Nancy Fraser

Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Women Studies (2010-2011)

The Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Women’s Rights is an initiative that draws on the University of Cambridge’s unparalleled expertise in the fields of gender studies and equality. It explores the many pressing aspects of women’s rights in the world, ranging from the importance of equality in development, religion, law and many other areas.

The Visiting Professorship in Women’s Rights has been made possible by the generous support of Carol Saper and is hosted by King’s College, Cambridge.

Professor Nancy Fraser is Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics, The New School for Social Research, New York.

In her first lecture ‘A Polanyian Feminism?’ Professor Nancy Fraser rereads ‘The Great Transformation’ from a feminist perspective, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of its signature concepts.

Although it was developed for an earlier era, Polanyi’s diagnosis is, Professor Nancy Fraser will argue, highly relevant today as the current crisis is not merely economic but also encompasses social reproduction and thus can be fruitfully analysed as a “great transformation,” in which a new round of efforts to commodify nature, labour, and money is sparking a new round of struggles.

Her subsequent lectures and symposium built upon this to create a Polanyian-feminist framework for theorising capitalist crisis in the 21st century.