Careful Thinking

Care ethics, education, and democracy - with Adriana Jesenková

What insights can care ethics contribute that will help in improving the education system? How can education prepare students to be caring citizens and support the development of a 'caring democracy'? And what role should sex and relationships education play in that process? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, with Adriana Jesenková [https://www.upjs.sk/FF/zamestnanec/adriana.jesenkova/]. Adriana studied history and philosophy at Comenius University [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comenius_University] in Bratislava, Slovakia, and she is now an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University [https://www.upjs.sk/en/] in Košice [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%A1ice], in eastern Slovakia, where her research has explored issues of care, power, and justice in the education system and in medical practice, from the perspective of feminist care ethics. In 2016 Adriana published a monograph in Slovak on The Ethics of Care (Etika Starostlivosti [https://www.academia.edu/32171011/etika_starostlivosti_jesenkova_pdf]) and since then has published numerous journal articles, in both Slovak and English, applying a care ethical perspective to subjects as diverse as the educational system in Slovakia, sex education, and the challenges posed by a fragmented and polarised society. I was first introduced to Adriana’s work when we both contributed to the edited collection on Care Ethics, Religion, and Spiritual Traditions [https://www.peeters-leuven.be/pdf/9789042946552.pdf], which was published by Peeters in 2022. I was also interested to see that Adriana had contributed a chapter to the 2020 volume on Care Ethics, Democratic Citizenship and the State [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-41437-5], which was co-edited by Petr Urban, who was my guest in Episode 4 [https://careful-thinking.captivate.fm/episode/care-ethics-phenomenology-and-play-with-petr-urban]of the podcast. We discuss the following topics in this episode: Adriana's personal and professional journey to studying and teaching philosophy (02:36) Adriana's introduction to feminist care ethics and its importance for her work (09:05) The influence of Joan Tronto on Adriana's thinking (13:55) Applying care ethics to education (16:35) The recent history of Slovakia, with particular reference to education (16:45) The deficit of democratic care in the Slovak education system (25:56) Education for care (30:33) Adriana's research and writing on sex and relationships education (33:46) Sex education, the family, and the state (41:39) Caring for intergenerational relations in a time of fragmentation: the role of philosophy and literature (48:03) Adriana's current work empowering civil society in eastern Slovakia and her plans for writing a new book on care ethics for a Slovak audience (59:55) Links to some of Adriana's articles in English 'Research and educational potential of feminist care ethics in sex education [https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/humaff-2018-0016/html]' (2018) 'Deficit of democratic care in the educational system in Slovakia [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-41437-5_13]' (2020) 'Gender equality as a matter of care for the "caring university [https://www.academia.edu/63672972/Gender_equality_as_a_matter_of_care_for_the_caring_university_]"' (2021) 'How to care better for intergenerational relations in the time of fragmentation' [https://www.pragmatismtoday.eu/summer2025/How-to-Care-Better-for-Intergenerational-Relations-in-the-Time-of-Fragmentation-Jesenkova.pdf] (2025) Other publications referred to in the episode Joan Tronto, Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003070672/moral-boundaries-joan-tronto] Joan Tronto, Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qgfvp] Etela Farkašová, Záchrana sveta podľa G. [https://www.litcentrum.sk/dielo/zachrana-sveta-podla-g](Saving the world according to G.) Writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode Epicurus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus] Etela Farkašová [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etela_Farka%C5%A1ov%C3%A1] Zuzana Kiczková [https://gender.fhs.cuni.cz/KGS-22.html] Mariana Szapuová [https://fphil.uniba.sk/en/departments-and-research-centres/department-of-philosophy-and-history-of-philosophy/staff/doc-phdr-mariana-szapuova-phd/] Richard Rorty [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rorty] Joan Tronto [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Tronto] Nell Noddings [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nel_Noddings] Virginia Held [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Held] Margaret Urban Walker [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Urban_Walker] Maurice Hamington [https://www.mhamington.com/] You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link [https://carefulthinking.substack.com/p/care-ethics-education-and-democracy]to the Careful Thinking Substack.

