This is part 1 of 6 of the dossier What Do We Talk about when We Talk about Queer Death?, edited ... more This is part 1 of 6 of the dossier What Do We Talk about when We Talk about Queer Death?, edited by M. Petricola. The contributions collected in this article sit at the crossroads between thanatolo ...
Whatever: Transdisciplinary Journal of Queer Theory and Studies, 2021
This is part 1 of 6 of the dossier What Do We Talk about when We Talk about Queer Death?, edited ... more This is part 1 of 6 of the dossier What Do We Talk about when We Talk about Queer Death?, edited by M. Petricola. The contributions collected in this article sit at the crossroads between thanatology and queer theory and tackle questions such as: how can we define queer death studies as a research field? How can queer death studies problematize and rethink the life-death binary? Which notions and hermeneutic tools could be borrowed from other disciplines in order to better define queer death studies? The present article includes the following contributions:-MacCormack P., What does queer death studies mean?;-Radomska M., On queering death studies;-Lykke N., Death as vibrancy;-Hillerup Hansen I., What concreteness will do to resolve the uncertain;-Olson P., Queer objectivity as a response to denials of death;-Manganas N., The queer lack of a chthonic instinct.
The article explores the problem of epistemological ignorance. Drawing on the literature of femin... more The article explores the problem of epistemological ignorance. Drawing on the literature of feminist epistemology, in particular the epistemologies of ignorance, it theorizes white ignorance and male ignorance and how it is possible to gain conscious-ness about one’s ignorance, as well as how to be responsible for what one does not know. The article explores ignorance as unconscious habits that inform our mental schemas, our social interactions, and our physicality. It identifies and analyzes these habits of ignorance, drawing on our experiences as team teachers (one a philosophy professor, and the other a professor of women’s studies and literary studies) who co-taught an interdisciplinary doctoral seminar in feminist epistemology. It describes and illustrates the pedagogical and scholarly processes that led us to view epistemology as a practice of inquiry that combats ignorance by demanding an inclusive partner-ship across traditional and counterhegemonic approaches to knowledge. ...
I thank Myra Hird and Zsuzsa Gille for their lively discussion of Hird’s article, “Knowing Waste:... more I thank Myra Hird and Zsuzsa Gille for their lively discussion of Hird’s article, “Knowing Waste: Towards an Inhuman Epistemology.” Gille is right that “[s]uch debates can only be good for waste studies and for scholars interested in developing nuanced understandings of materiality” (2013, 1). Indeed, I find this insightful exchange illuminating with respect to a particular area of material and technological culture that waste studies scholarship seldom travels, namely, the study of human remains. In my response to Hird, I propose a waste-directed approach to understanding the norms and practices governing the disposal of human corpses. I am guided by two questions. First, in what ways can Hird’s contribution to waste studies shed light on the study of human remains? Second, what insights can the study of corpse disposal provide to waste studies in general, and to the ideas put forward in “Knowing Waste” in particular?
In 2014, the United States Federal Aviation Administration chose six sites at which to conduct re... more In 2014, the United States Federal Aviation Administration chose six sites at which to conduct research crucial to integrating unmanned aircraft systems into the nation's airspace. Analyzing data collected from five focus groups that we conducted at one of these test sites, this article centers on the gendered and racialized politics of civilian unmanned aircraft. Civilian drone use remains a relatively unchallenged space for displaying hypermasculinity via technological expertise. Focusing on the topic of surveillance, we argue that a very particular, intersectional perspective - white technomasculinity - profoundly influences how civilian unmanned aircraft are imagined, designed and deployed. While this perspective went unmarked and was taken for granted by most of our focus group participants, our analysis highlights the constructed and contingent nature of white technomasculinity, and we argue that a critical technological consciousness is necessary to prevent these technolo...
This article examines the women-led natural deathcare movment in the early 21(st) century U.S., f... more This article examines the women-led natural deathcare movment in the early 21(st) century U.S., focusing upon the movement's non-coincidental epistemological and gender-political similarities to the natural childbirth movement. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and drawing upon the author's intensive interviews with pioneers and leaders of the U.S. natural deathcare movement, as well as from the author's own participation in the movement, this article argues that the political similarities between the countercultural natural childbirth and natural deathcare movements reveal a common cultural provocation-one that spans the natal transition and the fatal transition.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 0305724022000073365, Aug 3, 2010
... After delivering a lecture at the Hull-House, Dewey thanked his hosts: “Every day I stayed th... more ... After delivering a lecture at the Hull-House, Dewey thanked his hosts: “Every day I stayed there only added to my conviction that ... the most well known African American pragmatist, is given significant attention and a few others are mentioned (ie Martin Delaney, Fredrick Douglass ...
