Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften

Miriam Ronzoni

Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Manchester

Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

October 2013‒February 2014; July 2014; Juni‒July 2017

Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»Feminist ethics and philosophy of language«

Project outline:

During my visiting fellowship, I will be working on a paper which seeks to make an intervention in feminist ethics and philosophy of language, and in the debate on pornogrpahy as a »speech act« in particular. Radical feminists have famously argued that pornography harms women in that it subordinates and silences them. Whereas liberal theorists and legal scholars have contended that claims like this are a »sleight of hand«, Rae Langton has ingeniously sought to demonstrate that this is not the case through Austin's theory of speech acts. Pornography, Langton claims, can − under certain circumstances, constitute a form of illocutionary subordination and silencing. My aim is to defend Langton's theoretical account in its broad outline, but also to 1) introduce some important modifications; 2) illustrate how the permissibility of banning pornography does not follow from the argument. In a nutshell: radical feminists are right in arguing that pornography can harm women by subordinating and silencing them, but liberals are right in arguing that censorship is not the answer. (Miriam Ronzoni)

Funding of the stay:

»Justitia Amplificata. Rethinking Justice − Applied and Global«

Research partner:

In 2013/14 Miriam Ronzoni’s stay at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften is funded by the Soja Kovalevskaja Research Group. While at the Institute, she worked together with Juri Viehoff. In 2017, Miriam Ronzoni is a Visitng Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Studies »Justitia Amplificata«.

Scholarly profile of Miriam Ronzoni

Main areas of research:

Political Theory (especially in international matters), Normative Ethics

Selected publications:

Global Political Justice

»Two Conceptions of State Sovereignty and their Implications for Global Institutional Design«, in: Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 15 (2012).
»Life is not a Camping Trip - on the Desirability of Cohenite Socialism«, in: Politics, Philosophy, and Economics 11 (2012).
(ed. with Ayelet Banai and Christian Schemmel), Social Justice, Global Dynamics: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives, Routledge 2011.

Further academic activities:
Miriam Ronzoni is editor in chief of Global Justice: Theory Practice Rhetoric.
Link: Homepage von Miriam Ronzoni

Miriam Ronzoni

Scholarly profile of Miriam Ronzoni

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