Fatherhood, faith, and phenomenology - with Zechariah Mickel

What insights can phenomenological philosophy offer into the experience of fatherhood? How does a father experience the mystery of his child's soul, and how should he respond to his child's vulnerability and suffering? And how useful is the language of sacrifice in describing the burden of paternal responsibility? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, with Zechariah Mickel. [https://www.zechariahmickel.com/] Zechariah is an independent scholar working at the intersection of continental philosophy and theology. He holds an MA in philosophy from the Global Center for Advanced Studies [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Center_for_Advanced_Studies]and has worked in schools as a therapeutic skills trainer and as a marketing manager and associate editor at Wipf and Stock Publishers [https://wipfandstock.com/], where he continues to host The Theology Mill [https://wipfandstock.com/blog-podcast/] https://wipfandstock.com/blog-podcast/Podcast. [https://wipfandstock.com/blog-podcast/] Based in Oregon in the United States, Zechariah is a husband and a father to two young children, and he is also employed as an apprentice plumber. Zechariah has published articles in Commonweal magazine and in the Global Center for Advanced Studies Review. He’s the author of the book The Unthinkable Sacrifice: An Essay on Fatherhood [https://wipfandstock.com/9798385219070/the-unthinkable-sacrifice/], published by Cascade in 2025, which provides an account of the experience of early fatherhood using the tools of phenomenological philosophy. He is also the co-editor of the forthcoming book The Eucharist and Continental Philosophy, to be published by Fordham University Press. We discuss the following topics in this episode: Zechariah's background and early influences (02:30) Zechariah's journey from evangelicalism to Catholicism (05:16) The experience of becoming and being a father (08:05) Working as a plumber alongside writing and publishing (09:58) Zechariah's work for Wipf and Stock and as host of The Theology Mill Podcast (13:52) Highlights of Zechariah's experience as a podcast host (16:33) The 'theological turn' in French phenomenology and the influence of Steven DeLay on Zechariah's writing (18:00) The thinking behind The Unthinkable Sacrifice (20:10) Is the book philosophy or theology? (24:01) The philosophers who have influenced Zechariah's thinking (28:28) The father's experience of his child's soul and the insights of Levinas and Marion (33:50) The vulnerability of the child and Romano's notion of 'the event' (37:40) Fatherhood in the context of late modernity (41:40) The burden of paternal responsibility (47:22) Fatherhood and sacrifice (52:38) Responding to criticisms of the book (56:35) Zechariah's forthcoming edited volume on the Eucharist and his plans for further research and writing (01:05:05) Some of the writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode Thomas Merton [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton] Steven DeLay [https://stevendelay.com/] Emmanuel Falque [https://philpeople.org/profiles/emmanuel-falque] Stanley Hauerwas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Hauerwas] William T. Cavanaugh [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Cavanaugh] Sergei Bulgakov [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Bulgakov] Emmanuel Levinas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Levinas] Jean-Luc Marion [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Marion] Claude Romano [https://philpeople.org/profiles/claude-romano] Jean-Yves Lacoste [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Yves_Lacoste] Jean-Louis Chrétien [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Chr%C3%A9tien] Gabriel Marcel [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Marcel] Byung-Chul Han [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byung-Chul_Han] Michel Henry [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Henry] Pope Francis [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis] Some of the publications discussed in the episode Steven DeLay's [https://www.routledge.com/Phenomenology-in-France-A-Philosophical-and-Theological-Introduction/DeLay/p/book/9781138244979] Phenomenology in France: A Philosophical and Theological Introduction [https://www.routledge.com/Phenomenology-in-France-A-Philosophical-and-Theological-Introduction/DeLay/p/book/9781138244979] Terence Sweeney's review of [https://fairerdisputations.org/facing-fatherhood/]The Unthinkable Sacrifice [https://fairerdisputations.org/facing-fatherhood/] Martin's Substack review of Zechariah's book [https://carefulthinking.substack.com/p/fatherhood-and-philosophy] Films mentioned in the episode The Sacrifice [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sacrifice_(1986_film)] (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sacrifice_(1986_film)] Get Out [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Out] (dir. Jordan Peele) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Out] Other links Foursquare Church [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foursquare_Church] You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link [https://carefulthinking.substack.com/p/fatherhood-faith-and-phenomenology]to the Careful Thinking Substack.

