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Rebecca Tuvel vs. transgender people

Rebecca Tuvel is an American philosopher whose work is central to an anti-transgender controversy in academia.

Background

Rebecca Tuvel was born in Toronto to a pharmacist and a dentist. Tuvel earned a bachelor’s degree from McGill University in 2007 and a doctorate in 2014 from Vanderbilt University. In 2014 Tuvel took a philosophy position at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.

Hypatia transracialism controversy

“In Defense of Transracialism” compared Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezal (a person raised as white who identified and lived as Black) in order to conduct a thought experiment on the nature of “transgenderism.”

The piece led to a number of resignations, a petition denouncing the work, and a defense mounted by Jesse Singal, Jerry Coyne, Rogers Brubaker, Alex Byrne, and other anti-transgender activists.

References

Stryker, Susan (July 13, 2015). Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezal: Identification, embodiment, and bodily transformation. AHA Today https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/caitlyn-jenner-and-rachel-dolezal-identification-embodiment-and-bodily-transformation-july-2015/ original url https://blog.historians.org/2015/07/caitlyn-jenner-and-rachel-dolezal-identification-embodiment-bodily-transformation/

Anti-trans coverage

Coyne, Jerry (August 2, 2023). Why can’t you be transracial? Why Evolution Is True https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2023/08/02/why-cant-you-be-transracial/

Byrne. Alex (April 17, 2023). Philosophy’s No-Go Zone. Quillette https://quillette.com/2023/04/17/philosophys-no-go-zone/

Dea, Shannon (August 2, 2019). Academic freedom, scholarly responsibility and the new gender wars. University Affairs https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/dispatches-academic-freedom/academic-freedom-scholarly-responsibility-and-the-new-gender-wars/

Sosis, Cliff (5 October 2017). “Interview with Rebecca Tuvel”. What Is It Like to Be a Philosopher?.

Zamudio-Suaréz, Fernanda (July 21, 2017). Months After ‘Transracialism’ Flap, Controversy Still Rages at Feminist Philosophy Journal The Chronicle of Higher Education http://www.chronicle.com/article/Months-After/240722

Engber, Daniel (30 May 2017). “Are Angry Mobs on Facebook Taking Over Academia?”. Slate.

Brubaker, Rogers (May 18, 2017). Opinion: The Uproar Over ‘Transracialism.’ New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/opinion/the-uproar-over-transracialism.html

Schuessler, Jennifer (May 19, 2017). A Defense of ‘Transracial’ Identity Roils Philosophy World. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/arts/a-defense-of-transracial-identity-roils-philosophy-world.html

McKenzie, Lindsay; Harris, Adam; Zamudio-Suarez, Fernanda (May 6, 2017). A Journal Article Provoked a Schism in Philosophy. Now the Rifts Are Deepening. Chronicle of Higher Education https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-journal-article-provoked-a-schism-in-philosophy-now-the-rifts-are-deepening/

Walters, Suzanna Danuta (May 5, 2017). Academe’s Poisonous Call-Out Culture. Chronicle of Higher Education http://www.chronicle.com/article/Academe-s-Poisonous-Call-Out/240016

Singal, Jesse (May 2, 2017). This Is What a Modern-Day Witch Hunt Looks Like. New York https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/05/transracialism-article-controversy.html

Selected writing by Tuvel

Tuvel, Rebecca (July 6, 2021). Changing Identities: Are Race and Gender Analogous? Blog of the American Philosophical Association https://blog.apaonline.org/2021/07/06/changing-identities-are-race-and-gender-analogous/

Tuvel, Rebecca (July 2021). Putting the Appropriator Back in Cultural Appropriation. British Journal of Aesthetics,  Volume 61, Issue 3, July 2021, Pages 353–372, https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayab010 https://academic.oup.com/bjaesthetics/article/61/3/353/6352355?guestAccessKey=7b87c4f1-fbd0-415e-ab5a-b34f5fecf1d9

Tuvel, Rebecca (2018). Racial Transitions and Controversial Positions: Reply to Taylor, Gordon, Sealey, Hom, and Botts. Philosophy Today, 62(1), 73–88. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtoday2018223200 full text https://www.pdcnet.org/C1257B82005A7B6C/file/A70140B8B305A70B8525826B006A6E2D/$FILE/philtoday_2018_0062_0001_0077_0092.pdf

Tuvel R (2017). In Defense of Transracialism. Hypatia, Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Spring 2017 , pp. 263 – 278 https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12327

Resources

Rebecca Tuvel (rebeccatuvel.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Rhodes College (rhodes.edu)

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)

  • Rebecca Tuvel
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