Progress in community health partnerships, Jun 1, 2024
Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Re... more Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Research Team (HEART) for Inclusion Health, we argue that while community-engaged partnerships tend to focus on understanding health inequities and developing solutions, they can be healing spaces for health professionals and researchers. Data were obtained from a 15-month participatory ethnography, including focus groups and interviews. Ethnographic notes and transcripts were coded and analyzed using both deductive and inductive coding. Practices of radical welcome, vulnerability, valuing the whole person, acknowledging how partnerships can cause harm, and centering lived experience expertise in knowledge creation processes were identified as key characteristics of healing spaces. Ultimately, health professionals and researchers work within the same social, political and economic contexts of populations with the worst health outcomes. Their own healing is critical for tackling larger systemic changes aimed at improving the well-being of communities harmed by legacies of exclusion.
Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action (JHU Press), 2023
Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Re... more Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Research Team (HEART) for Inclusion Health, we argue that while community-engaged partnerships tend to focus on understanding health inequities and developing solutions, they can be healing spaces for health professionals and researchers. Data were obtained from a 15-month participatory ethnography, including focus groups and interviews. Ethnographic notes and transcripts were coded and analyzed using both deductive and inductive coding. Practices of radical welcome, vulnerability, valuing the whole person, acknowledging how partnerships can cause harm, and centering lived experience expertise in knowledge creation processes were identified as key characteristics of healing spaces. Ultimately, health professionals and researchers work within the same social, political and economic contexts of populations with the worst health outcomes. Their own healing is critical for tackling larger systemic changes aimed at improving the well-being of communities harmed by legacies of exclusion.
Theorizing Backlash: Philosophical Reflections on the Resistance to Feminism, 2002
There is a backlash in higher education today against progressive movements. Gains of oppressed g... more There is a backlash in higher education today against progressive movements. Gains of oppressed groups have been followed by fierce reactions against them. The media and other more subtle forces, I argue, fuel this backlash. Despite the perception of universities as left-wing indoctrination centers, the reality is that White supremacy, sexism, and other forms of oppression are alive and well in higher education, pervading its demographics, curriculum, pedagogies, and institutional structures. Moreover, dominant economic ...
Contrary to the popular belief that feminism has gained a foothold in the many disciplines of the... more Contrary to the popular belief that feminism has gained a foothold in the many disciplines of the academy, the essays collected in Theorizing Backlash argue that feminism is still actively resisted in mainstream academia. Contributors to this volume consider the professional, philosophical, and personal backlashes against feminist thought, and reflect upon their ramifications. The conclusion is that the disdain and irrational resentment of feminism, even in higher education, amounts to a backlash against progress.
This presentation is part of the Disability and Dependence track. Audre Lorde: “In a society wher... more This presentation is part of the Disability and Dependence track. Audre Lorde: “In a society where the good is defined in terms of profit rather than in terms of human need, there must always be some group of people who, through systematized oppression, can be made to feel surplus, to occupy the position of the dehumanized inferior.” People with disabilities,
Theorizing Backlash: Philosophical Reflections on the Resistance to Feminism, 2002
There is a backlash in higher education today against progressive movements. Gains of oppressed g... more There is a backlash in higher education today against progressive movements. Gains of oppressed groups have been followed by fierce reactions against them. The media and other more subtle forces, I argue, fuel this backlash. Despite the perception of universities as left-wing indoctrination centers, the reality is that White supremacy, sexism, and other forms of oppression are alive and well in higher education, pervading its demographics, curriculum, pedagogies, and institutional structures.
How can persons shaped by oppression grow into members of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “beloved comm... more How can persons shaped by oppression grow into members of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “beloved community” ? We may be shaped – or even constituted -- by relations of domination and/or resistance to domination, regardless of our explicit values. Given the legacies of oppression that can leave deep traces, how can we learn to build and embody “beloved community“? To borrow Sara Ahmed’s words, how can we learn “not to reproduce what we inherit?”
As Iris Murdoch notes, much of our moral lives may take place outside of conscious beliefs and between explicit moments of choice. Murdoch writes, “The moral life…is something that goes on continually, not something that is switched off in between the occurrence of explicit moral choices.” Murdoch develops the notion of attention – drawn from Simone Weil – to address such subtle aspects of moral life. Bridget Clarke argues that Murdoch’s notion of attention has the potential to be critical, to enable self-critical awareness of one’s own racism, for example. This critical potential is crucial to anti-oppressive work. Racism – as well as other kinds of oppression –tends to make one unaware of one’s unawareness. Critical moral attention suggests social locations as a point of entry into understanding the world, taking greater responsibility for who we are and who we might become – individually and collectively. To do this, we must engage critically with our own and others’ views and experiences, using these as ‘raw material’ for growth. Weil writes, “How were the factors of oppression, so closely bound up with the actual mechanism of social life, suddenly to disappear?” Critical moral attention offers a path, with moral growth required for liberatory transformation, perhaps preparing us for a “beloved community.”
