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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 identifies and lives 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, Alex Byrne, and other anti-transgender activists.

References

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

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

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

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

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

Jennifer Schuessler (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

 Lindsay McKenzie, Adam Harris, and Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez (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/

Resources

Rebecca Tuvel (rebeccatuvel.com)

Rhodes College (rhodes.edu)