My areas of specialization are
philosophy of the social and historical sciences, specifically
archaeology, and feminist philosophy of science. I'm
interested in how archaeologists establish knowledge claims about the
cultural past, and in whether (or in what form) ideals of objectivity
can be sustained given feminist arguments for recognizing the central
role that contextual values
play in the research process. In both cases, I
argue, the answers lie in an analysis of evidential reasoning. To
explain how evidential constraints operate in archaeology I have
developed models of analogical inference, hypothesis testing, and
strategies of triangulation and scaffolding that turn on the use of background
knowledge. And to explore the epistemic role of
standpoint-specific interests and contextual values in the sciences, I
am currently engaged in a study of feminist research programs in the
social sciences. For a more detailed description of these interests see
Research
Interests.
News
and Current Projects
Biological Futures in a Globalized World: A research network and a cluster of
curriculum
development projects hosted by the Simpson Center for the Humanities
(University of Washington), in partnership with the Center for
Biological Futures at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute
(2011-2013). We initiated this project with a Research Consortium on
biological futures that brought together UW Faculty Fellows and CBF Research Fellows.
- for information on current events and projects see: http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/biofutures1011.html
Evidential Reasoning in Archaeology: Best
Practices and Object Lessons: A case-based project on norms of
evidential reasoning embodied in archaeological practice. This is a
collaborative work in progress with Robert Chapman (Archaeology
Department, University of Reading) inspired by the 2010 Leverhulme
Workshop on Evidential Reasoning at Reading University.
- Leverhulme program pdf
Hypatia:
Journal of Feminist Philosophy: Linda Martín Alcoff
(Hunter College), Ann Cudd (University of Kansas), and I are the
journal co-editors, and Sharyn Clough (Oregon State University) is book
review editor for Hypatia.
The Hypatia editorial office
is hosted by the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of
Washington (2008-2013).
- for Hypatia
news and updates, submission guidelines, special issue calls
for papers: Hypatia at
UW
- for electronic
contents, subscription information, and permissions: Hypatia
at Wiley-Blackwell
Intellectual Property
Issues in Cultural Heritage - iPinCH: A seven-year SSHRCC-funded
Major Collaborative Research Initiative, hosted by Simon Fraser
University, the goal of this project is to document and address
intellectual property issues in cultural heritage raised by
emergent local and global interpretations of culture, rights, and
knowledge. I am a co-investigator on this project, and co-chair, with
Sonya Atalay (Indiana University) of the Research Ethics Working
Group.
- iPinCH project website
Seneca Village Archaeological
Project/National Science Foundation (New York, NY): consultant
on research ethics for the field research and training project directed
by Nan A.
Rothschild (Barnard/Columbia) and Diana Wall (CUNY). This past summer
Rothschild and Wall got permission to begin test excavation and
convened a field school. An exciting long-in-the-works season!
- Seneca Village Project website
Science
Studies Network: This is an interdisciplinary forum for
colleagues at the University of Washington who share interests in
science and technology studies, founded
in the Fall of 2007. In its first two years we convened a biweekly
colloquium, focusing on "Democratizing Science" in 2008-2009; the
following year we sponsored a speaker series on "Representations in
Science";
we are now working with Biological Futures project on a two-year
program of colloquia, research consortium, and curriculum development
in science, technology, and society studies (SISS).
- for current SSNet news and events: SSNet website
Philosophy
of Social Science Roundtable: Since its inception in 1998 I
have co-organized this annual conference
with Paul Roth (University of California - Santa Cruz) and James Bohman
(St. Louis University), now joined by Mark Risjord (Emery University),
and Steven Turner (University of South Florida). We met in Paris in
March 2011 for the largest and
most international Roundtable so far. For the current call for papers,
program information,
and links to the annual Roundtable Special Issue of Philosophy of
the Social Sciences:
- check the Roundtable website: Philosophy of Social Science
Roundtable
Recent
Publications
Books, Journal Special
Issues, Reports
- Feminist
Legacies/Feminist Futures,”
Hypatia 25th Anniversary Special Issue, co-edited with Lori Gruen, Hypatia, 25.4 (2010).