Death, dying, and the ethics of care - with Iris Parra Jounou

What can care ethics contribute to a better understanding of death, dying, and end-of-life care? What would a relational approach to assisted dying look like? And how should care be incorporated into public policy by local and national governments? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, in conversation with Iris Parra Jounou [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Iris-Parra-Jounou]. Iris is a researcher in care ethics and political philosophy, specialising in end-of-life care. She is an assistant professor in philosophy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, [https://www.uab.cat/] in Catalonia, Spain, where she was awarded a PhD in 2025 for her thesis entitled ‘Dying in the Relaissance: End-of-Life Practices in a Caring Democracy’. Iris previously studied for bachelor’s degrees in both nursing and humanities, and for a Masters degree in contemporary thought and classical tradition. She is also a published poet and a musician. Iris has published a number of journal articles and book chapters on end-of-life care and assisted dying, and she also has the distinction of having translated key works by the leading American care ethicist Joan Tronto [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Tronto] into Catalan. She a contributed a chapter on ‘a care ethics and aesthetics approach to stillbirth and late termination of pregnancy for foetal anomalies’ in the recently-published edited collection Care Aesthetics and the Arts [https://www.routledge.com/Care-Aesthetics-and-the-Arts/Maguire-Rosier-Polonyi-Thompson/p/book/9781032870922]. Iris has edited a new volume on Care Ethics and Public Health [https://www.peeters-leuven.be/detail.php?search_key=9789042956087&series_number_str=18&lang=en], [https://www.peeters-leuven.be/detail.php?search_key=9789042956087&series_number_str=18&lang=en] which has been published, in the Peeters Ethics of Care series, since we recorded the episode. We discuss the following topics in this episode: Iris' personal and professional journey to studying the philosophy of care (02:35) Witnessing death and developing an interest in end-of-life care (06:24) Iris' introduction to feminist care ethics (10:55) How Iris came to interview Joan Tronto and translate her books into Catalan (16:22) A brief cultural history of death and dying (19:57) Towards 'an expressive-collaborative model of mortality' using care ethics (24:42) 'Dying in the relaissance' (27:46) A relational approach to assisted dying (30:30) The ethical conflicts of implementing medical assistance in dying (34:34) Towards a patient-centred definition of unbearable suffering (39:05) Iris' forthcoming co-edited book on care ethics and public health (44:10) Towards a public ethics of care (47:30) Reflecting on stillbirth, care ethics and care aesthetics through the medium of a literary memoir (50:35) Iris' involvement in poetry and music (57:40) Iris' plans for further research and writing on care (01:01:14) Some of the writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode Nell Noddings [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nel_Noddings] Virginia Held [Virginia Held] Carol Gilligan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Gilligan] Helen Kohlen [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Helen-Kohlen] Frans Vosman [https://ethicsofcare.org/personal-memories-of-frans-vosman-1952-2020/] Olena Hankivsky [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Olena-Hankivsky] Judith Butler [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Butler] Margaret Urban Walker [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Urban_Walker] Erica Borgstrom [https://profiles.open.ac.uk/erica-borgstrom] (see Episode 9 [https://careful-thinking.captivate.fm/episode/care-at-the-end-of-life-with-erica-borgstrom]) Ruth Levitas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Levitas] Miguel Abensour [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Abensour] Sean Riley [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aJ2f6VgAAAAJ&hl=en] David Rodríguez-Arias [https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=eB5ke2cAAAAJ&hl=es] Txetxu Ausín [https://philpeople.org/profiles/txetxu-ausin] Claudia Gamondi [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Claudia-Gamondi] Anna Starobinets [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Starobinets] Links to Iris' some of academic writings in English 'End-of-Life Narratives of Patients who Request Medical Assistance in Dying: A Qualitative Study Protocol [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/16094069231202196]' 'Causes for Conscientious Objection in Medical Aid in Dying: A Scoping Review' [https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/bioethics/2023-v6-n3-4-bioethics08947/1108007ar/] 'Care ethics in theory and practice: Joan C. Tronto in conversation with Iris Parra Jounou [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41296-024-00680-6]' 'For, against, and beyond: healthcare professionals’ positions on Medical Assistance in Dying in Spain' [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12910-024-01069-1] '“Suffering Is a Hostage of Healthcare Professionals’ Authority”: Shifting to a Patient-Centered Definition' [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265161.2025.2525772] 'Look at Him: A care ethics and aesthetics approach to stillbirth and late termination of pregnancy for foetal abnormalities [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003530886-9/look-iris-parra-jounou?context=ubx&refId=19d094e4-0d9d-4ea2-83b8-15fb1ec745b7]' Iris' translations of works by Joan Tronto Qui se'n cuida? [https://www.raigverdeditorial.cat/cataleg/qui-sen-cuida/] Democràcia i cura [https://www.raigverdeditorial.cat/cataleg/democracia-i-cura/] Poetry by Iris Oriana [https://tienda.rileditores.es/producto/oriana-iris-parra-jounou] Al filo [https://expeditiorepositorio.utadeo.edu.co/entities/publication/6071f244-7fd7-4d53-b8e5-748d50b8098d](audiopoem) [https://expeditiorepositorio.utadeo.edu.co/entities/publication/6071f244-7fd7-4d53-b8e5-748d50b8098d] Iris' research projects INEDyTO [https://www.inedyto.com/] POyETICAS [https://portalrecerca.uab.cat/es/projects/politica-y-etica-de-la-salud-publica/] You can download a transcript of the episode by following this link [https://carefulthinking.substack.com/p/death-dying-and-the-ethics-of-care] to the Careful Thinking Substack.

