Humanism and the Posthuman Challenge

When:
November 26, 2013 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
2013-11-26T18:30:00+00:00
2013-11-26T20:30:00+00:00
Where:
Anatomy G29 J Z Young LT
UCL
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
UK
Cost:
Free
Bentham Lecture: ‘Humanism and the Posthuman Challenge’, presented by Professor Anne Phillips FBA, Graham Walls Professor of Political Science, London School of Economics

Developments in cybernetics and biotechnology have prompted talk of this as a posthuman age. Does any of this make sense, and if so, what significance does it have for the continuing salience of humanism and the figure of the human

Presented by Professor Anne Phillips

Anne Phillips is Professor of Political and Gender Theory in the LSE Gender Institute and the Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government.

Professor Phillips is on sabbatical for the 2013/14 academic year.

She joined the LSE in 1999 as Professor of Gender Theory, and was Director of the Gender Institute until September 2004. She subsequently moved to a joint appointment between the Gender Institute and Government Department. She is a leading figure in feminist political theory, and writes on issues of bodies and property, democracy and representation, equality, multiculturalism, and difference. Much of her work can be read as challenging the narrowness of contemporary liberal theory.

In 1992, she was co-winner of the American Political Science Association’s Victoria Schuck Award for Best Book on Women and Politics published in 1991 (awarded for Engendering Democracy). She was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Aalborg in 1999; was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Political Science Programme of the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, 2002-6; and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003. In 2008, she received a Special Recognition Award from the Political Studies Association, UK, for her contribution to Political Studies. In 2012, she was awarded the title Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science.

The Bentham Lecture is organised by the Humanist Philosophers’ Group with support from the British Humanist Association and the Philosophy Department at University College London.