Progress in community health partnerships, Jun 1, 2024
Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Re... more Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Research Team (HEART) for Inclusion Health, we argue that while community-engaged partnerships tend to focus on understanding health inequities and developing solutions, they can be healing spaces for health professionals and researchers. Data were obtained from a 15-month participatory ethnography, including focus groups and interviews. Ethnographic notes and transcripts were coded and analyzed using both deductive and inductive coding. Practices of radical welcome, vulnerability, valuing the whole person, acknowledging how partnerships can cause harm, and centering lived experience expertise in knowledge creation processes were identified as key characteristics of healing spaces. Ultimately, health professionals and researchers work within the same social, political and economic contexts of populations with the worst health outcomes. Their own healing is critical for tackling larger systemic changes aimed at improving the well-being of communities harmed by legacies of exclusion.
Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action (JHU Press), 2023
Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Re... more Drawing from collective experiences in our capacity building project: Health Equity Activation Research Team (HEART) for Inclusion Health, we argue that while community-engaged partnerships tend to focus on understanding health inequities and developing solutions, they can be healing spaces for health professionals and researchers. Data were obtained from a 15-month participatory ethnography, including focus groups and interviews. Ethnographic notes and transcripts were coded and analyzed using both deductive and inductive coding. Practices of radical welcome, vulnerability, valuing the whole person, acknowledging how partnerships can cause harm, and centering lived experience expertise in knowledge creation processes were identified as key characteristics of healing spaces. Ultimately, health professionals and researchers work within the same social, political and economic contexts of populations with the worst health outcomes. Their own healing is critical for tackling larger systemic changes aimed at improving the well-being of communities harmed by legacies of exclusion.
Theorizing Backlash: Philosophical Reflections on the Resistance to Feminism, 2002
There is a backlash in higher education today against progressive movements. Gains of oppressed g... more There is a backlash in higher education today against progressive movements. Gains of oppressed groups have been followed by fierce reactions against them. The media and other more subtle forces, I argue, fuel this backlash. Despite the perception of universities as left-wing indoctrination centers, the reality is that White supremacy, sexism, and other forms of oppression are alive and well in higher education, pervading its demographics, curriculum, pedagogies, and institutional structures. Moreover, dominant economic ...
Contrary to the popular belief that feminism has gained a foothold in the many disciplines of the... more Contrary to the popular belief that feminism has gained a foothold in the many disciplines of the academy, the essays collected in Theorizing Backlash argue that feminism is still actively resisted in mainstream academia. Contributors to this volume consider the professional, philosophical, and personal backlashes against feminist thought, and reflect upon their ramifications. The conclusion is that the disdain and irrational resentment of feminism, even in higher education, amounts to a backlash against progress.
This presentation is part of the Disability and Dependence track. Audre Lorde: “In a society wher... more This presentation is part of the Disability and Dependence track. Audre Lorde: “In a society where the good is defined in terms of profit rather than in terms of human need, there must always be some group of people who, through systematized oppression, can be made to feel surplus, to occupy the position of the dehumanized inferior.” People with disabilities,
Theorizing Backlash: Philosophical Reflections on the Resistance to Feminism, 2002
There is a backlash in higher education today against progressive movements. Gains of oppressed g... more There is a backlash in higher education today against progressive movements. Gains of oppressed groups have been followed by fierce reactions against them. The media and other more subtle forces, I argue, fuel this backlash. Despite the perception of universities as left-wing indoctrination centers, the reality is that White supremacy, sexism, and other forms of oppression are alive and well in higher education, pervading its demographics, curriculum, pedagogies, and institutional structures.
How can persons shaped by oppression grow into members of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “beloved comm... more How can persons shaped by oppression grow into members of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “beloved community” ? We may be shaped – or even constituted -- by relations of domination and/or resistance to domination, regardless of our explicit values. Given the legacies of oppression that can leave deep traces, how can we learn to build and embody “beloved community“? To borrow Sara Ahmed’s words, how can we learn “not to reproduce what we inherit?”
As Iris Murdoch notes, much of our moral lives may take place outside of conscious beliefs and between explicit moments of choice. Murdoch writes, “The moral life…is something that goes on continually, not something that is switched off in between the occurrence of explicit moral choices.” Murdoch develops the notion of attention – drawn from Simone Weil – to address such subtle aspects of moral life. Bridget Clarke argues that Murdoch’s notion of attention has the potential to be critical, to enable self-critical awareness of one’s own racism, for example. This critical potential is crucial to anti-oppressive work. Racism – as well as other kinds of oppression –tends to make one unaware of one’s unawareness. Critical moral attention suggests social locations as a point of entry into understanding the world, taking greater responsibility for who we are and who we might become – individually and collectively. To do this, we must engage critically with our own and others’ views and experiences, using these as ‘raw material’ for growth. Weil writes, “How were the factors of oppression, so closely bound up with the actual mechanism of social life, suddenly to disappear?” Critical moral attention offers a path, with moral growth required for liberatory transformation, perhaps preparing us for a “beloved community.”