This paper examines the political controversy in the US surrounding a new process for the disposi... more This paper examines the political controversy in the US surrounding a new process for the disposition of human remains, alkaline hydrolysis (AH). AH technologies use a heated (sometimes pressurized) solution of water and strong alkali to dissolve tissues, yielding an effluent that can be disposed through municipal sewer systems, and brittle bone matter that can be dried, crushed, and returned to the decedent’s family. Though AH is legal in eight US states, opposition to the technology remains strong. Opponents express concerns about public health and safety, and about the dignity of our mortal remains. Proponents focus on AH’s environmental benefits over cremation and earth burial, aligning the technology with the “green burial” movement. Drawing from historical sources, STS literature, interviews with funeral professionals, industry literature, and various media sources, this paper examines four prominent conceptions of the dead human body as they are deployed (and inflected) by various funeral stakeholders seeking to exercise authority over the dead human body, to influence the trajectory of AH technology in the US, and to chart a course for US death-care culture in the twenty first century.
... In a more recent work, Ecological Thinking (2006), Code admirably develops the social and ...... more ... In a more recent work, Ecological Thinking (2006), Code admirably develops the social and ... Deeply influenced by Code's early work, Linda Zagzebski's theory of virtue is decidedly ... because she grants both structural and evaluative priority to the motivational component, which ...
... After delivering a lecture at the Hull-House, Dewey thanked his hosts: “Every day I stayed th... more ... After delivering a lecture at the Hull-House, Dewey thanked his hosts: “Every day I stayed there only added to my conviction that ... the most well known African American pragmatist, is given significant attention and a few others are mentioned (ie Martin Delaney, Fredrick Douglass ...
The use of the term applied ethics to denote a particular field of moral inquiry (distinct from... more The use of the term applied ethics to denote a particular field of moral inquiry (distinct from but related to both normative ethics and meta-ethics) is a relatively new phenomenon. The individuation of applied ethics as a special division of moral investigation gathered ...
The use of the term applied ethics to denote a particular field of moral inquiry (distinct from... more The use of the term applied ethics to denote a particular field of moral inquiry (distinct from but related to both normative ethics and meta-ethics) is a relatively new phenomenon. The individuation of applied ethics as a special division of moral investigation gathered ...
... During 20032005 Pritchard's anti-luck epistemology was strongly externalist and... more ... During 20032005 Pritchard's anti-luck epistemology was strongly externalist and reductionist, and his safety-based ... all, let alone a condition of believing truly from abilities or competencies as virtue epistemologists understand them: [T]he appropriate moral to draw ...
This is part 1 of 6 of the dossier What Do We Talk about when We Talk about Queer Death?, edited ... more This is part 1 of 6 of the dossier What Do We Talk about when We Talk about Queer Death?, edited by M. Petricola. The contributions collected in this article sit at the crossroads between thanatolo ...
Whatever: Transdisciplinary Journal of Queer Theory and Studies, 2021
This is part 1 of 6 of the dossier What Do We Talk about when We Talk about Queer Death?, edited ... more This is part 1 of 6 of the dossier What Do We Talk about when We Talk about Queer Death?, edited by M. Petricola. The contributions collected in this article sit at the crossroads between thanatology and queer theory and tackle questions such as: how can we define queer death studies as a research field? How can queer death studies problematize and rethink the life-death binary? Which notions and hermeneutic tools could be borrowed from other disciplines in order to better define queer death studies? The present article includes the following contributions:-MacCormack P., What does queer death studies mean?;-Radomska M., On queering death studies;-Lykke N., Death as vibrancy;-Hillerup Hansen I., What concreteness will do to resolve the uncertain;-Olson P., Queer objectivity as a response to denials of death;-Manganas N., The queer lack of a chthonic instinct.
The article explores the problem of epistemological ignorance. Drawing on the literature of femin... more The article explores the problem of epistemological ignorance. Drawing on the literature of feminist epistemology, in particular the epistemologies of ignorance, it theorizes white ignorance and male ignorance and how it is possible to gain conscious-ness about one’s ignorance, as well as how to be responsible for what one does not know. The article explores ignorance as unconscious habits that inform our mental schemas, our social interactions, and our physicality. It identifies and analyzes these habits of ignorance, drawing on our experiences as team teachers (one a philosophy professor, and the other a professor of women’s studies and literary studies) who co-taught an interdisciplinary doctoral seminar in feminist epistemology. It describes and illustrates the pedagogical and scholarly processes that led us to view epistemology as a practice of inquiry that combats ignorance by demanding an inclusive partner-ship across traditional and counterhegemonic approaches to knowledge. ...
