Colloquium: Questions of "Female Authority" in the 17th and 18th Centuries (Benedict Lecture Series)

The College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University currently boasts an impressive number of faculty engaging with questions of “female authority” in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – that is, the ways in which female power, and the concept of women’s agency more broadly conceived, were constituted, represented and defended during the transition to modernity. This colloquium is part of the Benedict Lecture Series, and it will bring in outside speakers to discuss these questions of female authority. The lineup of speakers will be: Eileen ONeill (Philosophy, UMass Amherst), William Monter (History, Northwestern), Susan James (Philosophy, Birbeck College, University of London), Martina Reuter (Philosophy, Helsinki). Event schedule: 9-10:30: panel on “Conceptions of Female Authority” (Chair: Susanne Sreedhar; Participants: Eileen O’Neill, Sue James, Martina Reuter); 10:30-10:45: break; 10:45-12:30: panel on “Female Expertise” (Chair: James Schmidt; Participants: Gina Cogan, Barbara Diefendorf, Erin Murphy); 12:30-2:00: lunch; 2:15-3:45: panel on “Female Government” (Chair: Arianne Chernock; Participants: Linda Heywood, James Winn, William Monter). The colloquium is being co-sponsored by the BU Center for the Humanities.