Trinity Alumna to speak on Philosopher, Theorist and Feminist Author

What: Judith Coffin ’74, associate professor of history at the University of Texas, Austin, will deliver the Philip C.F. Bankwitz lecture on “Sex, Love, and Letters: Writing Simone de Beauvoir, 1949-1963.” The event, co-sponsored by the History Department and the 40 Years of Coeducation Committee, is made possible by The Philip C. F. Bankwitz Fund for Modern European and French Studies, which was established in 1992 with gifts from colleagues, friends, and former students of Bankwitz, Professor of History at Trinity from 1954 to 1999. The Bankwitz Fund supports programs that have modern Europe and modern France (18th century to the present) as their subjects.

When: Thursday, November 5, at 12:15 p.m.

Where: Rittenberg Lounge in Mather Hall on the Trinity campus.

Background: Coffin received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1985 and earned fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Danforth Foundation, the French government and the Social Science Research Council. She has won prizes for her writing, teaching, and advising, and was a 2008-09 Radcliffe Institute Fellow while she was writing her book, Knowing Your Desires: Sexuality, Frenchness, and the Modern Public, 1945-1975.

Simone de Beauvoir, who died in 1986, was a French author, existentialist philosopher, feminist and social theorist. She is best known for her 1949 book, The Second Sex, which many believe laid the groundwork for the modern-day feminist movement, and provided a detailed analysis of women’s oppression. Le deuxieme sexe (The Second Sex) was originally published as a two-volume book in France but was quickly translated and turned into one volume in English and published in this country by Alfred A. Knopf.

In the chapter, “Women: Myth and Reality,” de Beauvoir argued that men had made women the “Other” in society by imbuing them with a false aura of mystery. She asserted that men used this as an excuse to misunderstand women and their problems, and that this type of stereotyping was often done in hierarchical societies to keep one group dominent over another. She said such stereotyping was done on the basis of race, class and religion, but that it was nowhere truer than with sex in which men used it as an excuse or organize society into a patriarchy.

De Beauvoir argued that women have historically been considered deviant, and that this attitude limited women’s success by maintaining the idea that they were abnormal. She believed that for feminism to take hold, that assumption had to be dispelled. She asserted that women are as capable of choice as men and must take responsibility for themselves.

De Beauvoir, who was closely associated with French author and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, has inspired many biographies.

A light lunch will be provided for pre-registered participants only. To reserve a spot, please email: common-hour@trincoll.edu.

back to top