The Social and Political Thought of Mary Wollstonecraft
(see publications under books)
Mary Wollstonecraft is by any accounts a remarkable and versatile thinker. Long appreciated as an inspirational and visionary feminist, she was also a noted historian, travel writer, educator, novelist and activist. Only recently, however, is she being rediscovered as an important and innovative philosopher in her own right, and one who deserves to be studied and understood not only as a product of her time, or through the canon of male writers who influenced her, but firmly on her own terms.
Following the success of the One Day Symposium on Mary Wollstonecraft: Philosophy and Enlightenment held at Lund University last year as part of the Understanding Agency Research Programme, a second event has been organised that develops and extends its themes. (Podcasts of the papers given in Lund are available here).
The papers in this gathering explore Wollstonecraft’s ideas both in relation to other female writers of the period and as providing valuable insights into issues of contemporary political relevance such as the nature of rights and the accommodation of cultural diversity.
Date: Thursday 30th May, 2013 (09.00 – 17.00)
Venue: Room B36, Main Building, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX
Click here for the conference programme
Click here for abstracts of the conference papers
Keynote: Barbara Taylor (Queen Mary, University of London), “Wollstonecraft and Modern Philosophy”
Quentin Skinner (Queen Mary, University of London), “Wollstonecraft and Republicanism”
Speakers: Sandrine Berges (Bilkent University), “Mary Wollstonecraft and Sophie de Grouchy”
Alan Coffee (King’s College London), “Cultural Diversity and the Virtuous Republic”
Lena Halldenius (Lund University),”Wollstonecraft and Representation”
Susan James (Birkbeck, University of London), “Wollstonecraft and Rights”
Martina Reuter (Jyvaskyla University), “Wollstonecraft’s Criticism of Rousseau”
Sponsors: The Understanding Agency Research Programme, Uppsala and Lund Universities. Funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation
Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College
The Mind Association
European Society for Early Modern Philosophy
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