Dual-Title Ph.D. holder Cori Wong will be the featured lecturer in the annual Harriet Patsy Boyer Scholarship Lecture and Reception coming up on Oct. 26 from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. in the Long’s Peak Room of the Lory Student Center.
The lecture, entitled “Positive Philosophy and Politics,” will focus on how to utilize a positive philosophy of resistance that works on and through the affective experiences of socially marginalized groups.
The lecture and reception is held annually to honor the recipients of the Harriet Patsy Boyer Scholarship, which awards up to six $3,000 and $5,000 scholarships to CSU students actively pursuing certification in gender, power and difference at CSU.
Boyer was a CSU professor who retired from the Department of Foreign Language and Literature in spring 1997. Boyer earned her Ph. D. in Spanish from the University of New Mexico, after which she came to CSU where she stayed for the extent of her career.
Boyer produced multiple works in her field, including a full translation of a book written in the 17th century by Spanish author Maria de Zayas. Boyer served on many national scholarly boards, and was a prominent supporter of women’s studies at CSU.
She was awarded the 1997 Women’s Caucus Award for “exemplary inspiration to women in campus as a teacher, scholar, mentor, and role model.” Boyer passed recently; the event will help students she mentored and instructed to remember her fondly.
Wong will argue that the unique mode of positive philosophy, defined as taking pleasure in one’s own ability to think without forming a specific perspective, can aid in generating positive experiences that undo the generally negative effects of oppression and discourage the utterance of ideology that would prevent constructive political discourse in modern America.
Wong began her professional career at Colorado State University, where she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s in philosophy. She then attended Pennsylvania State University, where she earned her two doctoral degrees in philosophy and women’s studies.
Wong is currently an assistant professor at CSU and teaches courses such as Feminist Friendship and Feminist Theory. She is also the director of the Women and Gender Collaborative, an organization that promotes CSU’s mission to provide a safe and invigorating campus climate for women to work and learn.
