Power: Feminism & Foucault w/ Dr. Amy Allen

This week, we delve into how the influential theorist Michel Foucault challenged and changed our conceptions of power. We also begin to plumb how a feminist understanding of power can help inform our efforts to perpetuate social change. Our guest scholar for this conversation is Dr. Amy Allen, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University, who helps us deepen our understanding of the inescapability and essential neutrality of power.

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Dr. Amy Allen is the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Advancement and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University. Her work engages with 20th-century Continental Philosophy, Critical Theory, Feminist Theory, and Social and Political Theory. She completed her PhD in philosophy at Northwestern University. Before joining Penn State, she taught philosophy at Grinnell College, Dartmouth College, and the University of Edinburgh.

She has served in a number of prominent positions such as sitting on the executive committee of the eastern division of the American Philosophical Association. She has been an executive co-director of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, a co-editor-in-chief of Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, and editor of the series New Directions in Critical Theory published by Columbia University Press.

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While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic of power:

Allen, A. (2018). The power of feminist theory. Routledge.

Allen, A. (2007). The politics of our selves: Power, autonomy, and gender in contemporary critical theory. Columbia University Press.

Allen, A. (1998). Rethinking power. Hypatia, 13(1), 21-40.

Allen, A. (2002). Power, subjectivity, and agency: Between Arendt and Foucault. International journal of philosophical studies, 10(2), 131-149.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com