Target start: Tuesday, September 29 — Sessions meet Tuesdays at 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK). This date will be confirmed once we reach a minimum of 10 registrants — see how that works below.
Round two of the Feminist Romp Through the History of Philosophy — same six philosophers, a few new feminist commentators added to the conversation, and a new cohort. We’re using the Re-Reading the Canon series (edited by Nancy Tuana for Penn State Press) to pair (mostly) dead white men with the feminist thinkers who talked back, and we’re adding three open discussion sessions this time around, built from what round one’s group wanted more of.
Led by Mona Mona — PhD in Philosophy from Stony Brook University, with over a decade of teaching experience at the intersection of phenomenology, feminist philosophy, and the history of Western philosophy.
How this round works
- Target start: Tuesday, September 29 — we run once we reach a minimum of 10 registrants, so the discussion format stays real
- We check in on enrollment September 16, 2026 — the day before early bird pricing ends
- If we haven’t hit 10 by then, everyone already registered can request a full refund, or stay enrolled — we start as soon as we reach 10, even if that lands a little after September 29
What’s included
- 6 lecture sessions + 3 open discussion sessions, Tuesdays September 29 – November 24
- Each discussion session is included with registration for either of the two preceding lectures
- Readings for each session provided to all registrants in advance
- 30 minutes of office hours immediately following each lecture, for participants to continue the discussion, ask questions, or just chat about their own interests and projects
- Full series registration includes a complimentary year of Philosophy Publics on Substack (Annual plan, a $60 value). (Already a paid Annual or Founding Member subscriber? Look out for an email with a promotional code for $60 off your Romp registration. If you don’t see it, just let me know and I’ll send the code your way.)
Format & recordings
- We meet on Whereby — think Zoom, but privacy-first, no account or app required
- Lecture sessions are recorded and the video sent to registrants afterward, edited down to just the lecture itself — no participant faces, no discussion
- Discussion sessions will not be recorded
- Readings are suggested, not required — do as little or as much of them as you’d like
Early bird pricing — through Sept 17, 2026
- $30 $25 per session
- $150 $120 for the full series
$150 $120 early bird
Early bird ends Sept 17, 2026
Includes a complimentary year of Philosophy Publics on Substack (Annual, a $60 value)
Register for the full series →Schedule
All sessions are 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (US Eastern) = 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK — except the Oct 27 session, which lands one hour earlier UK time (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) since the UK falls back to GMT on Oct 25, a week before the US shifts on Nov 1.
Ancient Philosophy
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK)
In Book V of The Republic, Plato argues for the inclusion of women in all the classes of his ideal polis. According to Plato, Socrates’ teacher was a woman, and Socrates attributes his knowledge of love to a woman, Diotima. Were Plato and Socrates feminist? (Spoiler alert: nope!) Elizabeth Spelman, Page duBois, and Luce Irigaray help us sort it out.
$30 $25 early bird
Early bird ends Sept 17, 2026
Register for this session →Includes the Oct 13 discussion session. Or register for the full series — $120 early bird.
“Hairy Cobblers and Philosopher-Queens” by Elizabeth V. Spelman
“The Platonic Appropriation of Reproduction” by Page duBois
“Sorcerer Love: A Reading of Plato’s Symposium, Diotima’s Speech” by Luce Irigaray
All three essays in Feminist Interpretations of Plato, ed. Nancy Tuana (Penn State University Press, 1994).
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK)
Yes, he was wrong on the biology and thought women were “under-cooked” men — but did you know his key concepts of “form” and “matter” are gendered too? We’ll look at the physics and metaphysics of gender with the help of Nancy Tuana, Elizabeth Spelman, and Susan Moller Okin.
$30 $25 early bird
Early bird ends Sept 17, 2026
Register for this session →Includes the Oct 13 discussion session. Or register for the full series — $120 early bird.
“The Misbegotten Man” (excerpts) by Nancy Tuana
“Aristotle and the Politicization of the Soul” by Elizabeth V. Spelman
“Woman’s Place and Nature in a Functionalist World” by Susan Moller Okin
“Woman Is Not a Rational Animal: On Aristotle’s Biology of Reproduction” by Lynda Lange optional
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK)
An open discussion session — no new reading assigned. We’ll pick up threads from Plato and Aristotle, work through what stuck (and what didn’t), and make room for the questions those two sessions left hanging.
Included with your Plato or Aristotle registration — no separate purchase needed.
