Hey all!
I just want to give a shout out to Daniel Engster who put together a zoom webinar on "The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence" and advertised
it on FEAST listserv. It was a great way to spend part of a Friday afternoon in February, in the midst of COVID, with single digit temps here in MN. Energizing, exciting, visionary, action oriented, an international perspective on care, and great to see a
number of FEASTIES joining the discussion. Thank you, Daniel!
I love all the initiatives FEAST is now involved in—as outlined by Shay in an earlier post. It’s great to see this organization maturing, stabilizing,
taking steps to ensure it is here to support and challenge all of us, and thereby our spheres of influence, for the long haul.
Today’s event crystalized for me something I’ve felt all this year: with the multiple, overlapping political, economic, health, etc. crises wracking
our country and the world, and with an overt national racial reckoning in the U.S. we haven’t had for decades (not to mention the unfolding climate crisis) FEAST members and the world we live in need feminist ethical/political analyses, solutions, and action
plans now more than ever—and yet we’ve had a relative lack of discussion of these unfolding events on the FEAST listserv and we’ve needed to postpone our conference due to Covid.
While our conferences continue to be great, events are not playing out on an every two year timeline. Might one or more FEAST members be able to
put together every 3-4 months a Zoom webinar in which we share, more or less formally, what we are thinking/doing/wondering, regarding one of the burning issues (no pun intended) of the day? I am not thinking formal paper presentations. Perhaps, like today,
5-7 minutes of prepared remarks by a few people, followed by informal discussion. This could be a way to help sustain hope in difficult times, help us think about political strategies, bounce around new ideas that might inform future theoretical or practical
work (including future contributions to FEAST conferences). We’ve all learned one value of Zoom meetings is their accessibility—we can (for example) include participants from around the globe and thereby extend the reach of FEAST/ability to participate in
FEAST to those who might not be able to make it to Florida. This would help FEAST grow into being the international organization we initially aspired to be and enhance the thinking and activism of all of us.
I’d love to hear discussion on the FEAST listserv—if others have been feeling this same need to be in dialogue with each other; if this seems like
a way to do so; and if any of you have interest in organizing such a session—perhaps it fits into the job description for one or more of you with appointments in an ethics institute, for example.
In any case, I wish you all good health, economic security, sustaining interpersonal relations, and meaningful ways to be politically and otherwise
engaged this year.
Jean
Btw, Asha Bhandary will be speaking on Freedom to Care as part of this series on April 16, for those of you who would like to mark your calendars.
Contact Daniel Engster or Asha for more information.
Dr. Jean Keller
Professor of Philosophy
Chair of Gender Studies
College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University
Pronouns: she, her, hers