[Tps] Iris Marion Young 1949-2006

[FrankFchr at aol.com]

     (http://www-news.uchicago.edu/)   August 2, 2006  Press Contact:  
Jennifer Carnig
(773) 702-6421
_jecarnig at uchicago.edu_ (mailto:jecarnig at uchicago.edu)    
Iris Marion Young, 1949-2006 
Print-quality photo:
 (http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/06/images/060802.young.jpg) 
Iris Marion Young   
____________________________________
 Press citations:
_“U.  of C. professor had passion for social justice”
_ (http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citations/06/060804.young-st.html) 
August 4, 2006  
Iris Marion Young, a leading philosopher called by a colleague “one of  the 
most important political philosophers of the past quarter-century,”  died in 
her home Tuesday, Aug. 1 after a year-and-a-half long fight with  cancer. She 
was 57.  
Young, Professor in Political Science at the University of Chicago  since 
2000, was known for her work on theories of justice, democratic  theory and 
feminist theory.  
“When Iris came to the University she had already established herself  as one 
of the most important feminist thinkers in the world,” said  Associate 
Professor Patchen Markell, a colleague of Young’s in the  University of Chicago’s 
Political Science department. “She was absolutely  unsurpassed in her ability 
to combine a very high level of philosophical  analysis with relevance to 
contemporary political issues, and to the  experiences of women and men who cared 
about social injustice.”  
Young was born January 2, 1949 in New York City. She studied philosophy  as 
an undergraduate at Queens College, where she graduated with honors in  1970, 
before she went on to earn her masters and doctorate in philosophy  in 1974 
from Pennsylvania State University.  
Early on, Young built a reputation for her teaching and writing on  global 
justice; democracy and difference; continental political theory;  ethics and 
international affairs; and gender, race and public policy. But  it was her 1990 
book Justice and the Politics of Difference that  propelled her to the 
international stage. It was in that text, a staple in  classrooms the world over, that 
Young critically analyzed the basic  concepts underlying most theories of 
justice, argued for a new conception  of justice and urged for the affirmation 
rather than the suppression of  social group difference. More recently she had 
been working on the issue  of political responsibility, and especially on the 
question of how to  conceive of responsibility for large-scale structural 
injustices that  can’t easily be traced back to the doings of any single person or 
group.  
“There is no question in my mind that she is one of the most important  
political philosophers of the past quarter-century,” said Cass Sunstein,  the Karl 
N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor at the University of  Chicago’s 
Law School and in Political Science. “She was unexcelled in the  world in 
feminist and leftist political thought, and her work will have an  enduring impact.”
  
Known for her fierce commitment to social justice and her grassroots  
political activity on causes such as women’s human rights, debt relief for  Africa and
 workers’ rights, Young was praised for being as comfortable  working at the 
street level as she was writing about political theorists  Michel Foucault and 
Jürgen Habermas.  
“She combined a mind that went for the jugular with a passionate  commitment 
to social justice, and the combination produced an absolutely  magnificent 
colleague and an absolutely magnificent political  philosopher,” said Jane 
Mansbridge, Adams Professor at Harvard  University’s John F. Kennedy School of 
Government. “She was a committed,  decent human being and that informed every 
aspect of her work.”  
The ease with which Young moved back and forth between academia and her  
political work made her particularly attractive to the international  community, 
her colleagues said. Young was constantly traveling and her  writings have been 
translated into more than 20 languages, including  Croatian, Japanese, 
German, Italian, Portuguese, Slovakian, Spanish and  Swedish. She served as a fellow 
or visiting professor in Vienna,  Australia, South Africa, Germany and New 
Zealand, and she lectured on  every continent but Antarctica.  
“Her great lucidity and whole-hearted commitment to equality made her a  
resource for political theorists coming out of all the world’s diverse  political 
contexts,” said Danielle Allen, Dean of the Humanities at the  University of 
Chicago, who first read Young’s work when she was a student  at Harvard 
University.  
“I marveled at the precision with which she identified the concepts of  
political practice and questions of justice, and even though I didn’t  always agree 
with her, I knew she always identified the questions that  needed to be asked 
and clarified the terms of engagement,” Allen said. “As  I came to know her 
as a colleague, she clarified my thinking and  challenged me constantly. I 
think I can speak for everyone who knew her  when I say I learned a tremendous 
amount from her. She was a master  teacher.”  
Young was a popular teacher both of graduate and undergraduate  students. Her 
class on global justice was among the most sought-after  courses offered in 
Political Science.  
“So many people wanted to take the course that it would be in a lecture  
hall, but she didn’t want to stand in the front of the room and spout  information 
— she wanted students to be able to have a conversation,” said  Markell, a 
professor in the department. “She was so popular that she was  always 
outgrowing the format she most enjoyed teaching in. Everyone wanted  to study with her.”
  
Young’s popularity was just as sure among her colleagues, who loved  engaging 
in debate with her as much as they enjoyed watching her play jazz  piano at 
the University’s faculty club, the Quadrangle Club.  
“It never ceased to amaze me how someone of such immense scholarly  stature 
and distinction could be so unfailingly generous with her students  and so 
completely egalitarian with her colleagues,” said Sunstein.  
Added John Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service  
Professor in Political Science at the University of Chicago, “she was one  of the 
main intellectual forces in the department. Both students and  faculty held her 
in the highest regard. Her passing leaves a gaping hole  that will be very 
hard to fill.”  
Young’s books include Intersecting Voices: Dilemmas of Gender,  Political 
Philosophy and Policy (1997); Inclusion and Democracy  (2000); and On Female Body 
Experience (2004). Before coming to the  University of Chicago she taught 
political theory for nine years in the  Graduate School of Public and 
International Affairs at the University of  Pittsburgh. She also taught philosophy at a 
number of institutions, among  them the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and 
Miami University.  
Young is survived by her husband of 34 years, David Alexander, daughter  
Morgen Alexander-Young, brother L. James Young and sister Jacqueline  Young. A 
fall memorial service is planned at the University of Chicago.  

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