Julia Wedgwood (1833–1913) was a major intellectual presence in the Victorian period, yet her philosophical work has long remained overlooked. This book offers the first sustained study of her philosophy, recovering a distinctive and original framework centred on what she called the ‘law of imperfect antithesis’. Drawing on both published texts and newly attributed anonymous essays, it reconstructs the unity of her thought across ethics, metaphysics, religion, and history.
When: Monday 27th of July 2026. Starting at 9.30am (Berlin time zone)
Where: Online via Zoom or in Presence at Paderborn University, L-Builduing Pohlweg 57, 33098 Paderborn
Since its foundation in 2016 by Prof. Dr Ruth E. Hagengruber with the support of Svenja Schulze, then Minister for Science and Innovation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Center has developed into an internationally recognised illuminating exemplar of research.
Through groundbreaking publications, a wide range of high-calibre events, and innovative teaching and research formats, it has had a lasting impact on the visibility of women in the history of philosophy and science and has played a decisive role in reorienting academic discourse.
The anniversary offers an opportunity to look back on this development, to celebrate key milestones and to look ahead together to future projects.
The celebration will take place on July 27, 2026 from 9:30 – 12:00 (CEST) at Paderborn University. The event takes place in hybrid format. To access the zoom link please register at our indico page.
Welcome President of Paderborn University, Prof. Dr. Matthias Bauer Deputy Mayor of Paderborn, Sabine Kramm Office Manager for Verena Mertens, Member of the European Parliament for the OWL Constituency, Hartwig Höschen Managing Director of the Paderborn Economic Development Agency, Jürgen Janke
Birthday Greetings Dean of Research of Paderborn University, Prof. Dr. Ilka MindtExecutive Board of the IAPh e.v., Prof. Dr. Ma Theresa Payongayong Women’s & Gender Research Network NRW, Dr. Corinna BathDeutscher Akademikerinnenbund, Prof. Dr. Dorothee MeisterConstitutive Member of ZenMeM, Peter Stadler
10 Years of the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber, Director
Honours Deputy Directors 10 Years Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists Project Digital Humanities Cooperation Partners
Music Charlotte Michels: Deborah Henson-Conant (*1953) Baroque Flamenco
Awarding Ceremony of the Elisabeth of Bohemia Prize Laudatio: Prof. Dr. Kateryna Karpenko Thanks to the Donator: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Detmers
Music Charlotte Michels: Henriette Renié (1875-1956) Pièce Symphonique
Official Signing of two Memoranda of Understanding with the University of the Philippines Diliman represented by Chancellor Prof. Atty. Edgardo Carlo L. Vistan II, Prof. Ma Theresa T. Payongayong, Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Prof. Ruth Lusterio-Rico, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy Prof. Lilybeth Lumagbas.with the Islamic University of Science & Technology (IUST), Kashmir, India, represented by Vice Chancellor Prof. Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, Assistant Professor Muzaffar Ali Malla, Dean Academic Affairs Prof. Sheikh Aijaz Bashir, and Dean of the School of Humanities & Social Sciences Prof. Afroz Bisati
I’m very proud to be part of this beautiful volume, edited by Anne-Lise Rey, containing over 1000 pages of texts by women philosophers and commentaries on them by women and men philosophers.
Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Volume 6, Issue 2
Women and the abolition of transatlantic slavery
Guest editors Sandrine Bergès and Alan Coffee
While the enslaved had always fought their condition, and a few isolated philosophers wrote against slavery, the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century saw the birth of a new way of resisting it: the social movement of abolitionism.
Abolitionism started as a grass root movement, led and encouraged by individuals who spread the word via pamphlets, speeches, plays, stories, and poems denouncing the horrors of the slave trade and slavery to the general public. These texts gave birth to petitions, which were presented to governments in support of the goals of the movement. These productions represent a significant moment in political thought, galvanising people to rise against an injustice that they felt did not immediately concern them and to persist until they thought that injustice was erased.
While scholarly attention has often focused on male abolitionists, such as William Wilberforce or William Lloyd Garrison, in this issue we highlight the contributions of women to the abolitionist movement, for instance by Olympe de Gouges, Germaine de Stael, Hannah More, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Prince, Frances Wright, Sojourner Truth, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Maria Stewart, Harriet Jacobs, Angelina Grimké and Lydia Maria Child. We encourage contributions on these or other women authors on any aspects of their work towards the abolition of slavery.
Submissions should be between 6500 and 10000 words (including note and bibliography) and conform with the journal’s style guidelines and be submitted here no later than 30 March 2027.
Cultures of Philosophy Pedagogy Workshop, November 11th and 12th 2026
The Cultures of Philosophy team at the University of Exeter invites proposals for the online workshop Teaching Early Modern Women’s Writing Between Literature and Philosophy:
Pedagogy and Practice. The aim of this workshop is to share case studies and best practice regarding the teaching of early modern women’s philosophical writing in HE, across languages, disciplines and national settings. We intend to bring together teachers and researchers in HE with members of subject organisations to reflect on what’s working and what could be changed to improve the visibility of, and engagement with, early modern women’s philosophical writing, broadly conceived. The workshop will take place online over one afternoon (Wed 11th Nov 2026) and one morning (Thurs 12th Nov 2026); we envisage short (10 minute) interventions to allow for plenty of discussion. We intend to produce a report to be published on our project website, summarising the workshop’s findings, and to use this as a landing page to bring together further resources.
Invited speakers:
Hannah Dawson (KCL); Sarah Hutton (York); Dino Jakušić (Warwick); Amanda Pipkin (UNC); Francesca Romana Recchia Luciani (University of Bari); Sandra Plastina (Università della Calabria/SWIP Italia); Hannah Straw (Warwick); Rachael Wiseman (British Society for the History of Philosophy).
We invite contributors to reflect on their own practice (case studies; engagement activities undertaken etc.). Contributions might respond to the following prompts or questions:
• Are there discipline specific conditions for teaching early modern women’s (philosophical) writing? E.g. how does teaching across philosophy, literary, and intellectual history departments compare? What can we learn from each other?
• To take one perspective, how can we leverage the unique affordances o Modern Languages departments, as inherently interdisciplinary, to foster an inclusive approach, combining intellectual history/literature/philosophy in our teaching?
• What are the challenges of teaching an interdisciplinary author? How to attend to both their philosophical and literary output?
• Reflections on: Women/gender specific modules and/or integration of women’s writing in survey, introductory or comparative courses.
• Reflections on: Integration of feminist philosophy and inclusive methodologies across a range of courses.
• Reflections on: How methodology might be integrated to enhance inclusion.
• What alternative sources might we draw on to teach women’s contributions to cultural and intellectual history (e.g. historical fiction)?
• Do course designers in HEIs have the same objectives as subject organisations? How can we share best practice?
• What do subject organizations do to raise awareness? What can others learnfrom this?
• Editing women’s writing: case studies highlighting women’s philosophical contributions across genres. How do decisions made in the editing (and translation) process impact pedagogy, and vice versa?
Please send abstracts of 150-200 words to cultphil@exeter.ac.uk by June 30th 2026 (please include a short biographical note of 50 words). The team will review the proposals and be in touch by the end of July. We welcome applications from PhD students and early career scholars.
The workshop is supported by the European Research Council-selected Starting Grant, ‘Cultures of Philosophy: Women Writing Knowledge in Early Modern Europe’, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant number EP/Y006372/1].
P99 test is derived from an observation attributed to the author Ford Madox Ford: “Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.”
The blog asks authors to tell the audience whether p.99 of their book is representative of the rest of the work. You can read my answer here:
Feminist History of Philosophy 