Amy Allen (philosopher)
{{Short description|American philosopher (born 1970)}}
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Amy Allen (born 1970) is an American liberal arts research professor of philosophy and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at The Pennsylvania State University, where she is also head of department. Previously, she was the Parents distinguished research professor in the humanities, and professor of philosophy and gender and women's studies, at Dartmouth College, and was chair of its department of philosophy from 2006 to 2012.{{cite web|last=DesAutels|first=Peggy|title=Amy Allen: November 2013|url=http://www.apaonlinecsw.org/home/woman_philosopher/amyallennovember2013|work=Highlighted Philosophers|publisher=American Philosophical Association|accessdate=16 December 2013}} Her research takes a critical approach to feminist approaches of power, and attempts to broaden traditional feminist understandings of power to apply to transnational issues.
Education and career
Allen received a bachelor's degree from Miami University in 1992, and a master's and doctorate in philosophy from Northwestern University, in 1992 and 1996 respectively.{{cite web|last=Allen|first=Amy|title=Curriculum Vitae|url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~aallen/Allen_CV.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090713114836/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~aallen/Allen_CV.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 13, 2009|publisher=Dartmouth College|accessdate=16 December 2013}} She spent 1996–1997 as a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Grinnell College and 1997–1999 as a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Dartmouth College, before accepting a permanent appointment there. In 2004, she was promoted to associate professor and received a cross-appointment in the women's and gender studies department. She spent a term abroad as visiting professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in 2006, before returning to Dartmouth and chairing the philosophy department for six years.
She has sat on the executive committee of the eastern division of the American Philosophical Association, and has been an executive co-director of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, a co-editor-in-chief of Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, and editor of the series New Directions in Critical Theory published by Columbia University Press.
Publications
Allen has published three books: The Power of Feminist Theory: Domination, Resistance, Solidarity,{{Cite book|last=Allen|first=Amy|url=https://pennstate.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/the-power-of-feminist-theory-domination-resistance-solidarity|title=The power of feminist theory: Domination, resistance, solidarity|date=2018-01-01|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=978-0-8133-9072-7}}The Politics of Our Selves: Power, Autonomy and Gender in Contemporary Critical Theory{{Cite book|last=Allen|first=Amy|url=http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-politics-of-our-selves/9780231136228|title=The Politics of Our Selves: Power, Autonomy, and Gender in Contemporary Critical Theory|date=November 2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-50984-8}} and The End of Progress: Critical Theory in Postcolonial Times. The Power of Feminist Theory was a revised version of Allen's dissertation that focused on assessing pre-existing feminist understandings of power combining the insight offered by poststructuralists with that of normative critical theory, despite the fact that the two camps are often considered to be diametrically opposed.{{cite journal|last=Sawicki|first=Jana|title=The Power of Feminist Theory: Domination, Resistance, Solidarity By: Allen, Amy|journal=Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy|date=Winter 2002|volume=17|issue=1}} Allen's second book built on the foundations of her first, attempting to bridge the gap between Foucaultian and Habermasian critical theory.{{cite journal|last=Bellon|first=Christina|title=The Politics of Ourselves: Power, Autonomy, and Gender in Contemporary Critical Theory. By Amy Allen.|journal=Metaphilosophy|date=April 1, 2011|volume=42|issue=3|pages=340–345|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9973.2011.01691_1.x}} Her third attends to a critique of the oft-called fourth generation of the Frankfurt School Critical Theory, based on its continued usage of concepts such as progress and development.{{Cite web|date=2017-05-26|title=Book Review: The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory by Amy Allen|url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2017/05/26/the-end-of-progress-decolonizing-the-normative-foundations-of-critical-theory-by-amy-allen/|access-date=2021-02-18|website=LSE Review of Books}} Allen challenges what she sees as eurocentrism in the work of theorists such as Axel Honneth, Rainer Forst and Jürgen Habermas and proposes a revision of the tenets of Critical Theory in light of Postcolonial Studies and Decolonial Thought.{{Cite journal|last=Vázquez-Arroyo|first=Antonio Y.|date=2018-11-01|title=The end of progress: Decolonizing the normative foundations of critical theory|url=https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-017-0152-9|journal=Contemporary Political Theory|language=en|volume=17|issue=4|pages=224–227|doi=10.1057/s41296-017-0152-9|s2cid=149122609 |issn=1476-9336|url-access=subscription}}
References
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Category:Dartmouth College faculty
Category:Northwestern University alumni
Category:American women philosophers
Category:Scholars of feminist philosophy
Category:Miami University alumni
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:Philosophers from New Hampshire