Theorizing At Rowan: Quill Kukla and Mark Lance, "The Pragmatics and Ethics of Gender Ascription"

​The Department of Philosophy and World Religions is pleased to announce the return of our Theorizing at Rowan lecture series for Fall 2022.

​On Wednesday October 5, at 5 pm.  Professors Quill Kukla and Mark Lance (Philosophy, Georgetown University), will present a talk entitled “The Pragmatics and Ethics of Gender Ascription.”  The event will be held in a hybrid format, in person in Business Hall 103 and online via Zoom.

​Profs. Kukla and Lance have provided the following abstract for their presentation: “What are we doing when we ascribe gender—that is, when we announce, “I am a man”; tell someone, “You are not a woman,” or use gendered pronouns to describe someone, for instance? And why does such gendered language matter? Why should people care what pronouns are used to refer to them? In this paper, we give a pragmatic analysis of the structure of gender ascriptions. We argue that gender ascriptions do not function first and foremost as truth claims, but rather serve a different primary pragmatic function. We try to show why gender ascriptions, including pronoun uses, are ethically important, including why it is harmful to ascribe to someone a gender that they reject.”

​This event is co-sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

​Series Info:

​Theorizing at Rowan is a series of public, work in progress lectures covering topics of interest to scholars in philosophy, religion studies, and other related disciplines. The goal of the series is to promote scholarly exchange involving the Department of Philosophy and World Religions, the University, and beyond. Speakers will include members of the department as well as faculty from other departments at Rowan and from other institutions.

​All Theorizing at Rowan events are free and open to the public.

​For more information, visit https://theorizing-at-rowan.tumblr.com