's reflections on apprenticeship and intersectional feminism, an epistemic apprenticeship represents an obverse form of apprenticeship; one in which socially privileged knowers become apprentices to those who do not enjoy equivalent power and privilege. This paper critiques and extends Spelman's account of apprenticeship by focussing on how the institutional sedimentation of dominant social imaginaries works against the volitional and virtuous practice of apprenticeship, and by exploring what a commitment to epistemic apprenticeship demands at the level of institutional practice. As part of this discussion, I scrutinise the conditions under which institutionalised apprenticeships may fall short of their meliorative potential, and may obstruct rather than aid efforts to achieve greater epistemic justice.
Routledge, Dec 30, 2022
'Conflicting Imaginaries in the International Academy’ explores the dynamics of conflicting imagi... more 'Conflicting Imaginaries in the International Academy’ explores the dynamics of conflicting imaginaries and affects in institutions of higher education. Against the backdrop of trends towards internationalisation and heightened commitments from universities to equity and diversity, this chapter identifies tensions between competing, materially-embedded imaginaries in the space of the university, and traces how these tensions play out affectively between actors who are unequally situated in terms of their power and privilege. On the view presented here, a focus on conflicting imaginaries and affect in academia is valuable for its capacity to deepen an understanding of why standardized, transnational reforms may not deliver on their promise of a more diverse and equitable Academy. Furthermore, this chapter argues that positioning the imaginary as a site of reform efforts can assist to open up new lines of inquiry and paths of intervention vis à vis the creation of more just and inclusive academic communities.
Routledge , Dec 30, 2022
Modern institutions and their power structures have remarkable affective aspects, yet these are r... more Modern institutions and their power structures have remarkable affective aspects, yet these are rarely theorised explicitly. This comprehensive introduction to the volume Affect, Power, and Institutions proposes an analytic for studying “institutional affect”, a term which captures the broad range of affective phenomena that permeate institutional settings and structure power relations of various kinds. Our view treats institutions as “affective arrangements”: as coordinated ensembles comprising human and non-human, material and discursive, natural and technical elements that coalesce into a local layout with a characteristic affective style. As part of our analysis, we delineate three modalities of institutional affect: materialities, actors, and imaginaries. By drawing attention to the ways in which these modalities engage affect to embed and perpetuate asymmetries of power and privilege, this analytic offers a critical perspective on how institutions ensure their stability and longevity, and the resistance of many institutions to change. Finally, this chapter reflects on the peril and promise of affective interventions in institutional life.
Hypatia , 2024
In this paper I argue that the pervasive reality of unjust heterosex necessitates greater attenti... more In this paper I argue that the pervasive reality of unjust heterosex necessitates greater attention to the concept of ‘sexual fluency’ (Cahill 2014). This paper elaborates on what it means to be a sexually fluent and disfluent subject, and its broader ethical and political significance. As part of this discussion, I explore the relationship between sexual (dis)fluency and embedded imaginaries, and critically reflect on the promise and limitations of particular interventions to disrupt patterns of sexual disfluency among sexual actors.
Angelaki Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 2019
Journal of Social Philosophy , 2022
To address persistent asymmetries of power and privilege in philosophy, I argue for the construct... more To address persistent asymmetries of power and privilege in philosophy, I argue for the constructive potential of strategies that incorporate a robust commitment to what I call the principle of 'obverse apprenticeship.' This commitment involves positioning those who occupy positions of privilege as apprentices to underprivileged actors. In this context I reflect on how the nexus between institutional structures, embodiment, and power bears on the promise of obverse apprenticeship as a guiding framework for change, and the institutional shifts that this principle prescribes for the discipline of philosophy, and for universities more broadly.
Topoi
This paper explores the intersection between affect, emotion, social imaginaries, and institution... more This paper explores the intersection between affect, emotion, social imaginaries, and institutions through the lens of epistemic power in the academy. It argues that attending to this intersection is critical for a fuller understanding of how affective and emotional dynamics can assist to entrench, but also disrupt, asymmetries of epistemic privilege that cut across lines of race, sex, and other markers of social difference. As part of this discussion the paper reflects on the possibility of intervening in dominant social imaginaries that become sedimented in the routine operations of the modern university, and which produce affective ecologies that sustain epistemic exclusions within academic institutions.
