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Professor Moira Gatens

Department of Philosophy,
School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry
Room S443, Quadrangle, A14
University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW, 2006

Ph +612 9351 2468
Fax +612 9351 3918

Biographical Information

Social and political philosophy, ethics, 17th century philosophy (especially Spinoza), philosophy and literature, feminist theory.

Fellowships and Honours

  • 2013 Invited to deliver the ‘Mark Sacks Lecture’ in Frankfurt, Germany (hosted by the European Journal of Philosophy)
  • Invited to deliver the ‘Mary Wollstonecraft Annual Lecture’, Hull University, UK
  • 2010 Elected Fellow Academy Humanities in Australia
  • 2010 Spinoza Chair, University of Amsterdam, (April-June)
  • 2007-08 Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, Germany (October 2007 – July 2008)
  • 2005 Erskine Fellowship, Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand, (May-June)
  • 2005 Scots Philosophical Society Centenary Visiting Fellow, Scotland (March-April)
  • 2003 STIRCERD Distinguished Visiting Fellow, LSE, UK, (May-June)
  • 1999 Elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
  • 1994 Research Fellow, “Reshaping Australian Institutions Project” Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University.

Selected Publications

Books

  • 2011 Spinoza Lectures: Spinoza’s Hard Path to Freedom, Assen, Van Gorcum.
  • 2009 (ed.) Feminist Interpretations of Benedict Spinoza, Pennsylvania, Penn State Press.
  • 2001 Feminism si Filosofie: Perspective asupra diferentei si egalitatii, [trans. Feminism and Philosophy, 1991]
  • 1999 Collective Imaginings: Spinoza, Past and Present, London and New York: Routledge, [with G. Lloyd]
  • 1996 Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power and Corporeality, London and New York: Routledge.
  • 1991 Feminism and Philosophy: Perspectives on Difference and Equality, Cambridge: Polity Press & Indiana University Press. (reprinted: 1993, 1995)

Guest Editor

  • 2008 Re-coupling Gender and Genre, special issue Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, Vol. 13 No. 2, 140pp

Book Chapters

  • 2013 ‘Imagination, Religion, and Morality: What did George Eliot learn from Spinoza and Feuerbach?’ Feminist History of Philosophy: The Recovery and Evaluation of Women’s Philosophical Thought, eds, E. O’Neill and M. Lascano, Dortrecht, Springer, in press
  • 2009 'Through Spinoza's Looking Glass', Feminist Interpretations of Benedict Spinoza, ed. M. Gatens, Pennsylvania, Penn State Press
  • 2009 'The Politics of the Imagination', Feminist Interpretations of Benedict Spinoza, ed. M. Gatens, Pennsylvania, Penn State Press
  • 2008 'Paradoxes of Liberal Politics: Contracts, Rights, and Consent', in The Illusion of Consent: Engaging with Carole Pateman, eds D. O'Neill, M.L. Shanley and I.M. Young, Pennsylvania, Penn State Press.
  • 2008 'Conflicting Imaginaries in Australian Multiculturalism: Women's Rights, Group Rights and Aboriginal Customary Law', in Political Theory and Australian Multiculturalism, ed. Geoffrey Braham Levey, NY, Berghahn Books.
  • 2006 'Politicizing the Body: Property, Contract and Rights', in The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, eds J. Dryzek, B. Honig and A. Phillips, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  • 2004 ‘Privacy and the Body: The Publicity of Affect’ in Privacies: Philosophical Evaluations, ed. B Roessler, Stanford University Press.
  • 2003 ‘Beauvoir and Biology: A Second Look’ in C. Card, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Simone de Beauvoir, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • 2002 'Post-Colonialism and History: Are We Responsible for the Past?' in J. Swearingen, J. Cutting-Gray, eds., Extreme Beauty: Aesthetics, Politics, Death, New York, London, Continuum.
  • ‘The Politics of “Presence” and “Difference”: Working Through Spinoza and Eliot’, in Visible Women: Essays on Feminist Legal Theory and Political Philosophy, eds. S. James and S. Palmer, Oxford: Hart Publishing.

Journal Articles

  • 2012 ‘Compelling Fictions: Spinoza and George Eliot on Imagination and Belief’ European Journal of Philosophy, 20:1.
  • 2009 ‘The Curious Empiricism of George Eliot’s Literary Experiments’, Philosophy Today, 52.
  • 2009 ‘Spinoza’s Disturbing Thesis: Power, Norms and Fiction in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus’ History of Political Thought, XXX, 3, Autumn.
  • 2009 ‘The Art and Philosophy of George Eliot’, Philosophy and Literature.
  • 2008 'Gender and Genre: Marian Evans, George Henry Lewes and "George Eliot"', Re-coupling Gender and Genre, special issue Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, Vol. 13 No. 2.
  • 2008 'Re-coupling Gender and Genre' editor's introduction to special issue Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, Vol. 13 No. 2.
  • 2007 'George Eliot's "incarnation of the Divine" in Romola and Benedict Spinoza's "Blessedness": A Double Reading', in George Eliot - George Henry Lewes Studies, Vol. 52-53 September-October.
  • 2007 'The "Disciplined Imagination": Literature as Experimental Philosophy' in Australian Feminist Studies, Vol. 22, No. 52.
  • 2004 ‘Can Human Rights Accommodate Women’s Rights? Towards an Embodied Account of Social Norms, Social Meaning, and Cultural Change’, Contemporary Political Theory, Vol 3.
  • 2003 ‘Twenty years since “A Critique of the sex/gender Distinction”: a conversation with Moira Gatens’ [with Mary Walsh], Australian Feminist Studies, Vol 19, No 44.
  • 2003 ‘Imagination, Power and Freedom’, Arts: Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association, Vol 23.
  • 2003 ‘Freedom and Determinism in Middlemarch, or Dorothea the Lunatic’, Sydney Studies in English, Vol 29.
  • 2002 ‘If Mutual Obligation is the Answer, What is the Question?’ in Australian Journal of Social Issues, Vol 37, No 3. (with D. Mitchell and V. Braithwaite).
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