Dr. Sylvia Burrow

CCEPA would like to extend a warm welcome to Dr. Sylvia Burrow, our 2011 scholar in residence.

Dr. Burrow comes to CCEPA while on leave from her position as Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cape Breton University, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

Dr. Burrow's research grounds philosophical analysis in emotion theory, feminist theory, psychology, and cognitive science. Her recent publications address emotion theory; politeness and authority; women's reproductive autonomy; sexual autonomy; academic autonomy; and embodied autonomy.

Dr. Burrow's work for 2011-2012 focuses on the pressing issue of violence against women, and how such a culture of violence against women impairs women's capacity to flourish as moral persons. She aims to fill this philosophical gap through two related approaches that together present a picture of self-defence training as a response to moral harms implicit to a culture of violence against women. The first approach assesses how a culture of violence damages autonomy through restricting choice formation and pursuit. The second approach assesses the impact of a culture of violence on women's capacity to cultivate and sustain integrity.