New Formations, 2020
In school and tertiary education sectors, the rise of accountability regimes parallels the growth... more In school and tertiary education sectors, the rise of accountability regimes parallels the growth in bureaucracy and marketisation of knowledge work. Increasing student numbers have not been matched by an increase in teaching staff, whilst new administrative positions in accounting, marketing, and legal services have ballooned. In this paper we are concerned to examine the impact of these institutional changes on the lived experiences of education professionals. In this context we are particularly interested in the potential rise of boredom among staff, and how boredom may work alongside other affects to generate both compliance and resistance to hyper-bureaucratic trends. Empirical studies on the intensification of 'administrivia' and 'busy work' in educational settings reveal among staff a perceived loss of intellectual integrity, longer work hours and impaired productivity, as well as diminished opportunities for interpersonal engagement. The collective feelings of anger, resentment, anxiety, and frustration that have accompanied these conditions have real potential to bottom out in feelings of disengagement and boredom among educators. Noting boredom's role in sustaining hyper-bureaucratic structures within the education sector, we critically examine whether and to what extent it might also form part of shifting affective dynamics that can drive resistance to the proliferation of these structures.
Angelaki Journal of the Theoretical Humanities , 2019
Australian Journal of Social Issues , 2018
This paper draws on the example of the Northern Territory Intervention to examine the role of Aus... more This paper draws on the example of the Northern Territory Intervention to examine the role of Australia's broader socio-cultural context in maintaining racist policies concerning Indigenous self-governance. Central to this paper is the claim that legislative, constitutional, and other structural reforms are limited on their own to prevent institutional practices of violence and exclusion that are bound up with popular ways of imagining Indigenous and non-Indigenous identities. In light of the potential limitations of top-down reforms to prevent the perpetuation of discriminatory policymaking in relation to Australia's First Peoples, this paper explores the value of bottom-up initiatives that constructively engage the imaginative, affective, and reflective capacities of individuals to facilitate a ‘critical re-imagining’ (Medina 2013) of Indigenous Australians as social and political actors. Developing and supporting such initiatives, on this view, is integral to the wider task of promoting and protecting Indigenous rights, interests, and entitlements.
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review , 2016
This paper critiques Jesse Prinz’s rejection of Adam Smith’s model of impartial spectatorship as ... more This paper critiques Jesse Prinz’s rejection of Adam Smith’s model of impartial spectatorship as a viable corrective to empathic bias. I argue that Prinz’s case is unconvincing, insofar as it rests on an underdeveloped account of Smith’s view of critical self-regulation. By presenting a more detailed and attentive reading of Smithean impartial spectatorship, and exploring Smith’s compelling account of structural supports for sympathetic engagement, this paper demonstrates how Smith’s work is able to constructively engage with contemporary concerns regarding empathy’s role in guiding moral behaviour.
Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective (SERRC) , 2016
Social Epistemology , Mar 2016
This paper adopts the view promoted by early modern philosopher Adam Smith that
exercises of the ... more This paper adopts the view promoted by early modern philosopher Adam Smith that
exercises of the sympathetic imagination play an important role in supporting human
sociability and ethical behaviour. It argues that such exercises have potential to significantly change the way in which privileged racial identities relate to marginalised and devalued racial identities. First, the paper draws on Sally Haslanger’s reflections upon her lived experience of transracial parenting to illustrate how sympathetic identification with the experiences of a differently racialized individual can transform the way in which we relate to entire racial groups. Haslanger’s account demonstrates the potential for exercises of the sympathetic imagination to disrupt the way in which we experience our own embodiment, and to generate a form of knowledge that implicates our sense of self and will to act. Second, the paper discusses some limitations of appealing to sympathy as a social resource in less intimate contexts. This discussion throws light on the importance of exercising a critically reflective mode of sympathy to overcome racial bias, in addition to the importance of institutional design and grassroots initiatives in facilitating sympathetic identification across racial lines.