I thank Myra Hird and Zsuzsa Gille for their lively discussion of Hird’s article, “Knowing Waste:... more I thank Myra Hird and Zsuzsa Gille for their lively discussion of Hird’s article, “Knowing Waste: Towards an Inhuman Epistemology.” Gille is right that “[s]uch debates can only be good for waste studies and for scholars interested in developing nuanced understandings of materiality” (2013, 1). Indeed, I find this insightful exchange illuminating with respect to a particular area of material and technological culture that waste studies scholarship seldom travels, namely, the study of human remains. In my response to Hird, I propose a waste-directed approach to understanding the norms and practices governing the disposal of human corpses. I am guided by two questions. First, in what ways can Hird’s contribution to waste studies shed light on the study of human remains? Second, what insights can the study of corpse disposal provide to waste studies in general, and to the ideas put forward in “Knowing Waste” in particular?
In 2014, the United States Federal Aviation Administration chose six sites at which to conduct re... more In 2014, the United States Federal Aviation Administration chose six sites at which to conduct research crucial to integrating unmanned aircraft systems into the nation's airspace. Analyzing data collected from five focus groups that we conducted at one of these test sites, this article centers on the gendered and racialized politics of civilian unmanned aircraft. Civilian drone use remains a relatively unchallenged space for displaying hypermasculinity via technological expertise. Focusing on the topic of surveillance, we argue that a very particular, intersectional perspective - white technomasculinity - profoundly influences how civilian unmanned aircraft are imagined, designed and deployed. While this perspective went unmarked and was taken for granted by most of our focus group participants, our analysis highlights the constructed and contingent nature of white technomasculinity, and we argue that a critical technological consciousness is necessary to prevent these technolo...
This article examines the women-led natural deathcare movment in the early 21(st) century U.S., f... more This article examines the women-led natural deathcare movment in the early 21(st) century U.S., focusing upon the movement's non-coincidental epistemological and gender-political similarities to the natural childbirth movement. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and drawing upon the author's intensive interviews with pioneers and leaders of the U.S. natural deathcare movement, as well as from the author's own participation in the movement, this article argues that the political similarities between the countercultural natural childbirth and natural deathcare movements reveal a common cultural provocation-one that spans the natal transition and the fatal transition.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 0305724022000073365, Aug 3, 2010
... After delivering a lecture at the Hull-House, Dewey thanked his hosts: “Every day I stayed th... more ... After delivering a lecture at the Hull-House, Dewey thanked his hosts: “Every day I stayed there only added to my conviction that ... the most well known African American pragmatist, is given significant attention and a few others are mentioned (ie Martin Delaney, Fredrick Douglass ...
This paper examines the political controversy in the US surrounding a new process for the disposi... more This paper examines the political controversy in the US surrounding a new process for the disposition of human remains, alkaline hydrolysis (AH). AH technologies use a heated (sometimes pressurized) solution of water and strong alkali to dissolve tissues, yielding an effluent that can be disposed through municipal sewer systems, and brittle bone matter that can be dried, crushed, and returned to the decedent’s family. Though AH is legal in eight US states, opposition to the technology remains strong. Opponents express concerns about public health and safety, and about the dignity of our mortal remains. Proponents focus on AH’s environmental benefits over cremation and earth burial, aligning the technology with the “green burial” movement. Drawing from historical sources, STS literature, interviews with funeral professionals, industry literature, and various media sources, this paper examines four prominent conceptions of the dead human body as they are deployed (and inflected) by various funeral stakeholders seeking to exercise authority over the dead human body, to influence the trajectory of AH technology in the US, and to chart a course for US death-care culture in the twenty first century.
... In a more recent work, Ecological Thinking (2006), Code admirably develops the social and ...... more ... In a more recent work, Ecological Thinking (2006), Code admirably develops the social and ... Deeply influenced by Code's early work, Linda Zagzebski's theory of virtue is decidedly ... because she grants both structural and evaluative priority to the motivational component, which ...
... After delivering a lecture at the Hull-House, Dewey thanked his hosts: “Every day I stayed th... more ... After delivering a lecture at the Hull-House, Dewey thanked his hosts: “Every day I stayed there only added to my conviction that ... the most well known African American pragmatist, is given significant attention and a few others are mentioned (ie Martin Delaney, Fredrick Douglass ...
The use of the term applied ethics to denote a particular field of moral inquiry (distinct from... more The use of the term applied ethics to denote a particular field of moral inquiry (distinct from but related to both normative ethics and meta-ethics) is a relatively new phenomenon. The individuation of applied ethics as a special division of moral investigation gathered ...
The use of the term applied ethics to denote a particular field of moral inquiry (distinct from... more The use of the term applied ethics to denote a particular field of moral inquiry (distinct from but related to both normative ethics and meta-ethics) is a relatively new phenomenon. The individuation of applied ethics as a special division of moral investigation gathered ...
... During 20032005 Pritchard's anti-luck epistemology was strongly externalist and... more ... During 20032005 Pritchard's anti-luck epistemology was strongly externalist and reductionist, and his safety-based ... all, let alone a condition of believing truly from abilities or competencies as virtue epistemologists understand them: [T]he appropriate moral to draw ...
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