McWeeny is professor at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Her research interests include philosophies of gender and race, philosophy of mind, phenomenology and existentialism, and decolonial studies.
She is a progenitor of the field of feminist philosophy of mind, which combines feminist theory and philosophical perspectives on consciousness, thought, and feelings.
Professor McWeeny is a recipient of the Fulbright National Research Scholar Award and Editor in Chief of the journal Simone de Beauvoir Studies. She is currently working on a book on the phenomenology of gender.
She will be one of three external professors at the centre, after Thomas Walle and Jørn Ljunggren began their tenures as professor II in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
–Joining the faculty at the Centre for Gender Research provides a unique opportunity for cross-cultural collaboration and international exchange in cutting-edge research areas, says McWeeny, ahead of her three-year tenure as professor II.
Reflecting on what drew her to STK, McWeeny particularly emphasizes the centre’s interdisciplinary profile, and the diversity of research interests among staff and students:
–The need for interdisciplinary perspectives is especially important when studying experiences of gender and crafting policies and projects for liberation from sexism, patriarchy, and multiple, intersecting oppressions.
–As academics working within singular institutions, we often underestimate the value of cross-cultural collaboration that draws us out of our habitual ways of thinking and sparks our creativity and intellectual curiosity, the professor explains.
McWeeny’s time as professor II began with a two-week visit to Oslo, which included meetings and an in-house presentation of her background and research profile. The aim of this visit was to get acquainted with colleagues and the research environment at the Centre for Gender Research, and to plan further activities and collaborations.
Her next visit will be in 2025 and will likely involve an open lecture that will introduce staff and students at UiO, as well as the broader public, to McWeeny’s research.