- A More Social Epistemology:
Decision Vectors, Epistemic Fairness, and Consensus in Solomon’s
Social Empiricism, special issue of Perspectives on Science
16.3 (2008). Project Muse
- Value-Free Science? Ideals
and Illusions co-edited with Harold Kincaid and John Dupre, Oxford
University Press, Oxford, 2007. OUP
website
- Doing Archaeology as a
Feminist, co-edited with Margaret W. Conkey, special issue of the Journal
of Archaeological Method and Theory, Volume 14.3 (2007). SpringerLink
- Women,
Work and the Academy: Strategies for Responding to ‘Post-Civil Rights
Era’ Gender Discrimination, co-authored with Janet R. Jakobsen and
Gisela Fosado, New Feminist Solutions, Barnard Center for
Research on Women, 2007. Conference website
/ Report
PDF
- When Difference Makes a
Difference: Epistemic Diversity and Dissent: special issue of Episteme: Journal of Social Epistemology
3.1-2 (2006). Episteme website
- Thinking From Things: Essays
in the Philosophy of Archaeology, University of California Press,
Berkeley CA, 2002. UCPress website
Selected Articles and Chapters
- “Critical
Distance: Stabilizing Evidential Claims in Archaeology”: to appear in
Evidence, Inference and Enquiry, edited by Philip Dawid, William
Twining, and Mimi Vasilaki, British Academy Publications (forthcoming).
- "Standpoint (still) Matters: Research on Women, Work, and the Academy,” in Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science: Power in Knowledge, edited by Heidi Grasswick, Springer, 2011, pp. 157-179.
- “The Appropriation of
Archaeological Finds,” co-authored with George Nicholas, in The
Ethics of Cultural Appropriation edited by James O. Young and
Conrad G. Brunk, Blackwell, 2011, pp. 11-54.
- Feminist Perspectives on Science”: co-authored with Elizabeth Potter and Wenda Bauchspies, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010. Available online: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-science/
- “Hypatia: A Journal of Her Own,” American Philosophical Association Newsletter, Feminism and Philosophy 9.2 (Fall 2010): 20-24.
- “Archaeological Facts in Transit: The ‘Eminent Mounds’ of Central North America”, in How Well do ‘Facts’ Travel?: The Dissemination of Reliable Knowledge, edited by Peter Howlett and Mary S. Morgan, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 301-322.
- "Social Constructionist Arguments
in Harding's Science and Social Inequality,” Hypatia 23.4
(2008): 201-211.
- “What’s
Feminist about Gender Archaeology?” Que(e)rying Archaeology:
Proceedings of the 36th Annual Chacmool Conference, University of
Calgary Archaeology Association, 2009, pp. 282-289.
- “Agnotology in/of Archaeology,”
Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance,
edited by Robert N. Proctor and Londa Schiebinger; Stanford University
Press, 2008, pp. 183-205.
- “The Feminism Question in
Science: What Does it Mean to ‘Do Social Science as a Feminist’?”, Handbook
of Feminist Research, edited by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, Sage, 2007,
pp. 567-578.
- “Philosophy in/of Archaeology,”
in The Philosophy of Anthropology and Sociology, edited by
Stephen Turner and Mark Risjord; volume 14, Handbook of the Philosophy
of Science, Elsevier Science, 2007, pp. 517-549.
- “Socially Naturalized Norms of
Epistemic Rationality: Aggregation and Deliberation,” The Southern
Journal of Philosophy 44 Supplement (2006): 43-48.
- "The Promise and Perils of an
Ethic of Stewardship," Beyond Ethics: Anthropological Moralities on
the Boundaries of the Public and the Professional, edited by Lynn
Meskell and Peter Pells, Berg Press, London, 2005, pp. 47-68.
- “Why Standpoint Matters,” in Science
and Other Cultures: Issues in Philosophies of Science and Technology,
edited by Robert Figueroa and Sandra Harding, Routledge, New York,
2003, pp. 26-48.
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