Professor Alison Stone

PhD Supervision Interests

Feminist philosophy

German Idealism and Romanticism

nineteenth-century German philosophy

twentieth-century Continental philosophy

French feminism

Hegel

Research Interests

My main research interests are in two areas: (1) Feminist philosophy: particularly Irigaray and French feminism; concepts of sex, gender and the body; feminism and psychoanalysis; motherhood; and (2) Post Kantian continental philosophy: particularly Early German Romanticism, Hegel and German Idealism; Marx and Marxism; the Frankfurt School; existentialism.

    Within these areas I have written four books. The first, on Hegel's metaphysics and philosophy of nature, is Petrified Intelligence: Nature in Hegel's Philosophy (SUNY Press, 2004). This became the focus of an author-meets-critics session at an American Philosophical Association conference in 2005; that session developed into a journal issue (Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain issue 51/52: Stone on Hegel's Philosophy of Nature). I have since published a number of other journal articles on Hegel's philosophy of nature and the philosophies of nature of other German Idealist and Romantic thinkers, such as Schelling, Schlegel, Novalis and Hoelderlin.

    My second book was Luce Irigaray and the Philosophy of Sexual Difference (Cambridge University Press, 2006). The writing of this book was supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2004-5, and the book became the focus of an author-meets-critics session at the 2007 conference of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, which evolved into a Critical Exchange with respondents in differences: Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 19: 3 (2008). Since then I have continued to publish articles on Luce Irigaray's thought.

    My next book was An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy (Polity Press, 2007), designed as an introductory textbook on the subject for students and general readers. The book covers: the nature of feminist philosophy; concepts of sex, gender, sexuality, sexual difference, and essentialism; birth; and the relations between feminist philosophy and feminist politics.

    Most recently, in 2011 my book Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and
Maternal Subjectivity (Routledge, 2011) came out. In this book I develop a philosophical and psychoanalytic approach to maternal subjectivity. The book covers such topics as maternal ambivalence, matricide, mother-daughter relationships, and the relation between maternity and cyclical time.

     I've also edited and introduced the Edinburgh Critical History of Philosophy Volume 5: The Nineteenth Century (Edinburgh University Press, 2011), part of a new multi-volume series in history of philosophy.

    Currently I am working on a monograph on Early German Romanticism (an area in which I have published a number of journal articles). I am also interested in the aesthetics of popular music, and am at the very beginning of writing in this area. Other topics on which I have published work include: the ideas of Adorno, Judith Butler, and Julia Kristeva; the relations between philosophy of nature and environmental philosophy; feminist debates about essentialism; and the relations between existentialism and atheism. 

Current Teaching

I teach on the undergraduate modules Aesthetics (PPR.301), History of Philosophy (PPR.201), and the Ethics, Philosophy and Religion first year course. (EPR 100)

Profile

Career details

I did my DPhil at the University of Sussex from 1994 to 1998. My thesis was 'Sexual Difference and the Philosophy of Nature: Hegel, Irigaray and the Material'.

After finishing my DPhil I took up a temporary Lectureship in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, lecturing mainly in political and feminist philosophy (1998-1999).

Then for three years I held the Thole Research Fellowship in Philosophy at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge (1999-2002).

I then came to the then Centre for Philosophy at Lancaster in 2002.

From 2004-2005 I held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship and in 2007 I was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize. In 2005 I received a Research Prize from Lancaster University and an (annual) prize for the best article in the journal Contemporary Political Theory.

I am an appointed member of REF 2014 Sub-Panel 32, Philosophy.

Office hours

My office hours are Wednesday 3-4.

• Philosophy of Mind and Psychology Research Cluster

  24/08/2007 → 31/12/2011
  Rachel Cooper, Brian Garvey, Neil Manson, Alison Stone, Cain Todd
  A number of people in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion PPR have research interests in the philosophy of mind, psychology, psychoanalysis and psychiatry, and there is a reading group ... Read more»

• Dr Alison Stone awarded a Leverhulme Trust prize

  26/10/2007
  Dr Alison Stone has been awarded a Leverhulme Trust prize. The prize can be used for any activities that will best promote her future research over the next 2 years. This is a great achievement recogn ... Read more»

• Alison Stone wins prize for best article

  01/04/2006
  Alison Stone recently won a prize for the best article in Contemporary Political Theory vol.4, 2005. Her article was called 'Towards a Genealogical Feminism: A Reading of ... Read more»