Dissertation: Moral Attention: Toward a Liberationist Ethics of Everyday Life, 1998
I develop and critique the notions of moral attention as derived by Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch,... more I develop and critique the notions of moral attention as derived by Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch, in order to transform the notion of moral attention and its moral-epistemic commitments into ones which are more tenable. I link this transformed conception of moral attention to current thought on 'constitutive luck' (or 'character luck'), how chance contributes to who we are and to who we become. In particular, I focus upon our 'social locations/ our positions as embodied particular beings within specific cultures, historical contexts, societies, and positionings via power relations along such lines as race, sex, sexuality, class, and nation.
I build upon Barbara Harlow's examinations of 'resistance literature' and Ngugi wa Thiong'o's distinction between literature which is complicit with domination versus that which resists it. I proceed in a similar direction, though I attempt to avoid the sharp binary opposition between complicity and resistance to domination, as I argue that oppression is more dynamic and fluid than such language implies. Our selves and our views may be constituted by relations of domination and/or resistance to domination, whatever explicit values we may maintain about human equality and justice. I critically examine some discussions of voice, diversity, and knowledge claims in selected feminist works on moral and epistemological questions. I build upon this critical examination to describe and argue for Satya P. Mohanty's 'realist-cognitivist' view as a moral-epistemological framework for moral attention. Moral attention combines social location theory, critiques of certain relativistic commitments, and analyses from 'resistant literatures' of moral-political liberationist projects. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
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Papers by Carol J Moeller
As Iris Murdoch notes, much of our moral lives may take place outside of conscious beliefs and between explicit moments of choice. Murdoch writes, “The moral life…is something that goes on continually, not something that is switched off in between the occurrence of explicit moral choices.”
Murdoch develops the notion of attention – drawn from Simone Weil – to address such subtle aspects of moral life. Bridget Clarke argues that Murdoch’s notion of attention has the potential to be critical, to enable self-critical awareness of one’s own racism, for example. This critical potential is crucial to anti-oppressive work. Racism – as well as other kinds of oppression –tends to make one unaware of one’s unawareness.
Critical moral attention suggests social locations as a point of entry into understanding the world, taking greater responsibility for who we are and who we might become – individually and collectively. To do this, we must engage critically with our own and others’ views and experiences, using these as ‘raw material’ for growth. Weil writes, “How were the factors of oppression, so closely bound up with the actual mechanism of social life, suddenly to disappear?” Critical moral attention offers a path, with moral growth required for liberatory transformation, perhaps preparing us for a “beloved community.”
As Iris Murdoch notes, much of our moral lives may take place outside of conscious beliefs and between explicit moments of choice. Murdoch writes, “The moral life…is something that goes on continually, not something that is switched off in between the occurrence of explicit moral choices.”
Murdoch develops the notion of attention – drawn from Simone Weil – to address such subtle aspects of moral life. Bridget Clarke argues that Murdoch’s notion of attention has the potential to be critical, to enable self-critical awareness of one’s own racism, for example. This critical potential is crucial to anti-oppressive work. Racism – as well as other kinds of oppression –tends to make one unaware of one’s unawareness.
Critical moral attention suggests social locations as a point of entry into understanding the world, taking greater responsibility for who we are and who we might become – individually and collectively. To do this, we must engage critically with our own and others’ views and experiences, using these as ‘raw material’ for growth. Weil writes, “How were the factors of oppression, so closely bound up with the actual mechanism of social life, suddenly to disappear?” Critical moral attention offers a path, with moral growth required for liberatory transformation, perhaps preparing us for a “beloved community.”
I build upon Barbara Harlow's examinations of 'resistance literature' and Ngugi wa Thiong'o's distinction between literature which is complicit with domination versus that which resists it. I proceed in a similar direction, though I attempt to avoid the sharp binary opposition between complicity and resistance to domination, as I argue that oppression is more dynamic and fluid than such language implies.
Our selves and our views may be constituted by relations of domination and/or resistance to domination, whatever explicit values we may maintain about human equality and justice. I critically examine some discussions of voice, diversity, and knowledge claims in selected feminist works on moral and epistemological questions. I build upon this critical examination to describe and argue for Satya P. Mohanty's 'realist-cognitivist' view as a moral-epistemological framework for moral attention. Moral attention combines social location theory, critiques of certain relativistic commitments, and analyses from 'resistant literatures' of moral-political liberationist projects.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.