Current Research
New in 2009:
For more information and ordering:
http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754676997
From Oxford University Press:
Back cover blurb
In Self-Transformations, Cressida Heyes argues that we live in an age of somatic subjects, whose authentic identity must be represented through the body. When a perceived mismatch between inner self and outer form occurs, technologies can step in to change the flesh. Drawing on Wittgenstein's objections to the idea of a private language, and on Foucault's critical account of normalization, Heyes shows how we have been led to think of ourselves in this way, and suggests that breaking the hold of this picture of the self will be central to our freedom.
How should we work on ourselves when so often the kind of self we are urged to be is itself a product of normalization? This question is answered through three case studies that analyze feminist interpretations of transgender politics, the allure of weight loss dieting, and representations of cosmetic surgery patients. Mixing philosophical argument with personal narrative and analysis of popular culture, Heyes moves from engagement with Leslie Feinberg on trans liberation, to an auto-ethnography of Weight Watchers meetings, to a reading of Extreme Makeover, to her own practice of yoga. She draws on philosophy, sociology, medicine, cultural studies, and psychology to suggest that these examples, in different ways, are connected to the picture of the somatic subject. Working on the self can both generate new skills and make us more docile; enhance our pleasures and narrow our possibilities; encourage us to take care of ourselves while increasing our dependence on experts. Self-transformation through the body can limit us and liberate us at the same time. To move beyond this paradox, Heyes concludes by arguing that Foucault's last work on ethics provides untapped resources for understanding how we might use our embodied agency to change ourselves for the better.Available from www.amazon.ca and amazon.com
See Ladelle McWhorter's review in NDPR.
Research statement
In general my past and current research can be organised and understood along four axes, which mesh through specific projects (described below):
1. Philosophical concepts
I am fascinated by the metaphysics of categories (how things are defined as belonging or not belonging to a category; how boundaries are drawn and justified around categories; how members of a category might be related to each other; how exceptions are treated, etc.); norms (in the sense of social conventions, standards that define conformity and deviance, or practices of definition, etc.); identity (the persistence of subjectivity through time and place; the inner and the outer; the ways in which particular subjectivities are ascribed to or experienced by persons; the constitution of social collectivities that enable political mobilisation and vice versa, etc.); and transition or transformation (how one thing becomes another, or when it's only pretending to be something else; how the intersubjective negotiation of identity constitutes or can change it; how categories, norms, and identities can change, etc.).
2. Subject matter
These metaphysical themes always get worked out, in my research, through social, political, and ethical examples. I am especially interested in identity political formations and their challengers, the politics of self-formation and self-transformation, contemporary feminist discourse around sex and gender, sexuality studies, and philosophy of the body.
3. Method
My work is feminist not only in theme but also in method--that is, I maintain a self-critical and "sociological" perspective on (my) philosophy, I aim to be acutely aware of the history that generates my own conditions of possibility, and I work with gender as a symbolic and material formation offering insight into other areas of social life. In this context, I sometimes use the tropes of poststructuralism and Foucauldian scholarship, although not in a consistent or orthodox way. In my view philosophy is central to an art of living, so I'm also interested in the philosophical author, the art of philosophical writing, rhetoric, and the role of personal experience in philosophy. I have both undertaken and written about various forms of self-transformation and political activism, and so I see my research as having a strong connection to other practices, which may be somatic as well as intellectual, extra-academic, therapeutic, or even spiritual. My work is highly interdisciplinary, and aims to bridge gaps between social scientific, health scientific, and creative research.
4. Thinkers
I tend to get interested in those philosophical thinkers who develop the themes above, albeit often in different contexts. I have worked extensively on Ludwig Wittgenstein--with an emphasis on his philosophical biography and the implications of his later philosophy for politics. I have also written a book that is "Foucauldian"--although it's not about Michel Foucault so much as it takes his account of normalization (and his conception of ethics) and tries to understand some contemporary somatic practices through this lens. I have also been tremendously influenced by contemporary feminist philosophers who write on similar themes: Sandra Bartky, Susan Bordo, Judith Butler, and Ladelle McWhorter are perhaps key.
My interest in the ontology and ethics of cosmetic surgical discourses has led to a wonderful collaboration with Meredith Jones, Australian cultural studies scholar. Our co-edited book of essays on the relationship between feminism and cosmetic surgery is published by Ashgate Press in 2009.
Meredith Jones
I am part of a research group (with colleagues Dr. Alia Al-Saji and Dr. Marguerite Deslauriers [PI] in Montreal) that won a SSHRC grant to work on a collaborative project, now officially concluded--although our shared conversations continue. We each elaborate, from historical, phenomenological, ethical, and political perspectives, the feminist claim that the representation of bodies and of sexual difference in bodies is structured by the ways in which gender is conceived, both philosophically and in popular discourse. Our first workshop was held in March 2005, with invited guests Penelope Deutscher and Laurie Shrage, while the second was in May 2006, with Susan Brison, Ellen Feder, and Nancy Tuana. The third and final meeting was in Edmonton in October 2007, with Amy Allen, Moira Gatens, and Gail Weiss.
I'm interested in philosophical psychopathology, especially as it relates to gender and sexuality. Is "homophobia" a phobia just like fear of spiders or heights, and what are the political implications of this conclusion? Why must people who want to change sex prove they have Gender Identity Disorder, while those seeking cosmetic surgery should ideally not have Body Dysmorphic Disorder? How do the institutions that claim to be responding to mental disorders actually perpetuate or even create them? I'm working on these questions with an eye to writing another monograph, and have a first article (on Body Dysmorphic Disorder and cosmetic surgery culture) forthcoming.
My other major theme at the moment is how somatic practices (especially yoga) can offer insights into political questions concerning freedom, autonomy, and the self, or even how somatic practices might themselves be practices of freedom. This work extends the concluding chapter of Self-Transformations, and is mutually informed by my teaching projects. I have an article in Teaching Philosophy on teaching and learning philosophy and/as physical education, which is co-authored with students Natalie Helberg and Jackie Rohel. PDF now available here.
I also have unpublished interests in contemplative practice, higher education, and "political spirituality;" somaesthetics/somatechnics; pedagogy and bodies; and philosophy of food.
If you are a prospective graduate student interested in working within the discipline of philosophy on any of these topics or a related theme, please visit the graduate student page.
