TORONTO, December 3, 2001 -- Joan Wallach Scott, a renowned historian and feminist thinker whose questioning of the nature and validity of historical sources has riveted historians around the world, will speak at York University on Thursday, Dec. 6 on the subject of Political Representations and Sexual Difference in late 20th century France.
Scott was the first historian to apply current theories in literature and philosophy to the field of history, forcing historians to question their conclusions by assessing how sources are produced. She showed how language simplifies and contains a much more complex reality and triggered a fundamental shift in thinking about gender difference and equality in history by emphasizing "gender" over "women's history".
Her book, Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man (Harvard University Press, 1996), re-evaluates the political philosophy of 19th century feminism, pointing out the profound paradox of feminist advocacy itself as it embraces the need to both accept and refuse sexual difference in politics. Scott has not only shaped the debate about the history of gender, but of the larger questions of political and cultural history.
Currently at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, she is now comparing the emergence of international feminist movements at the end of the 19th century with global feminism of the late 20th century.
Her lecture will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the Harry Crowe Room at the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies, York University, Keele campus, 4700 Keele St.
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For further information, please contact:
| Prof. Ananya Mukherjee | Susan Bigelow |
| Dept. of Political Science | Media Relations |
| York University | York University |
| 416-736-5265 | 416-736-2100, ext. 22091 |
| ananya@yorku.ca | sbigelow@yorku.ca |
YU/135/01
