Sandra Harding (1935-2025)
Sandra Harding, a philosopher well-known for her work in feminist theory, postcolonial theory, and philosophy of science, has died.
Professor Harding was recognized for her development of standpoint theory, and is the author of, among other works, The Science Question in Feminism (1986), Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?: Thinking from Women’s Lives (1991), Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies (1998), Science and Social Inequality: Feminist and Postcolonial Issues (2006), Sciences From Below: Feminisms, Postcolonialities, and Modernities (2008), and Objectivity and Diversity: Another Logic of Scientific Research (2015). You can learn more about her writings here.
Harding retired in 2014 from her position as Distinguished Professor of Education and Gender Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she had been since the mid 1990s. Prior to that, she was professor of philosophy and women’s studies at the University of Delaware. Her first teaching position was at SUNY Albany, in its now closed Allen Center. She earned her PhD in philosophy from New York University and her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University.
You can listen to an oral history interview with Professor Harding about her life and her work here.
An obituary is here.
She died on March 5th.
https://secure.givelively.org/donate/hypatia-inc/sandra-harding-feminist-philosophy-memorial-fund
Hypatia and SWIP have set up a memorial fund
I first encounter Harding’s work while completing my BA at the University fo Toronto. We read some of The Science Question in Feminism in an epistemology seminar with Jack Stevenson. She also came to speak at UofT that year – that was quite exciting. It was a packed hall (perhaps 200 people), and Dorothy Smith, the sociologist standpint theorist, was there. Then during my masters I took a course at Western Ontario with Kathleen Okruhlik on feminist epistemology and philosophy of science in which we read Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Significantly, as I learned, Harding was influenced by Dorothy Smith, but she misunderstood Smith’s project. Smith’s concern was that women often do work, like secretarial work, preparing reports, etc., and they cover over their labour. As such, they are in a privileged position to uncover the reality. That was the sort of epistemic privilege that principally concerned Smith (my partner had taken a seminar with Smith at OISE).
As part of Alison Wylie et. al’s History of Standpoint Theory, you can listen to their recent-ish interview with Sandra Harding here:
https://standpointtheory.com/podcast/
if you scroll down just a little.
I first encountered her work as a grad student. Being a fan of William James and Pierce as an undergraduate, her work made so much sense. I think standpoint is more relevant than ever as technology takes a stronger role in science.
Sandra was a major philosopher and a wonderful person. The profession will miss herr, but not as much as I do.