Minorities and Philosophy (MAP)

Welcome to CU Boulder’s Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) Working Group. We are dedicated to hosting talks, reading groups, and other events related to minority issues in the profession; theoretical issues regarding philosophy of gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, etc.; and philosophy done from minority perspectives. We are a chapter of the national Minorities and Philosophy group We are funded by MAP.. 

 

MAP Faculty Advisors: Raul Saucedo, Ted Shear.

MAP Graduate Coordinators: Amanda Loeffelholz, Hunter Jin, Katie McCabe, Wen Xu.
 

Our funding comes from MAP, the CHA (Center for the Humanities and the Arts) at CU, the Department of Philosophy, and the Center for Values and Social Policy.

If you are interested in organizing an event for MAP at CU-Boulder, please contact us. 

 

Our ongoing activities:

1) Undergraduate Philosophy Mentorship Program: MAP coordinates a Philosophy Mentorship Program that pairs undergraduate mentees with graduate and faculty mentors. We especially encourage students who identify as underrepresented in philosophy to participate.
2) Accountability Group: MAP organizes a weekly accountability group providing philosophy students with a distraction-free space to read, write papers, prepare for teaching, and engage in other academic activities. This group offers students increased accountability and focus in their work.

 

Spring 2024 Events

Abstract: Conceiving of the problems of African colonialism in geopolitical terms offers an incomplete and ultimately misleading view of the significance of the African colonial experience on the present character of African politics. Unhappily, the track record of much of ‘independent’ Africa suggests that the colonisation of Africa was not so much the cause of Africans’ lack of freedom as a manifestation of the lack of freedom, without which Africans were unable to defend themselves. Colonialism is a force that probes for a certain type of weakness or limitations in a population. Colonialism seeks out certain 'freedom voids' -- populations that lack the qualities of a free citizenry. I argue that Africans would do better to focus instead on the more general political problem of how any state, regardless of its experience with colonialism, must create and sustain the institutions that support the security and freedom of its citizens.

 

- Prof. Bonnie Steinbock, “My Life as a Woman in Philosophy”
Tuesday, October 4, 3:30-5:00, Hellems 269
Women in academia continue to face challenges in male-dominated fields, and especially when they combine career and family. Bonnie Steinbock, now an emerita from the University at Albany's Philosophy Department, reflects on the challenges and rewards of a career in philosophy and bioethics. Come and ask questions and share experiences.

 

This Women in Philosophy Group event is co-sponsored by the Center for Values and Social Policy, the Department of Philosophy, the Department’s Climate Committee, and the Department’s Minorities and Philosophy Working Group.

 

- Prof. John Witt
Friday, February 24, 12:00-1:00, Hellems 269
We will be joined by John Witt, a distinguished professor of law and history at Yale.  Professor Witt was the chair of the committee at Yale that recently voted to rename a residential college there that had been named after John C. Calhoun.  You can read a recent story about the controversy here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/us/yale-protests-john-calhoun-grace-murray-hopper.html?_r=0

Professor Witt will give us some background about the particular naming controversy there and discuss some of the arguments that people offered on both sides of it, but our hope is that this will mostly be a facilitated conversation with him about the general issues that this particular case raises.

- Prof. Michele S. Moses, Professor, School of Education, CU-Boulder
Monday, April 17, 3:00-4:15, EDUC 330

"Caught in the Politics of Resentment: Affirmative Action, Negative Action, and Asian American Applicants to Selective Colleges"

Abstract: In this article, we examine the arguments and claims surrounding the most recent legal challenge to affirmative action in higher education admissions, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University. Using philosophical inquiry grounded in critical race theory, we argue that the most common discussion points in this and similar cases center on a baseless accusation that the reason that elite institutions of higher education may be using negative action against Asian American applicants is to admit instead other students of color using race-conscious affirmative action. We analyze the controversy surrounding Asian Americans, negative action, and affirmative action with the aim of illuminating how key concepts such as racial discrimination and diversity are central to a politics of resentment that is developing further around selective college admissions.

- Prof. Luvell Anderson (Univ. of Memphis), ’Navigating Racial Satire’, 7/21/2016, sponsored by MAP, and by the Think! talk series

Abstract: What has to go wrong in order for racial satire to be racist? Does the fact that something is satirical automatically mean it is free from blame? In this talk Professor Anderson will explore these issues and offer suggestions on how to broach racial subjects satirically.

Luvell Anderson (PhD, Rutgers University) is currently Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Memphis. Before coming to Memphis, he was Alain Locke Postdoctoral Fellow at Pennsylvania State University. His research lies primarily in Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Race, and Aesthetics. He has published articles on the semantics of racial slurs and on racist humor.

 

- Shelley Wilcox (Professor of Philosophy, SFSU) Teatime talk on the topic of Immigration and Moral Problems With ‘Attrition Through Enforcement’.