W&L Continues Questioning Intimacy Series with Privacy Lecture by Anita Allen Allen’s speech is titled: “Why Hide Anything?” She is the fifth speaker in the year-long Questioning Intimacy series.

By Erica Turman
January 19, 2018

“We are thrilled to host a giant of the study of the inner life. From privacy to intimacy to the impact of legal rules on women, Anita Allen stands at the forefront of our oldest traditions and newest technologies.”

Washington and Lee University will host Anita Allen, Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Allen’s talk is Feb. 1, at 4:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theatre, Elrod Commons. It is free and open to the public.

Allen’s speech is titled: “Why Hide Anything?” She is the fifth speaker in the year-long Questioning Intimacy series.

“We are thrilled to host a giant of the study of the inner life,” said Brian Murchison, professor of Law. “From privacy to intimacy to the impact of legal rules on women, Anita Allen stands at the forefront of our oldest traditions and newest technologies.”

Allen has written widely on privacy, ethics, race and gender. She is author of multiple books, including a textbook, “Privacy Law and Society,” and her latest book “Unpopular Privacy.”

“Professor Allen is one of the country’s foremost legal philosophers, and her work in the field of privacy is original and provocative,” said Joshua Fairfield, William Donald Bain Family Professor of Law.

Allen earned her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from Harvard. She is a senior fellow in bioethics at Penn’s Medical School and a member of the American Law Institute.

The Questioning Intimacy series is organized around a series of six visiting speakers chosen for the discipline they represent, as well as for the perspective they bring to our study of intimacy. Each of the speakers is a leader in his or her field and one whose popularity extends beyond the narrow confine of their discipline.

The Questioning Intimacy series is made possible with support from the Office of the Provost, Office of the Dean of the Law School, Office of the Dean of the College, Office of the Dean of the Williams School, the Institute for Honor and the Howerton Fund of the Department of Religion.