Serene J. Khader is an American moral and political philosopher and feminist theorist. She is Professor and

Jay Newman Jay Newman (February 28, 1948 – June 17, 2007) was a philosopher and Professor at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. Biography Newman was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Lou Newman and his wife, Kitty. He received his B.A. ...

Chair in the Philosophy of Culture at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center. Her main areas of research are political philosophy,

moral psychology Moral psychology is a field of study in both philosophy and psychology. Historically, the term "moral psychology" was used relatively narrowly to refer to the study of moral development. Moral psychology eventually came to refer more broadly to va ...

feminist philosophy Feminist philosophy is an approach to philosophy from a feminist perspective and also the employment of philosophical methods to feminist topics and questions. Feminist philosophy involves both reinterpreting philosophical texts and methods in ...

, global justice and

development ethics Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...

. In April 2017 she was elected vice-president of the Human Development and Capabilities Association. Much of her work is about decolonial, transnational, postcolonial, and global feminisms. She addresses the universalism/relativism debate. Khader's view is that it is possible to oppose gender oppression across the world without taking Western culture to be the model. She is known for her work on autonomy and agency under conditions of oppression. She argues that relational conceptions of autonomy reinforce oppression by subjecting women to unjustified paternalism. She applies these arguments to cases where women in the global South are thought to have "adaptive preferences." She argues that what seem to be cases of women internalizing their oppression are in fact self-interested adaptations to unjust conditions, and explains why women who have internalized their oppression should still be consulted in interventions to change their lives and communities. Khader exposes the myth that microfinance programs empower women in the third world. Building on work by

Marilyn Waring Dame Marilyn Joy Waring (born 7 October 1952) is a New Zealand public policy scholar, international development consultant, former politician, environmentalist, feminist and a principal founder of feminist economics. In 1975, aged 23, she beca ...

and other feminist theorists, she argues that women are not an under-tapped resource, but are in fact already over-utilised but that more must be done to recognise the unpaid work they already do rather than burdening them with further entrepreneurial responsibilities.

Education

Khader has a BA in philosophy and international studies from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc Nike, Inc. ( or ) is a ...

(2002) and a PhD in philosophy and a graduate certificate in women's studies from

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system' ...

(2008).

Works

As author

* ''Adaptive Preferences and Women's Empowerment'', Oxford University Press, 2011, * ''Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic'', Oxford University Press, to be published 2019,

As editor

* ''The Routledge Companion to Feminist Philosophy'', co-editor with

Ann Garry Ann Garry is a professor of philosophy, emerita, at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA). While at CSULA, Garry was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities, and also served several terms as the chai ...

and

Alison Stone Alison Stone (born 1972) is a British philosopher. She is a Professor of European Philosophy in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, UK. Career Stone has a D.Phil. from the University of Sussex where her ...

, Routledge, 2017,

References

External links

Official website
Living people City University of New York faculty University of Oregon alumni Stony Brook University alumni 21st-century American philosophers American feminist writers American women philosophers Feminist philosophers Year of birth missing (living people) Brooklyn College faculty 21st-century American women {{academic-bio-stub