Iris Marion Young

Iris Marion Young
Born	(1949-01-02)January 2, 1949 New York City
Died
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Queens College (CUNY) Pennsylvania State University
Institutions	University of Chicago
Main interests	Contemporary political theory, feminist social theory, and public policy
Influences Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas
Influenced Seyla Benhabib

Iris Marion Young (2 January 1949 – 1 August 2006) was Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and affiliated with the Center for Gender Studies and the Human Rights program there. Her research covered contemporary political theory, feminist social theory, and normative analysis of public policy.

Early life

Young was born in New York City and was awarded a PhD in philosophy by the Pennsylvania State University in 1974.

Career

Before coming to the University of Chicago she taught political theory for nine years in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, and before then taught philosophy at several institutions, including the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Miami University. During the summer term of 1995 Young was a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. Young held visiting fellowships at several universities and institutes around the world, including the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, the Australian National University, and the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa.

Philosophical contributions

Young's interests ranged broadly, including contemporary theories of justice; democracy and difference; feminist political theory; continental political theory including Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas; ethics and international affairs; gender, race and public policy.

Social groups and the politics of difference

Central to Young's philosophy is the contention that concepts of justice were not limited to individual desert. Instead, the recognition of social groups was essential redressing structural inequalities. Because the social rules, laws, and institutional routines constraining certain people constrain them as a group, and because our awareness of injustice almost universally compares classes of people rather than individuals directly, our evalutions of inequality and injustice must recognize the salience of social groups as constituent of a complete theory of justice.

Young's recognition of social groups impelled her to argue for a post-liberal "politics of difference," in which equal treatment of individuals does not override the redress of group-based oppression. Young contrasted her approach with contemporary liberal political philosophers like John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin, who she claims conflate the moral equivalence of people with procedural rules that treat all people equally.

Five Faces of Oppression

Among Young's most widely disseminated ideas is her model of the "five faces of oppression." Synthesizing feminist, queer, poststructuralist, and post-colonial critiques of classical Marxism, Young argued at least five distinct types of oppression could not be collapsed into more fundamental causes, and furthermore could not be reduced to dimensions of distributive justice. Her "five faces" are:

• Exploitation:
• Marginalization
• Powerlessness
• Cultural domination
• Violence

Later life

Young died, aged 57, on 1 August 2006 after an 18-month struggle with esophageal cancer.

Memoriam activities

In recognition of her work with the Center for Gender Studies at the University of Chicago, the Center's distinguished faculty lecture series was renamed in her honor in November 2006. In addition, the University of Pittsburgh Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program, in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, created the Iris Marion Young Award for Political Engagement in 2008 to honor Young's memory and to recognize faculty/staff, graduate, and undergraduate members of the University who impact the community. Young was also honored at Penn State University through a series of gifts which created the Iris Marion Young Diversity Scholar Award as part of the association for Feminist Ethics and Social Theory's and the Rock Ethics Institute's Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute. This Institute is designed to encourage undergraduate students from under-represented groups to consider future study in the field of philosophy. Students who are part of this summer institute are awarded the Iris Marion Young Diversity Award and their studies during the institute include her work.

Selected bibliography

Books

• (Conference proceedings)

Articles

Her writings have been translated into several languages, including German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Swedish and Croatian, and she lectured widely in North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa.

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

External links

• Memorial Website from Chicago Political Theory Graduate Student Caucus
• Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute