Fellow FEAST-ers,

I am incredibly saddened by the news of Val Plumwood's death. Reading her article "Nature, Self, and Gender: Environmental Philosophy, Feminism and the Critique of Rationalism" early in my graduate career gave me that "aha" moment that led to the main argument of my M.A. thesis, ideas I continued to work through in my dissertation, and is still ongoing for me in the form of articulating a field that many, especially Plumwood, contribute to, that I think could be termed an 'ecofeminst political philosophy.' Feminism and the Mastery of Nature was a pivotal ecofeminist text that showed many skeptics the depth and scholarly acumen of ecological feminist philosophy. The rethinking of our philosophical heritage and traditions she calls for in her work, as well as Plumwood's own positive contributions to philosophical inquiry have changed how we understand the relation between gender and the history of philosophy, and our relation with the more-than-human world. Her works always appear on my syllabi regardless of the class, because she was so prolific, and the range of her work is so broad: she is an environmental philosopher, political theorist, feminist theorist, and cultural theorist. Strangely, it just so happens that Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason is the next text we are reading in a graduate seminar I am teaching. J. Baird Callicott once told me that he considered Val Plumwood to be the most rigorous environmental philosopher writing today. Suffice to say, her work has been quite influential, and has been an inspiration to me, and many, many others... if you want to hook students into thinking seriously about animal rights issues, and show them compelling ways to perform feminist analysis on cultural narratives, just assign "Being Prey," the story of her crocodile attack mentioned in the news release pasted below (different than the one posted previously; this one is from the ISEE listserve).

I never had the privilege of meeting Val Plumwood personally, although I had heard from those who knew her that she had incredible stamina as a hiker, was deeply loyal to her friends, and took no guff. She was scheduled to appear in North America at the Canadian meeting of the Society for Women in Philosophy in October, I had hoped to have a paper accepted so that I would have the chance to meet her, or at least hear her, in person. I deeply regret that I will now never have that chance. As Roger Gottleib said, though, if she did perish from a snake bite, it's an appropriate way for a figure such as Plumwood to go, just way too soon.

Feminist theory has suffered a great loss today.

Chaone Mallory

The story below has been pasted from this website:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2008/03/03/4891086-ap.html

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CANBERRA, Australia - Renowned Australian feminist and environmental
activist Val Plumwood, who survived a horrific crocodile attack more
than 20 years ago, has been killed by an apparent snake bite, a friend
said Monday.

Plumwood was 68 years old.

Her body was found Saturday in the octagonal stone house where she lived
alone near Braidwood in New South Wales, said friend Jane Salmon.

Salmon said it appeared a snake bite killed her. State police Det. Sgt.
David Kay declined comment on the cause of death other than to say there
were no suspicious circumstances. A coroner has yet to make an official
finding on the cause.

Plumwood wrote the seminal environmental texts "Feminism and the Mastery
of Nature" and "Environmental Culture: the Ecological Crisis of Reason"
in 1993 and 2002 but she had been a leading campaigner against the
logging of Australia's native forests and for the preservation of
biodiversity since the 1960s.

Plumwood, originally known as Val Routley, took her adopted surname from
a variety of tree near her wilderness home.

"She was considered by a lot of people a pioneer of the environmental
movement," Salmon said.

Plumwood was attacked by a crocodile in a river in Australia's northern
Outback in 1985 and escaped with terrible wounds to her legs and groin
after the beast dragged her underwater three times in a death roll - the
manoeuvre crocodiles use to drown their prey.

She said the near-death experience constantly reminded her of the wonder
of being alive and gave her a better understanding of her place in nature.

The "human supremacist culture of the West" tries to deny that humans
are also animals positioned in the food chain, she wrote in the Aisling
Magazine in 2005.

"It was a shocking reduction, from a complex human being to a mere piece
of meat," Plumwood, a vegetarian, wrote of the attack.

She vehemently opposed a plan to hunt the crocodile that nearly killed
her, arguing she had been the intruder in its habitat.

Plumwood's academic career took her to the United States, where she held
posts at the North Carolina State University and the University of
Montana. In Australia, she worked at the University of Sydney, as well
as the Australian National University.

"She was probably the leading ecofeminist in the world," said friend and
former colleague Bob Goodin, an Australian National University philosopher.

"She was fierce," Goodin said.

"I pity the poor snake that bit her."

Her neighbour, Joe Friend, said plans were being made for a funeral in
Braidwood on Saturday.

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