UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Philosopher Kate Manne will visit Penn State to give the 2025 Richard B. Lippin Lecture in Ethics hosted by the Rock Ethics Institute. Her lecture “Ordinary Cruelty: Explaining Misogyny without Dehumanization” is free and open to the public. The event will be on Thursday, April 3, from 6-7 p.m. in Foster Auditorium (Paterno Library).
“Professor Manne has emerged as one of the leading public philosophers and feminist thinkers in the world today,” said Désirée Lim, associate professor of philosophy and associate director of the Rock Ethics Institute. “It is an honor to host her at Penn State for the 2025 Lippin Lecture in Ethics.”
Manne is an associate professor of philosophy at Cornell University, an award-winner writer, and one of the world’s top 50 thinkers, according to Prospect Magazine. She is the author of "Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny," "Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women," and most recently "Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia," a National Book Award finalist.
Manne’s lecture will explore the moral psychology of misogyny. She argues for understanding misogyny not as a marginal phenomenon but as ordinary cruelty between individuals, which occurs in social contexts characterized by hierarchy. Her approach reveals misogyny to be a product of moral vilification, entitlement and devaluation of others.
The Rock Ethics Institute, established in 2001, seeks to promote engaged ethics research and ethical leadership. The annual Lippin Lecture, created by Richard B. Lippin, a 1968 psychology alumnus, and his wife, the late Ronnie Lippin, addresses questions of justice with particular emphasis on ethical issues facing the fields of business, medicine, science and technology.
Co-sponsoring this year’s Lippin Lecture are the Humanities Institute, Department of Philosophy, and Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.