Cornell, Drucilla

views updated

CORNELL, Drucilla


PERSONAL: Female. Education: Antioch College, B.A., 1978; University of California, Los Angeles, J.D., 1981.


ADDRESSES: Offıce—Rutgers University, Political Science Department, 123 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102. E-mail—[email protected].


CAREER: Educator and playwright. Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, Princeton, NJ, professor, 1991-92; Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, professor, 1989-94; Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, professor of law, women's studies, and political science. Worked as a union organizer.


WRITINGS:


(Coeditor with Seyla Benhabib) Feminism as Critique:On the Politics of Gender, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1987.
(Coeditor with Michel Rosenfeld and David Gray Carlson) Hegel and Legal Theory, Routledge (New York, NY), 1991.

Beyond Accommodation: Ethical Feminism, Deconstruction, and the Law, Routledge (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Michel Rosenfeld and David Gray Carlson) Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice, Routledge (New York, NY), 1992.

The Philosophy of the Limit, Routledge (New York, NY), 1992.

Transformations: Recollectible Imagination and Sexual Difference, Routledge (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Seyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, and Nancy Fraser) Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, Routledge (New York, NY), 1994.

The Imaginary Domain: Abortion, Pornography, andSexual Harassment, Routledge (New York, NY), 1995.

At the Heart of Freedom: Feminism, Sex, and Equality, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1998.

(Editor) Feminism and Pornography, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor) Just Cause: Freedom, Identity, and Rights, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2000.

Between Women and Generations: Legacies of Dignity, Palgrave (New York, NY), 2002.

Author of produced plays The Dream Cure and Background Interference.

SIDELIGHTS: In At the Heart of Freedom: Feminism, Sex, and Equality Drucilla Cornell, a Rutgers University professor and feminism theorist, explains why people should have the freedom to express themselves freely in a sexual context. Cornell believes that if people have sexual freedom they will become equals. She touches on subjects such as prostitution, gay and lesbian marriages, adoption, reproductive rights, and female genital mutilation. "This is a provocative and thoughtful study that promises to spark much discussion and debate among feminists and social theorists of every stripe," notes Linda M. Maccammon in a Theological Studies review.

Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange is a discussion on feminist theory between four prominent feminist philosophers, Seyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, Nancy Fraser, and Cornell herself. Each woman presents her theories and the others comment on the ideas. "This volume is the most lively and penetrating introduction I know to the debate on postmodernism in feminist theory," claims Jane Mansbridge in a review for American Political Science Review.

Cornell believes women should have the right to choose, and she does not support pornography or sexual harassment. In The Imaginary Domain: Abortion, Pornography, and Sexual Harassment she discusses her feelings on these issues with a different viewpoint from those who formulated the standing laws pertaining to these issues. Library Journal contributor Beverly Miller called the book "Bold, provocative, and original."


BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:


periodicals


American Political Science Review, December, 1995, Jane Mansbridge, review of Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, p. 1003.

Australian Journal of Political Science, November, 1997, Helen Pringle, review of Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice, p. 495.

Berkeley Women's Law Journal, 1994, Roger Berkowitz, "Risk of Self: Drucilla Cornell's Transformative Philosophy," pp. 175-205.

Cardozo Law Review, March, 1994, Adam Thurschwell, "On the Threshold of Ethics," pp. 1607-1655.

Choice, April, 1999, M.M. Ferree, review of At theHeart of Freedom: Feminism, Sex, and Equality, p. 1470.

Clio, winter, 1993, Anne Barbeau Gardiner, review of The Philosophy of the Limit, p. 180.

Contemporary Sociology, May, 2001, review of Feminism and Pornography, p. 319.

Ethics, January, 1989, Ann Ferguson, review of Feminism as Critique: On the Politics of Gender, pp. 463-464; April, 1993, Kelly Oliver, review of Beyond Accommodation: Ethical Feminism, Deconstruction, and the Law; The Philosophy of the Limit; Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice, p. 621; January, 1994, John McCumber, review of The Philosophy of the Limit, p. 436; April, 2000, Claudia Card, review of At the Heart of Freedom, p. 607.

Hypatia, fall, 1990, Mary Janell Metzger, "Double Gestures: Feminist Critiques and the Search for a Useable Practice," pp. 119-124.

International Philosophical Quarterly, June, 1994, Merold Westphal, review of Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice, p. 247.

Library Journal, July, 1995, Beverly Miller, review of The Imaginary Domain: Abortion, Pornography, and Sexual Harassment, p. 106.

Philosophy in Review, February, 1997, review of TheImaginary Domain, pp. 19-21.

Political Theory, February, 1993, review of BeyondAccommodation, p. 135.

Publishers Weekly, April 15, 2002, Donna Greschner, review of Between Women and Generations: Legacies of Dignity, p. 50.

Quarterly Journal of Speech, February, 1996, Diane Helene Miller, review of Feminist Contentions, pp. 96-98.

Rocky Mountain Review of Language & Literature, February, 1995, Martha Weidman Young, "Open Visions: Transforming the Multicultural Curriculum," pp. 216-219.

Rutgers Law Review, summer, 1999, Deborah Milgate, "We Want Bread, We Want Roses," pp. 1031-1062.

Signs, winter, 1995, Iris Young, review of Beyond Accommodation; Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice; The Philosophy of the Limit, p. 489.

Sociological Review, May, 1989, Lydia Morris, review of Feminism as Critique, pp. 386-388.

Sociology, February, 1989, Anne Witz, review of Feminism as Critique, pp. 128-130.

Theological Studies, September, 1999, Linda M. Maccammon, review of At the Heart of Freedom, p. 572.

Times Higher Education Supplement, April 8, 1994, Teresa Brennan, "Exposing the Boundaries," p. 22.

Women and Politics, fall, 1994, Mary Caputi, review of Beyond Accommodation, pp. 84-86.

Yale Law School, June, 1996, Heather Keele, review of The Imaginary Domain: Abortion, Pornography & Sexual Harassment, pp. 2303-2308.


online


Center for Digital Discourse and Culture,http://www.cddc.vt.edu/ (July 18, 2002) "Drucilla."

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/ (July 22, 2002), Avital Bloch, review of At the Heart of Freedom.*

More From encyclopedia.com