Eerder publiceerden we al de protestbrief aan de organisatie van de G10 van de Economie en Filosofie, 2017, i.v.m. het gebrek aan diversiteit aan sprekers.

Wij schreven ook de sprekers aan, voor zover wij over hun email-adressen beschikking hadden. Hieronder de brief.

Onderwerp: Lack of diversity at G10 of Economy and Philosophy

Dear xxxx

Next week, you will be participating in the G10 van de Economie en de Filosofie in Amsterdam. As you can see here the G10 has invited seventeen male speakers and one female, almost all of them white. The two women whose pictures are prominently featured on the event’s website are moderators.

Last year this organization had a similarly all-male line-up. This motivated two female PhD students to write a letter to the organizers stating that “a platform that proposes to present progressive views on our future lacks speakers from the group that represents half of the world population.” The letter (which can be read here) was signed by almost 400 people inside and outside academia. And while the organizer, Boudewijn Richel, initially replied that there “are hardly any women in economics and philosophy” eventually something did change. When Yanis Varoufakis, one of the event’s main guests, signed the letter and withdrew from the festival, women were hastily added to the program and took part in the discussions via Skype. (A Dutch press release about the 2016 events can be found here)

It’s astounding and very discouraging that the G10 has not learned anything from last year’s mistakes. We cannot, as we did last year, assume that the organizers simply forgot to think about implicit bias or a fair representation of society. We have sent the organizers of the G10 a letter of protest, but since they seem to have disregarded all points of criticism brought up last year, we have chosen also to contact the participants directly. Please consider if you want to contribute to an event that shows no concern for gender equality and diversity. It would be wonderful if you, as invited speakers. could take up the challenge of convincing the G10 of the importance of these topics.

Kind regards,

Anna Blijdenstein, Ph.D. candidate philosophy (University of Amsterdam)

Marieke Krijnen, postdoc (Orient-Institut Beirut)

Laura Karreman Lecturer Media and Culture Studies (Utrecht University), Ph.D. candidate in Art, Music and Theatre Studies (Ghent University)

On behalf of the board of Society for Women in Philosophy (NL):

Anya Topolski, assistant professor in political theory and philosophy (Radboud University, Nijmegen)

Roos van Unen, MA-student Philosophy (Vrije Universiteit)

Joyce Pijnenburg, lecturer in philosophy (independent), Ph.D. candidate (University of Amsterdam)