Shohreh Bayat, London UK

Shohreh Bayat is an Iranian chess referee and women’s rights activist. During her work as a referee at the 2020 Women’s World Chess Championship Match, a controversy arose in which Bayat was accused by the Iranian government of not wearing the hijab correctly in accordance with Iranian customs. The subsequent protest by Bayat, which saw her taking part in the WWCC 2020 without a hijab, sparked a political controversy in Iran, which in turn forced Bayat to flee. She fled to London (UK) in January 2020. She has since applied for asylum in the UK. Bayat has been active as a human rights and women’s rights activist ever since. In March 2021 she received the International Women of Courage Award. Bayat will take part in the IAPh 2021 and will hold the initial keynote talk on “The impact of religion on women’s right”.

Prof. Giardini will explore how philosophy can offer new intellectual paths in thinking about the economy: How can we combine ecology and economy, and how can the unpaid work of women adequately be included in the economic analyses of, for instance, GDP?

In times of rising economic inequality and threats to democracy, Lisa Herzog will give a talk about the links between “Economic Knowledge, Democratic Knowledge”.

At IAPh 2020, Kateryna Karpenko (Kharvik National University, Ukraine) will talk about the links between gender injustice and ecological issues, as it is no news that we will face tremendous environmental problems in the future. Do feminist perspectives offer possible solutions? After all, it’s women who suffer the most from climate change, overpopulation, and deforestation.

At IAPh, we want to go into the subtler issues behind AI and machine learning, and invite contributions on any aspect of philosophy of technology. We are therefore very pleased to welcome Yuko Murakami from Rikkyo University, Japan, as our keynote speaker on the philosophical questions of AI. Prof Murakami is an international expert on AI who works at the intersection between philosophy and information science. Most recently, she has worked on what kind of ethics should guide the information education of robots.

Julie A. Nelson will complete our trio of women philosophers on economics. Nelson’s work focuses on the methodology of economics and feminist economic theory and draws attention to the underlying social and cultural mechanisms (aka: values) that shape and influence markets. Nelson argues that we need to be aware of how cultural norms and expectations influence our thinking about the supposedly “amoral” market sphere in order to address issues like climate change.

Caterina Pello, a trained classicist and philosopher, will give a talk on women in the Pythagorean tradition. Her keynote will close an important gap in the history of philosophy.

Gisele Dalva Secco will give a talk on the philosophy of mathematics, precisely: the Four-Color Theorem proof, which happens to be the first original mathematical result which depends on computer assistance. Secco will argue that this celebrated mathematical proof is still relevant for the contemporary philosophy of mathematical practice for reasons not envisioned until now: it marks the rise of a new mathematical culture, in which the work of women can play a significant part.

Mpho Tshivhase received her degree in Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg. Her overarching research concern aims to delineate what uniqueness amongst persons is and how we relate to it. She is a member of the Philosophical Society of South Africa, as well as Golden Key Society in South Africa. At the IAPh 2020 she will give a talk on women philosophers and AI.

Xiao Wei, Beijing CN

Xiao Wei’s studies focus on ethics, gender studies and bioethics (Public Health Ethics). Her book and teaching has won two professional prizes. She has also been selected as one of the “one-hundred promising scholars of the Beijing government for the 21st century”. Her keynote at the IAPh 2020 will be about “Women Philosophers on Health and Environmental Issues”