Scholar Kate Manne, dubbed “the philosopher of #MeToo” will be the keynote for the 26th annual Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Student Research Symposium on Thursday, April 27.  

Manne, who teaches at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University, will present “He Said, She Listened: On Epistemic Entitlement, Mansplaining, and Gaslighting” at 1 p.m. in the Prairie Rooms of the Bone Student Center at Illinois State University. In her address, Manne will explore the underlying causes of misogyny and explore the sense of moral entitlement to a woman’s sexual, emotional, reproductive, and material labor.

The symposium is a daylong celebration of student scholarship, creative work, and ideas that are underrepresented in Illinois State University’s traditional curriculum. Students, faculty, and staff will present work in the Prairie Rooms throughout the day.

Registration is open. Those interested can use the registration form to RSVP. All events are free and open to the public.  

The WGSS Symposium is sponsored by the Alice and Fannie Fell Trust, Illinois State’s College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Philosophy, Department of English, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, the Queer Coalition, and the Harold K. Sage Foundation Fund.

Kate Manne

Manne is known for her timely and widely read analysis of misogyny in Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny (2017) and her treatment of male entitlement in her most recent book Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women (2020).

Declared by Prospect Magazine one of the world’s top 50 thinkers of 2019, Manne regularly writes opinion pieces, essays, and reviews on moral and political topics—in venues including The New York Times, The Boston Review, the Huffington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Times Literary Supplement.

Since 2013, Manne has served an associate professor at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. Manne’s academic research engages contemporary issues in moral philosophy, feminist philosophy, and social philosophy. From 2011-2013, Manne was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. From 2011-2013, Manne was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.