Emergent Australasian Philosophers , 2011
To date the wealth of literature on abortion has been dedicated to resolving the question of its ... more To date the wealth of literature on abortion has been dedicated to resolving the question of its legal and moral permissibility in relation to the fetus and pregnant woman as subjects of moral standing. This has created a dichotomised way of talking about abortion chiefly in terms of conflicting rights; as a 'wrongful' versus 'legitimate' form of killing. The tension between this individualistic rights-based discourse and the 'ethic of care' to which women are often expected to conform in their moral deliberations gives rise to a stigmatising picture of a woman who aborts as 'callous' or 'selfish.' Males who share in abortion decisions are rarely subject to the same type of criticism. In this paper I conceptualise the impact of normative femininity and social judgement on women's capacity for moral self-determination in abortion contexts within the framework of an injustice. I do so by examining women's discursive participation with respect to abortion, and by analysing the impact that abortion stigma has on women's moral agency and lived experience. This will enable me to demonstrate how women may be uniquely subject to a hermeneutical injustice, which in abortion contexts gives way to a phenomenological injustice.
Books by Millicent Churcher
Routledge eBooks, Nov 24, 2022
This volume advances a comprehensive transdisciplinary approach to the affective lives of institu... more This volume advances a comprehensive transdisciplinary approach to the affective lives of institutions. With this approach, the volume foregrounds the role of affect in sustaining as well as transforming institutional arrangements that are deeply problematic. As part of its analysis, this book develops a novel understanding of institutional affect. It explores how institutions produce, frame, and condition affective dynamics and emotional repertoires, in ways that engender conformance or resistance to institutional requirements. This collection of works will be important for scholars and students of interdisciplinary affect and emotion studies from a wide range of disciplines, including social sciences, cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, organizational and institution studies, media studies, social philosophy, aesthetics, and critical theory.
Contemporary societies are marked by deep inequalities grounded in collective failures to recogni... more Contemporary societies are marked by deep inequalities grounded in collective failures to recognize the histories, needs, and experiences of marginalized social groups. What are the strategies that can help individuals become more responsive to social realities and perspectives that differ significantly from their own?
In Reimagining Sympathy,Recognizing Difference: Insights from Adam Smith, Millicent Churcher attends to recent debates over the imagination as a resource for social and political reform, and highlights the central relevance of Adam Smith’s voice to these debates. Smith, best known for his work on economics, may seem an unlikely figure to draw upon in this context. However, his nuanced account of ‘sympathy’—conceived as an imaginative and reflective capacity that develops within and through social experience—greatly enriches the role of imagination in fostering mutual understanding and solidarity among a diverse citizenry.
Churcher critically explores and extends Smith’s view that if sympathy is to bind people together across their differences rather than divide them, it requires work at the level of individual practice, as well as the support of wider social structures. By drawing Smith into conversation with contemporary debates in social and political theory, this monograph addresses the pressing question of what is required from individuals and institutions to remedy abject failures to recognize and respond ethically to difference.
Conference Announcements by Millicent Churcher
NEW DATES FOR WORKSHOP (online): The Role of Emotions in Epistemic Practices and Communities, 2021
WORKSHOP NOW ONLINE THROUGHOUT MARCH 2021
Online event, Freie Universität Berlin, March 4, 11, 18... more WORKSHOP NOW ONLINE THROUGHOUT MARCH 2021
Online event, Freie Universität Berlin, March 4, 11, 18 & 25, 2021
Are emotions vehicles of knowledge, and if yes, in virtue of which features? What is the role of emotions in social epistemic practices? What is the impact of local affective arrangements on epistemic communities?
In this workshop we will discuss the epistemic value of emotions at the intersection of philosophy of emotion and social epistemology. The aim is to foster an understanding of the role played by emotions in epistemic life. Different philosophical approaches and methodologies are brought into critical conversation.
