SWIP-NYC Colloquium

The SWIP-NYC Colloquium showcases work by women philosophers in all areas of philosophy. Usually, there are one or two regular colloquia per semester plus a special colloquium in the spring featuring the winner(s) of our annual SWIP-NYC Graduate Student Essay Prize.

Fall 2024

Friday, September 20, 3:30-5:30 pm, Juliana Bidadanure (NYU), “Understanding Demonization.” The talk will be in room 202 of the NYU philosophy department at 5 Washington Place, NYC.

Abstract: Demonization is commonly defined as the act of portraying individuals as wicked threats to the community. Although the term is widely used in public discourse, it is undertheorized and not well regimented. Social scientists don’t pay much attention to the concept, preferring overlapping notions like stigmatization, scapegoating, and stereotyping, as well as populism, propaganda, and polarization. While these concepts somewhat overlap with demonization, none of them are suitable replacements. My contention is that demonization is a distinctive practice associated with a delineable social function. Its unique quality is that it targets the  moral character of the demonized. I propose to understand demonization as a social practice in which A portrays B as (i) distinctly, intrinsically, and often entirely, bad and as (ii) constituting an immense peril to A’s core values and/or existence. I refer to (i) as moral othering and (ii) as moral panic and identify several faces of demonization.

Spring 2025

Friday, April 11, 3:30-5:30 pm, Frances Kamm (Rutgers), TBA