Early and Late Modern Philosophy
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK)
The mind/body dualism at the heart of Modern Philosophy relegates women to material immanence (body), but did you know Descartes’ main interlocutor was a woman, Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia? We’ll look at the feminist recovery of their letters, and feminist critiques of objectivity and dualism, with Genevieve Lloyd, Nancy Tuana, and Leslie Heywood.
$30 $25 early bird
Early bird ends Sept 17, 2026
Register for this session →Includes the Nov 3 discussion session. Or register for the full series — $120 early bird.
“Reason as Attainment” by Genevieve Lloyd
“Without Good Reason: Defining Reason as Male: Descartes” (excerpt) by Nancy Tuana
“When Descartes Met the Fitness Babe: Academic Cartesianism and the Late Twentieth-Century Cult of the Body” by Leslie Heywood
“Wonder: A Reading of Descartes, The Passions of the Soul” by Luce Irigaray optional
“Descartes and Elisabeth: A Philosophical Dialogue?” by Lilli Alanen optional
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM UK)
In the tradition of “let’s spit on Hegel,” we’ll take a fresh look at Carla Lonzi’s essay as well as Hegel’s reading of Antigone as fertile ground for feminist interventions. Carla Lonzi and Mary O’Brien lead the way.
$30 $25 early bird
Early bird ends Sept 17, 2026
Register for this session →Includes the Nov 3 discussion session. Or register for the full series — $120 early bird.
“Let’s Spit on Hegel” by Carla Lonzi
“Hegel: Man, Physiology, and Fate” by Mary O’Brien
“Antigone’s Ghost: Undoing Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit” by Kelly Oliver optional
“Hegel’s Master-Slave Dialectic: An Exegesis” by Mona Mona optional
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK)
An open discussion session — no new reading assigned. Time to sit with Descartes and Hegel together: reason, dualism, the dialectic, and what feminist readers have made of both.
Included with your Descartes or Hegel registration — no separate purchase needed.
Existential Phenomenology
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK)
Embodiment. A treasure to feminists everywhere. Boring to read, but one of the most exciting thinkers for feminism. Sonia Kruks, Judith Butler, and Iris Marion Young lead the way.
$30 $25 early bird
Early bird ends Sept 17, 2026
Register for this session →Includes the Nov 24 discussion session. Or register for the full series — $120 early bird.
“Merleau-Ponty and the Problem of Difference in Feminism” by Sonia Kruks
“Sexual Ideology and Phenomenological Description: A Feminist Critique of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception” by Judith Butler
“Pregnant Embodiment” by Iris Marion Young
“Throwing Like a Girl” by Iris Marion Young optional
“Toward a New Vision” by Kelly Oliver optional
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK)
She came late to feminism, and had some … quirks. What do later feminists think of her work? Julie K. Ward, Judith Butler, and Sara Heinämaa help us sort it out.
$30 $25 early bird
Early bird ends Sept 17, 2026
Register for this session →Includes the Nov 24 discussion session. Or register for the full series — $120 early bird.
“Beauvoir’s Two Senses of ‘Body’ in The Second Sex” by Julie K. Ward
“Sex and Gender in Beauvoir’s Second Sex: Beauvoir’s Philosophical Contribution” by Judith Butler
“The Soul-Body Union and Sexual Difference: From Descartes to Merleau-Ponty and Beauvoir” by Sara Heinämaa
“Introduction” by Margaret A. Simons optional
“The Second Sex: From Marxism to Radical Feminism” by Margaret A. Simons optional
“Simone de Beauvoir: Teaching Sartre About Freedom” by Sonia Kruks optional
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM MT / 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM UK)
An open discussion session — no new reading assigned. We close the round by bringing Merleau-Ponty and Beauvoir into conversation, and looking back across the whole romp.
Included with your Merleau-Ponty or Beauvoir registration — no separate purchase needed.
$150 $120 early bird
Early bird ends Sept 17, 2026
Includes a complimentary year of Philosophy Publics on Substack (Annual, a $60 value)
Register for the full series →Questions? hello (at) philosophypublics.com
About Mona Mona
Mona Mona holds a PhD in Philosophy from Stony Brook University, a top Continental Philosophy program, and has over a decade of teaching experience. She works at the intersection of phenomenology, feminist philosophy, and the history of Western Philosophy.
Long before “content” was a thing, Mona was organizing philosophy salons, running feminist reading groups, and hosting a philosophy podcast. She is the creator of Feminist Works, a weekly roundup of feminist writing, and writes at Philosophy Publics, where she brings philosophical frames of thinking to contemporary life.