Contact information

Email: Marguerite Deslauriers
Tel.: 514-398-1098
Office: LEA 943
Office hours (Fall 2009): Thurs. 10am - 12pm at 3487 Peel St.

Academic Appointments

Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, McGill University, 1992-
Professeure Associé (Adjunct Professor), Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, 2003-
Director, McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, 2007-10

Education

PhD, Philosophy, University of Toronto, 1987
MA, Philosophy, University of Toronto, 1979
BA, Philosophy, McGill University, 1977

Research and Teaching Interests

Ancient philosophy
History of philosophy
Feminist philosophy

Current research interests

I am especially interested in the history of philosophical conceptions of sexual difference, accounts of gender in the origins of political community, and the connections between biological and political justifications of inequality. I have an ongoing interest in Aristotle's logic, metaphysics, biology, ethics and political philosophy.

- a monograph on the conceptualization of sexual difference in Aristotle and Plato.
- a paper on Marie de Gournay, a 17th century French feminist, for the volume Feminist History of Philosophy(Feminist Philosophy Collection), edited by Eileen O’Neill and Marcy P. Lascano, to be published by Dordrecht Springer.
- a contribution on women, education and philosophy to The Blackwell Companion to Women in the Ancient World, edited by Sharon L. James and Sheila Dillon.
- a paper on Lucrezia Marinella, a 17th century Italian feminist, for presentation at Women, Philosophy, and History: A Conference in Celebration of Eileen O’Neill and her Work, scheduled for October 2-3, 2009 at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Research Funding

I have been awarded a SSHRC Standard Research Grant, 2009-12 on the theme: Women, rationality and immortality: the reception of Plato and Aristotle in 16th-17th C. feminist philosophy. Some funds for graduate student research assistantships are available from this grant, for students accepted into graduate programs at McGill. Students interested should e-mail me, stating their interests and training in the field.

Selected publications

Aristotle on Definition, in the series Philosophia Antiqua. Leiden: Brill, 2007.

Edited Journal Issue

Les Ateliers de l’Éthique: journal de CRÉUM, special issue Is Feminism Just for Feminists?/ Le féminisme n’intéresserait-il que les féministes?, M. Deslauriers and M. Lanoix, eds., December 2008: www.creum.umontreal.ca.

Articles

“Sexual Difference in Aristotle’s Politics and his Biology,” in Classical World: (Special Issue) Bodies, Households and Landscapes: Sexuality and Gender in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, A. Glazebrook and K. Olson eds., 102:3, 2009, pp.215-30.

“One Soul in Two Bodies: Marie de Gournay and Montaigne” forthcoming in Angelaki: journal of the theoretical humanities, Special Issue: Recoupling Genre and ‘Gender’, ed. Moira Gatens, August 2008,pp.5-15.

“The Argument of Aristotle’s Politics I”, Phoenix 60. 1-2, 2006, pp. 48-69.

“Two Conceptions of Equality: MacKinnon, Wollstonecraft and Rousseau on Natural Inequality,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 37:4 (December 2004), pp. 1-23; short-listed for the John McMenemy Prize for the best article in the CJPS, 2004.

"The Virtues of Women and Slaves" Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, September 2003, 213-231.

"How to Distinguish Aristotle's Virtues" Phronesis, Volume XLVII, no. 2, 2002, 101-126.

"Sex Difference and Essence in Aristotle's Metaphysics and Biology," in Re-reading the Canon, A Series devoted to Feminist Interpretations of Major Philosophers, Volume on Aristotle, ed. Cynthia Freeland, Series ed. Nancy Tuana, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1998, pp. 138-67.

Some recent public presentations

“Sexuality and Immortality: Plato and Aristotle on the Past of Sexuality,” at Sexual Knowledge: Uses of the Past, University of Exeter, July 27-29, 2009.

“Vital Heat, Intelligence, and Sexual Difference in Aristotle,” at Bridging the Gap between Aristotle’s Science and Ethics, University of Western Ontario, March 19-21, 2009.

“Aristotle on Plato on Women: Politics II 1-5”, at Plato and Platonisms: the Constitution of a Tradition, 9th Annual Comparative Literature Conference, University of South Carolina March 20-23, 2008.

“Two-Sexed: Hermaphrodites in Aristotle’s Biology” at the Fourth International Conference on Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (2007), Fordham University, New York, October 20, 2007.

“Marie de Gournay and Aristotle on the Unity of the Sexes” at the Workshop on Sexual Difference and Embodiment, University of Alberta, Edmonton, October 11, 2007.

“Tragainai and Eunuchs in Aristotle’s Biology,” presentation as part of the Symposium on Aristotle’s Biology, Congress of the Canadian Philosophical Association, York University, June 1, 2006.

“Ancient Orgasms” panel presentation on The Case of the Female Orgasm by Elizabeth Lloyd, Congress of the Canadian Philosophical Association, York University, May 31, 2006.

“Plato on Sexual Difference and Sexual Reproduction,” presentation to the Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (FEAST) conference, Clearwater, Florida, January 7, 2006.

“Aristotle on the Nature of the Female and of Women”, presentation to the Canadian Association of Classical Studies, Banff, Alberta May 13, 2005.

“Sexual Difference in Aristotle’s Politics and Biology,” presentation at the University of Texas – Austin Annual Workshop in Ancient Philosophy, April 1, 2005.