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Papers by Millicent Churcher
exercises of the sympathetic imagination play an important role in supporting human
sociability and ethical behaviour. It argues that such exercises have potential to significantly change the way in which privileged racial identities relate to marginalised and devalued racial identities. First, the paper draws on Sally Haslanger’s reflections upon her lived experience of transracial parenting to illustrate how sympathetic identification with the experiences of a differently racialized individual can transform the way in which we relate to entire racial groups. Haslanger’s account demonstrates the potential for exercises of the sympathetic imagination to disrupt the way in which we experience our own embodiment, and to generate a form of knowledge that implicates our sense of self and will to act. Second, the paper discusses some limitations of appealing to sympathy as a social resource in less intimate contexts. This discussion throws light on the importance of exercising a critically reflective mode of sympathy to overcome racial bias, in addition to the importance of institutional design and grassroots initiatives in facilitating sympathetic identification across racial lines.
Books by Millicent Churcher
In Reimagining Sympathy,Recognizing Difference: Insights from Adam Smith, Millicent Churcher attends to recent debates over the imagination as a resource for social and political reform, and highlights the central relevance of Adam Smith’s voice to these debates. Smith, best known for his work on economics, may seem an unlikely figure to draw upon in this context. However, his nuanced account of ‘sympathy’—conceived as an imaginative and reflective capacity that develops within and through social experience—greatly enriches the role of imagination in fostering mutual understanding and solidarity among a diverse citizenry.
Churcher critically explores and extends Smith’s view that if sympathy is to bind people together across their differences rather than divide them, it requires work at the level of individual practice, as well as the support of wider social structures. By drawing Smith into conversation with contemporary debates in social and political theory, this monograph addresses the pressing question of what is required from individuals and institutions to remedy abject failures to recognize and respond ethically to difference.
Conference Announcements by Millicent Churcher
Online event, Freie Universität Berlin, March 4, 11, 18 & 25, 2021
Are emotions vehicles of knowledge, and if yes, in virtue of which features? What is the role of emotions in social epistemic practices? What is the impact of local affective arrangements on epistemic communities?
In this workshop we will discuss the epistemic value of emotions at the intersection of philosophy of emotion and social epistemology. The aim is to foster an understanding of the role played by emotions in epistemic life. Different philosophical approaches and methodologies are brought into critical conversation.
exercises of the sympathetic imagination play an important role in supporting human
sociability and ethical behaviour. It argues that such exercises have potential to significantly change the way in which privileged racial identities relate to marginalised and devalued racial identities. First, the paper draws on Sally Haslanger’s reflections upon her lived experience of transracial parenting to illustrate how sympathetic identification with the experiences of a differently racialized individual can transform the way in which we relate to entire racial groups. Haslanger’s account demonstrates the potential for exercises of the sympathetic imagination to disrupt the way in which we experience our own embodiment, and to generate a form of knowledge that implicates our sense of self and will to act. Second, the paper discusses some limitations of appealing to sympathy as a social resource in less intimate contexts. This discussion throws light on the importance of exercising a critically reflective mode of sympathy to overcome racial bias, in addition to the importance of institutional design and grassroots initiatives in facilitating sympathetic identification across racial lines.
In Reimagining Sympathy,Recognizing Difference: Insights from Adam Smith, Millicent Churcher attends to recent debates over the imagination as a resource for social and political reform, and highlights the central relevance of Adam Smith’s voice to these debates. Smith, best known for his work on economics, may seem an unlikely figure to draw upon in this context. However, his nuanced account of ‘sympathy’—conceived as an imaginative and reflective capacity that develops within and through social experience—greatly enriches the role of imagination in fostering mutual understanding and solidarity among a diverse citizenry.
Churcher critically explores and extends Smith’s view that if sympathy is to bind people together across their differences rather than divide them, it requires work at the level of individual practice, as well as the support of wider social structures. By drawing Smith into conversation with contemporary debates in social and political theory, this monograph addresses the pressing question of what is required from individuals and institutions to remedy abject failures to recognize and respond ethically to difference.
Online event, Freie Universität Berlin, March 4, 11, 18 & 25, 2021
Are emotions vehicles of knowledge, and if yes, in virtue of which features? What is the role of emotions in social epistemic practices? What is the impact of local affective arrangements on epistemic communities?
In this workshop we will discuss the epistemic value of emotions at the intersection of philosophy of emotion and social epistemology. The aim is to foster an understanding of the role played by emotions in epistemic life. Different philosophical approaches and methodologies are brought into critical conversation.