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
social and 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 the
role 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.
Current Projects
Hypatia: Journal of Feminist Philosophy:
Lori Gruen (Wesleyan University) and I are the journal co-editors, and
Sharyn Clough (Oregon State University) is book review editor, for the
five-year term that Hypatia will be 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
Feminist Legacies / Feminist Futures: the Hypatia editorial team and local advisors will be hosting a 25th Anniversary Conference celebrating Hypatia's contributions to feminist philosophy: University of Washington - October 22-29, 2009. Conference website
Science Studies Network:
in the Fall of 2007 I convened an organizing group of University of
Washington faculty and students who launched SSNet, an
interdisciplinary forum for colleagues with
interests in science and technology studies: SSNet
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). For current 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
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
Articles and Chapters
“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, in press (2009).
"Social Constructionist Arguments in Harding's Science and Social Inequality,” Hypatia 23.4 (2008): 201-211.
“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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