Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 14:00, 8 October 2021

Kathleen Mary Linn Stock OBE (born November 1972) is a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex. She has published on aesthetics, fiction, imagination, sexual objectification, sex, gender, and sexual orientation. She has gained public attention for her views on gender identification.

Academic work

Until 2020, she was the vice-president of the British Society of Aesthetics. In her monograph Only Imagine: Fiction, Interpretation and Imagination (2017), she examines the nature of fictional content.

Stock has written one monograph as well as a number of articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, and has contributed several chapters to edited volumes. She edited Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning, and Work (first edition 2007), and together with Katherine Thomson-Jones, she edited New Waves in Aesthetics (2008).

Stock has given lectures at the University of York, the Aristotelian Society, the London Aesthetics Forum, the University of Wolverhampton, the American Society for Aesthetics, and other places.

Views on gender identification

Stock has called for trans women who have male genitalia to be excluded from women's changing rooms, characterising them as "still males" who may be sexually attracted to women. She has denied opposing trans rights, saying, "I gladly and vocally assert the rights of trans people to live their lives free from fear, violence, harassment or any discrimination" and "I think that discussing female rights is compatible with defending these trans rights".

She has expressed gender critical views on proposed reforms to the UK Gender Recognition Act and trans self-identification. Her 2021 book, Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, discusses modern gender theory; her thesis, according to a reviewer, is that there is "a new orthodoxy, one in which sex gives way to feeling, and feeling trumps facts".

In June 2021, Stock was appointed as a trustee of the LGB Alliance.

Campaign by students at Sussex University

In October 2021, a group of LGBT+ University of Sussex students began a campaign for Stock to be fired stating she was “espousing a bastardised version of ‘radical feminism’ that excludes and endangers trans people”. Supporters, including Julie Bindel and Allison Bailey, spoke in Stock's defence, while the vice-chancellor Adam Tickell condemned the campaign as a threat to academic freedom, and said an investigation was underway.

Honours

Stock was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to higher education. In response over 600 philosophers signed a letter criticising the decision stating she has a “tendency to mistake transphobic fear mongering for valuable scholarship, and attacks on already marginalised people for courageous exercises of free speech”.

Selected works

• ed. Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning, and Work (Oxford University Press, 2007).
• New Waves in Aesthetics, edited with Katherine Thomson-Jones (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008).
• Fantasy, imagination, and film. British Journal of Aesthetics, 2009. 49 (4): 357–369.
• Fictive Utterance and Imagining. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume. 2011, 85 (1): 145–161.
• Some Reflections on Seeing-as, Metaphor-Grasping and Imagining. Aisthesis: Pratiche, Linguaggi E Saperi Dell'Estetico. 2013, 6 (1): 201–213.
• Imagining and Fiction: Some Issues. Philosophy Compass. 2013, 8 (10): 887–896.
• Sexual Objectification. Analysis, 2015, 75 (2): 191–195.
• Learning from fiction and theories of fictional content. Teorema: International Journal of Philosophy, 2016, (3): 69–83.
• Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism (Fleet, 2021).

References

1. "Kathleen Stock : University of Sussex". www.sussex.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
2. "About the Society". British Society of Aesthetics. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
3. Gilmore, Jonathan (6 May 2018). "Review of Only Imagine: Fiction, Interpretation, and Imagination". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
4. "Kathleen Stock (University of Sussex) – PhilPeople". philpeople.org. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
5. "Visiting Speaker: Kathleen Stock – Philosophy". University of York. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
6. "Kathleen Stock". Aristotelian Society. 8 December 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
7. "Kathleen Stock". London Aesthetics Forum. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
8. "Dr Kathleen Stock – University of Wolverhampton". www.wlv.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
9. Doherty-Cove, Jody (5 July 2018). "'Trans women are still males with male genitalia' - university lecturer airs controversial views". The Argus. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
10. "Changing the concept of "woman" will cause unintended harms". The Economist. 6 July 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
11. "A conversation with Kathleen Stock on Transgender Identity". The Badger. 15 September 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
12. Fazackerley, Anna (30 October 2018). "UK universities struggle to deal with 'toxic' trans rights row". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
13. O'Malley, Stella (27 April 2021). "Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism by Kathleen Stock review". Evening Standard. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
14. ^ Patterson, Christina (25 April 2021). "Material Girls by Kathleen Stock, review — a controversial look at transgender issues". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 25 April 2021.
15. Moorhead, Joanna (22 May 2021). "Kathleen Stock: taboo around gender identity has chilling effect on academics". Guardian. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
16. Bindel, Julie (15 May 2021). "The gender identity issue: Kathleen Stock puts her head above the parapet". The Spectator. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
17. O'Grady, Jane (30 April 2021). "If biological sex is a myth, so is evolution". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 1 May 2021.
18. "LGB Alliance appoints trustees". LGB Alliance. 2 June 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
19. ^ "LGBT+ students demand university fire anti-trans professor: 'We've had enough'". PinkNews - Gay news, reviews and comment from the world's most read lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans news service. 7 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
20. ^ Woolcock, Nicola (7 October 2021). "Sussex University students campaign to have 'transphobic' professor Kathleen Stock sacked". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 7 October 2021.
21. "No. 63218". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2020. p. N14.
22. le Duc, Frank (30 December 2020). "Actors, academics and ambulance service veteran honoured by the Queen". Brighton & Hove News. Retrieved 2 June 2021.

External links

• Official website
• University of Sussex bio

v t e University of Sussex
People	Sanjeev Bhaskar (Chancellor) Sasha Roseneil (Vice-Chancellor) Alumni
Departments and buildings	Astronomy Centre Brighton and Sussex Medical School Institute of Development Studies The Keep, Brighton Science Policy Research Unit Swanborough Manor
Student life	The Badger
Category

v t e Lancaster University
Colleges	Bowland Cartmel County Furness Fylde Graduate Grizedale Lonsdale Pendle
People	Chancellor: Alan Milburn Vice-Chancellor: Andy Schofield Academics Alumni Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster
Buildings	Bailrigg InfoLab21 The Ruskin: Library, Museum and Research Centre Chaplaincy Centre
Departments	Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts Management School Medical School Lancaster Arts Richardson Institute
Student life	Lancaster University Students' Union Bailrigg FM LA1TV SCAN International Volunteers (InterVol) Boat Club Roses Tournament
Symbols	Coat of arms Red Rose of Lancaster
Category Commons

• United Kingdom
• Biography
• Philosophy

• Living people
• 1972 births
• Philosophers of literature
• Philosophy of music
• British women philosophers
• 21st-century British philosophers
• Academics of the University of Sussex
• Officers of the Order of the British Empire
• Alumni of the University of Leeds
• Alumni of the University of St Andrews
• Academics of Lancaster University
• Academics of the University of East Anglia
• British feminists