Elizabeth V. Spelman
WSRP Research Associate 1991–92
Home institution
Smith College
Research project
Suffering, Understanding, and the Politics of Pain
An exploration of various stances we take toward the suffering of others, through examination of (a) disagreements among culturally heterogenous women over the meaning of their own and one another's oppression; and (b) the writings of Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil about the religious, political and ethical traditions in which attitudes toward suffering are embedded.