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Holly Lawford-Smith

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Holly Lawford-Smith
Born1982
Alma materUniversity of Otago, Australian National University
Scientific career
FieldsPolitical philosophy, feminism, climate ethics and sex and gender
InstitutionsUniversity of Melbourne, University of Sheffield
ThesisFeasibility constraints for political theories (2010)
Websitefindanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/797909-holly-lawford-smith, hollylawford-smith.org

Holly Lawford-Smith is a New Zealander-Australian philosopher, author and associate professor in Political Philosophy, University of Melbourne.[1]

Biography

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Lawford-Smith was born in Taupō, New Zealand, and completed her BA (Hons) and MA at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She completed a PhD at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra in 2010.[2] She then completed post-doctoral scholarships at Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics CAPPE, Charles Sturt University and then with the School of Philosophy at ANU (2012-2012). Lawford-Smith then started a permanent job as a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sheffield.[3]

Since 2017, Lawford-Smith has worked at the University of Melbourne where she is currently Associate Professor in Political Philosophy in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. Lawford-Smith's work is based on social, moral, and political philosophy, with a primary interest in radical feminism and gender critical feminism.[4]

In February 2021, Lawford-Smith launched a website called "No Conflict, They Said" that collects anonymous, unverified stories of the purported impacts of transgender women using women-only spaces. Concerned that the website used isolated and specific (unverified) examples of misconduct to represent transgender women generally as a threat or nuisance, a number of academics from her institution signed an open letter to the University of Melbourne's leadership condemning the website as transphobic, and arguing that it "contravenes the University's Appropriate Workplace Behaviour Policy and raises serious questions about research integrity at the University." In February 2021 The Sydney Morning Herald stated that the site was calling for cis women to share stories about feeling threatened by trans women, that most narratives referred to trans women as "men" and that many of the narratives were about encounters in toilets.[5]

In May 2022, Oxford University Press (OUP) published Lawford-Smith's book, Gender-Critical Feminism, despite petitions objecting to its publication. The OUP responded to these petitions by asserting that Lawford-Smith's book is a work of rigorous scholarship[6] and not merely polemical as the petitions claimed.[7] Gender-Critical Feminism was released in the U.K. on 12 May 2022.[8][9]

Lawford-Smith is on the editorial board of The Journal of Political Philosophy[10] and Journal of Controversial Ideas.[11] She is also a monthly contributor at Quillette.[12]

Selected works

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  • Lawford-Smith, Holly (2012). Global Justice. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7546-2979-5.[13]
  • Lawford-Smith, Holly (2019). Not in Their Name: Are Citizens Culpable for Their States' Actions?. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1925-7033-8.[14]
  • Lawford-Smith, Holly (2022). Gender-Critical Feminism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198863885.
  • Lawford-Smith, Holly (2023). Sex Matters: Essays in Gender-Critical Philosophy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192896131.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "A/Prof Holly Lawford-Smith". findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au.
  2. ^ Lawford-Smith, Holly (2010). Feasibility constraints for political theories (Thesis). doi:10.25911/5d5e7150ed837. Archived from the original on 14 November 2022.
  3. ^ "Holly Lawford-Smith". 1 June 2018.
  4. ^ "A/Prof Holly Lawford-Smith".
  5. ^ Quinn, Karl (25 February 2021). "'Transphobic' website puts Melbourne University academics at odds". Sydney Morning Herald.
  6. ^ Weinberg, Justin (27 April 2022). "OUP Responds to Letter Regarding Gender-Critical Feminism Book". Daily Nous. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  7. ^ Weinberg, Justin (12 April 2022). "OUP's Decision to Publish "Gender-Critical" Book Raises Concerns of Scholars and OUP Employees". Daily Nous. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  8. ^ Smith, Joan (13 May 2022). "'The trans lobby tried to cancel my book – they don't want people asking questions'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  9. ^ "OUP stands by book on gender critical feminism after author backlash". The Bookseller. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  10. ^ "Journal of Political Philosophy". Wiley Online Library. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Journal of Controversial Ideas: Editors & Editorial Board". Journal of Controversial Ideas. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  12. ^ @aytchellesse (18 January 2023). "i'm very happy to say that i'm now a monthly columnist for @Quillette, and this is my first column! it's about that recent @VICE panel on feminism, and how mainstream feminism seems unable to recognise disadvantage *as a woman*" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. ^ "Global Justice". Routledge & CRC Press.
  14. ^ Lawford-Smith, Holly (2019). Not In Their Name: Are Citizens Culpable For Their States' Actions? - Oxford Scholarship. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198833666.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-883366-6.
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