ENN New Voices: Hedwig Dohm's Feminist Philosophy: Interview with Katie Brennan

In this episode, Jacinta Shrimpton speaks with Katie Brennan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Salve Regina University, about the 19th-century German feminist philosopher Hedwig Dohm. Brennan speaks about Dohm’s diverse philosophical modes, from salon-hosting to political essays to novellas, and how her participation in the urgent and burgeoning feminist discourse of her time shaped her philosophical approach. Dohm draws on distinct areas of philosophy, such as rights and existentialism, leading to a unique conception of human nature that Brennan is currently in the process of reconstructing. We speak about several of Dohm’s texts, with ongoing reference to her novella Become Who You Are, which still resonates today. Finally, Brennan wraps up the episode with some research advice, and reflections on the methodological challenges she’s faced while researching the under-served Dohm.

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References
Works by Kate Brennan
Brennan, Katie. “The Nihilism of the Oppressed: Hedwig Dohm’s Feminist Critique of Nietzschean Nihilism.” Journal of Nietzsche Studies 52, no. 2 (2021): 209–33. https://doi.org/10.5325/jnietstud.52.2.0209.

Works by Hedwig Dohm referenced in the episode
Dohm, Hedwig. Der Frauen Natur und Recht zur Frauenfrage, zwei Abhandlungen über Eigenschaften und Stimmrecht der Frauen. Berlin: Wedekind & Schweiger, 1876.
 
Dohm, Hedwig, and Elizabeth G Ametsbichler. Become Who You Are. 1st ed. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012.

Other works referenced in the episode
Beauvoir, Simone de, Constance Borde, and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. The Second Sex. 1st American ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.
 
Fricker, Miranda. Epistemic Injustice : Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2007. 
 
Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty, Utilitarianism, and Other Essays. Edited by Mark Philp and F. Rosen. New edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. 
 
Nassar, Dalia, and Gjesdal, Kristin, eds. Women Philosophers in the Long Nineteenth Century : The German Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2021. Accessed April 21, 2025. ProQuest Ebook Central.
[See chapters: Hedwig Dohm, Clara Zetkin, Lou Salomé, and Rosa Luxemburg]
 
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. On the Genealogy of Morality and Other Writings. Edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson. Translated by Carol Diethe. Third edition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
 
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, and Duncan Large. Ecce Homo : How to Become What You Are. Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2007.