Dr Frederique Janssen-Lauret and Maheshi Gunawardane from the University’s School of Social Sciences, hosted the third edition of a four-day Summer School on Women in Logic from 29 July to 1 August 2024.

The programme is aimed at 16-18 year-old women and girls from widening participation backgrounds. The Summer School was established with two primary objectives in mind. The first objective is to address the underrepresentation of women in the field of logic and philosophy, while the second is to attract more widening participation students to pursue philosophy as a field of study.

Participants were inspired by Susan Stebbing, the UK’s first female philosophy professor, and her ground-breaking critical thinking book, ‘Thinking to Some Purpose’.  Particpants gained insights into the broader concepts of philosophy, critical thinking, argumentation, fallacies, and debates around contemporary issues. On the last day, posters created by the participants were displayed at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.

The plan is to run the Summer School for Women in Logic again next year, with the objective of attracting more women into the field of philosophy, and specifically to logic, both informal (critical thinking) and formal (mathematical) logic. The Summer School for Women in Logic derives from the University’s social responsibility and civic engagement plan, as we aspire to give back to the community by providing opportunities to those who may not otherwise have access to them.

Funding for this initiative was provided by the Royal Institute of Philosophy, The Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP UK) and the School of Social Sciences at The University of Manchester.