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Dr Rosa Vince

  • Position: Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow
  • Areas of expertise: Feminism; Philosophy of Sex; Applied Ethics; Social and Political Philosophy
  • Email: R.Vince@leeds.ac.uk
  • Website: My Website

Profile

I joined Leeds on a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in September 2024. My project is titled: [Radical] Feminism, [Radical] Sex: A New Approach to Sex and Objectification.
Before this, I worked at the University of Sheffield for two years, as a Lecturer and Teaching Associate, teaching modules in: social philosophy, feminism, philosophy of sex, philosophy of art, and philosophy of law.  I completed my PhD also in the Philosophy Department at the University of Sheffield in 2021, supervised by Jules Holroyd and Chris Bennett. I have also worked as Campaigns and Liberation coordinator at Sheffield Students’ Union (from 2021-2022), and have had other casual roles in higher education, such as delivering sexual consent workshops, and managing a project to diversify the curriculum.  
 

Research interests

My main research interests are: 
•    Objectification
•    Porn
•    Sex
•    BDSM
•    Sex Work
•    Social [In/]Justice
•    Epistemic Injustice
•    Resistance and Oppression
•    Harm Reduction
•    Stigma, Stereotypes, and Rape Myths
•    Sexual Consent

My current project addresses two questions: ‘why (and when) is objectification harmful?’, and ‘what is wrong with our approaches to objectification?’. I will be exploring how some (non-sexual) media might do harm to those already disadvantaged under patriarchy, while critically examining the ‘good-girl-bad-girl split’; a harmful myth which stigmatises sex workers and undergirds misogyny. I argue that this myth may drive the focus on pornography (over all other media) in feminist literature and activism on objectification – a focus which, I argue, is wholly unwarranted. 

In my time at Leeds, I also plan to organise conferences and events addressing ethical and political questions around sex.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Research groups and institutes

  • Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships