91´«Ã½

CareLab Event Title: How Can We Embody Self-Care? Lessons from the Body Positivity Movement

Mudd Center Partnership with the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Program

Thursday, March 9, 2023, 4:00 pm, Hillel 101

CareLab events are designed to personalize our exploration of beneficence. If we aspire to practice an ethics of care, how can we learn to manifest this value in our thoughts and actions?

"Body positivity calls on us to resist harmful beauty standards. But is there more to its message? What can we learn from the movement about caring for ourselves in a world where sexism, racism, and other forms of oppression still marginalize so many?"

Céline Leboeuf ‘s research lies at the intersection of the philosophy of race, feminist philosophy, and phenomenology. Her work addresses the question of what it is like to be embodied in a social world and focuses on gendered and racialized experiences. Her publications discuss topics ranging from the lived experience of mixed-race persons and implicit bias to the effects of beauty standards, such as the thigh gap obsession, on women’s relationships with their bodies. She is currently working on a book on the body positivity movement.

Inspired by the idea of philosophy as a way of life, Professor Leboeuf seeks to write and teach about timely topics with the aim of showing how philosophical reflection can help us lead flourishing lives. She has also written about the pioneering feminist author Simone de Beauvoir. Her essays for a general audience have appeared in Psyche, Medium, Notre Dame’s Philosophy as a Way of Life blog, and other venues. In addition, she has contributed to a VOGUE article on body positivity.

At Florida International University, Professor Leboeuf’s recent courses include Philosophy and Feminism, Philosophy of Death, Existentialism, Introduction to Philosophy, and Philosophy of Gender and Race.

Professor Leboeuf earned her B.A. and Ph.D. at Harvard University.