Diana Tietjens Meyers
Department of Philosophy
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT 06269-2054
e-mail: diana.meyers@uconn.edu
Office: 229 Manchester Hall
860-486-3587 (office and voice mail)
860-486-0387 (fax)

Research Interests

Feminist Theory, Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy

I believe that paying attention to gender -- understanding why the category of gender has been sidelined throughout the history of philosophy and giving it a central place in one's own scholarship -- transforms the philosophical enterprise in highly beneficial ways. Philosophical problems that had seemed peripheral become salient, and the need to integrate pertinent findings from various disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, history, and cultural studies, into philosophical methodology becomes evident. My recent and current work centers on several interrelated topics. Self, Society, and Personal Choice (1989) develops an account of autonomy that is designed to show both how it is possible for oppressed people to have some degree of autonomy and how systematic subordination constrains autonomy. Subjection and Subjectivity: Psychoanalytic Feminism, and Moral Philosophy (1994) defends a relational account of moral reflection that emphasizes not only the catalytic contribution that empathy makes to moral insight but also the distortions that culturally entrenched prejudice introduces into moral perception and judgment. Gender in the Mirror: Cultural Imagery and Women's Agency (2002), examines how cultural gender imagery becomes lodged in individuals' cognitive, emotional, and conative infrastructure and subverts self-determination. Moreover, it argues for an account of individual agency capable of dissipating these noxious influences, and it advocates a vision of feminist politics that combines challenges to ubiquitous demeaning images of women with challenges to women's social and economic subordination. Being Yourself: Identity, Action and Social Life(2004) is a collection of my (mostly) previously published papers. The new papers deal with psychocorporeal identity and agency.

Online Papers

This listing is provided as a service to those students and researchers who might otherwise write to me and ask for a reprint. Please use it just as you would reprints you request and receive through the mail from an author. That is, for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, and to "promote the progress of Science and the Useful Arts," you may make at most one copy, for non-commerical use only. I believe such use is "fair use," falling within the well established practice of authors providing a reprint to those who request one. Any other use of this site is not authorized by the author and may violate copyright.

"Feminist Perspectives on the Self," in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Fall 1999 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta.

"Miroir, Memoire, Mirage: Appearance, Aging, and Women,"; in Mother Time: Ethical Issues in Women and Aging edited by Margaret Urban Walker, Rowman and Littlefield, 1999.

"Emotion and Heterodox Moral Perception: An Essay in Moral Social Psychology,"; in Feminists Rethink the Self, edited by Diana T. Meyers, Westview Press, 1997.

"Rights in Collision: A Non-Punitive, Compensatory Remedy for Abusive Speech," Law and Philosophy, 14 (2), 1995: 203-243.

Selected Publications

Books, Monographs

Self, Society, and Personal Choice, Columbia University Press, 1989.

Subjection and Subjectivity: Psychoanalytic Feminism, and Moral Philosophy, Routledge, 1994.

Gender in the Mirror: Cultural Imagery and Women's Agency, Oxford University Press, 2002.

Being Yourself: Identity, Action and Social Life, Rowman and Littlefield, 2004.

Books, Edited Volumes

Women and Moral Theory, edited with Eva Kittay, Rowman and Littlefield, 1987.

Feminists Rethink the Self, Westview, 1997.

Feminist Social Thought: A Reader, Routledge, 1997.

Articles

"Feminist Perspectives on the Self," in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,  (Fall 1999 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta, 1999.

"Intersectional Identity and the Authentic Self?  Opposites Attract," in Relational Autonomy, edited by Catriona Mackenzie and Natalie Stoljar, Oxford University Press, 2000.

"Feminism and Womens Autonomy: The Challenge of Female Genital Cutting," Metaphilosophy 31 (-2000): 469-491; also in The Edinburgh Companion to Con-temporary Liberalism, ed. Mark Evans, Edinburgh University Press, 2001.

"The Rush to Motherhood -- Pronatalist Discourse and Womens Autonomy," Signs 26 (2001): 735-773; received Honorable Mention as a 2003 Outstanding Article, American Sociological Association, Sex and Gender Section.

"Nancy J. Chodorow." in Key Contemporary Social Theorists, Ed. Anthony Elliott and Larry Ray. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.

"Social Groups and Individual Identities," in Feminists Doing Ethics, ed. Peggy DesAutels and Joanne Waugh, Rowman and Littlefield, 2001.

"Gendered Work and Autonomy," in Recognition, Responsibility, and Rights: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory. Ed. Hilde Nelson and Robin Fiore. Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

"Narrative and Moral Life," in Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers.  Ed. Cheshire Calhoun. Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2004; short version published in Center for Research on Women Working Papers, Rutgers University, 2003 and translated into Croatian in Zarez, June 2003.

"Frontiers of Individuality: Embodiment and Relationships in Cultural Context," History and Theory 42 (May 2003): 267-281.

My complete CV

Recent Courses Taught  

Philosophy and Gender; Feminist Theory (advanced advanced undergraduate course and graduate seminar);