Celia Amorós


Celia Amorós Puente is a Spanish philosopher, essayist and supporter of feminist theory. She is a key figure in the so-called equality feminism and focused an important part of her research in the building of relations between Enlightenment and feminism. Her book Hacia una crítica de la razón patriarcal constitutes a new outlook on the gender perspective of philosophy, revealing the biases of androcentrism and claims a critical review on behalf of women.
She is a professor and member of the Department of Philosophy and Moral and Political Philosophy at the National University of Distance Education, known in Spanish as UNED. Her main research interests are the processes of Enlightenment and its implications for feminism and women in Islam, Human rights and women's rights in the context of multiculturalism. In 2006 she became the first woman to win the National Essay Prize.

Biography

Amorós graduated with a degree in Philosophy from the University of Valencia in 1969 and received the Extraordinary Degree Award in 1970. The title of her thesis was: El concepto de razón dialéctica en Jean Paul Sartre. She also completed her doctorate at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Valencia. The title of her doctoral thesis was: Ideología y pensamiento mítico: en torno a Mitologías de Claude Levi-Strauss.
She is an expert in the ethical-political thought of Jean Paul Sartre and the history of existentialism. In relation to this field, included in her work are Sören Kierkegaard o la subjetividad del caballero and Diáspora y Apocalipsis. Ensayos sobre el Nominalismo de Jean Paul Sartre's Nominalism.
Member of Frente de Liberación de la Mujer in Madrid until 1980. That same year she received the prize "Maria Espinosa de Ensayo" for the best article published about feminism for her work "Feminism and political parties" in Zona Abierta, Spring 1980.
In 1987 she created the Feminism and Enlightenment Seminar taught at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid until 1994.
On 14 November 1990, she became director of the Institute for Feminist Research after a first foundational phase managed by María Carmen García Nieto. She led the institute until 1993, in this year Amorós began her stay at Harvard University.
In 1991 she founded the History of Feminist Theory course at the Feminist Research Institute that she directed until 2005 and was replaced by the philosopher Ana de Miguel. The courses taught by Amorós were "Feminism and Multiculturalism," "Feminism and the Enlightenment," "Freudo-Marxism Feminism of Shulamith Firestone," and "The Ontology of the Present of Donna Haraway."
In 2006 she received the National Essay Prize for her work "La gran diferencia y sus pequeñas consecuencias.... para la lucha de las mujeres", becoming the first woman to receive this award. Worth 15,000 euros, the prize honours the thoughts and reflections of a Spanish author for his or her work in any of the official state languages published in the year previous to the verdict.
A member and professor of the UNED's Department of Philosophy and Moral and Political Philosophy, she is distinguished for her work and research on feminism and multiculturalism. Amorós considers that traces of the Enlightenment can be found in many different cultures, particularly in Islamic culture and searches for a meeting point in the construction of equality between women from different cultural backgrounds.

Awards and distinctions

Books