PSSA Harassment Working Group
David Spurrett
Philosophical Society of Southern Africa
Harassment Working Group
Background
There have been a number of high profile scandals involving sexual harassment at philosophy departments in various countries, as well as a growing acknowledgment that the discipline has widespread problems with harassment and inappropriate sexual attention.
In a survey of professional philosophers reported in 2015 ‘Sexual harassment and discrimination against women’ was identified as the sixth most pressing issue in the profession (source below).
Several learned societies in other countries, including the American Philosophical Association (APA), The Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP) and the British Philosophical Association (BPA) have devoted attention to the problem, and produced various reports and policies.
Selected resources:
What it is like to be a woman in philosophy https://beingawomaninphilosophy.wordpress.com/
Being a philosopher of colour https://beingaphilosopherofcolor.wordpress.com/
APA statement on sexual harassment http://www.apaonline.org/?harassment
Readers identify the most important issues in the profession: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2015/03/readers-identify-the-most-important-issues-in-the-profession.html
The PSSA 2015 AGM
The 2015 AGM of the PSSA agreed that a small working group would review the reports and policies of other learned societies, conduct such other research as it sees fit, and report back to the next PSSA AGM, in 2016, perhaps proposing a specific policy for adoption by the PSSA.
The brief of the working group is not narrowly restricted to sexual harassment, and the group plans to review and report back on policies concerning sexual discrimination more generally, including intersectional discrimination.
Contact/contributions
The members of the working group are (in alphabetical order):
Lindsay Kelland (Rhodes) l.ke...@ru.ac.za
Candess Kostopoulos (Wits/UJ)
Jessica Lerm (UWC) jes...@justforus.co.za
Keo Mbebe (Pretoria) Keo....@up.ac.za
David Spurrett (UKZN, working group facilitator) spur...@ukzn.ac.za
Mpho Tshivhase (Pretoria)
Monique Whitaker (Wits) monique....@wits.ac.za
Ernst Wolff (Pretoria) Ernst...@up.ac.za
If you have comments or contributions to the process, please contact any member of the working group.
Tom A
The Philosophy Spring Colloquium is happening at UCT this year, 5-6th September.
If you wish to come as a non-speaker, there is a rate of R150 per day.
Please deposit payment at:
Account Name: UCT Sundries Account
Bank Name : Standard Bank of South Africa
Bank Address: Riverside Centre, Main Road, Rondebosch
Branch Code: 025009 (Rondebosch Branch)
Account Number: 07 150 3854
Reference Field: 232185 + PSSA + speaker’s surname
**Please also send an email to uctcollo...@gmail.com, and we'll send you a programme.**
Best wishes
Tom Angier and Elisa Galgut