A Catholic feminist perspective on care - with Erika Bachiochi

What can the ideas of an eighteenth-century feminist thinker contribute to contemporary debates around gender and care? How should law and social policy support caregivers and create a better balance between care, work and family life? Is Catholic feminism a contradiction in terms - and if not, what's distinctive about the perspective that it offers on care? These are some of the questions we discuss in this episode, with Erika Bachiochi. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erika_Bachiochi] Erika is an American legal scholar who works at the intersection of constitutional law, political theory, women’s history, and Catholic social teaching. She is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center [https://eppc.org/]- and Professor of Practice and Director of the Mercy Otis Warren Initiative [https://scetl.asu.edu/mercy]at the School of Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, where she also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the online journal, Fairer Disputations [https://fairerdisputations.org/]. A 2018 visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, Erika is a Senior Fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute [https://www.abigailadamsinstitute.org/] in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she founded the Wollstonecraft Project [https://www.abigailadamsinstitute.org/aai-wollstonecraft-project]. Erika received a B.A. from Middlebury College in 1996, an M.A. in theology as a Bradley Fellow from the Institute for the Study of Politics and Religion at Boston College in 1999, and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 2002. The mother of seven children, Erika was a co-founder of St. Benedict’s [https://www.stbca.org/], a Catholic classical school in Massachusetts where she served as President of the Board from 2013-2015. She has published numerous articles in legal and political journals and in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. Erika's book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision [https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268200824/the-rights-of-women/], which offers a revisionist history of the early women’s rights movement, including a radical reassessment of the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, was published in 2021. We discuss the following topics in this episode: Erika's journey to becoming a legal scholar (03:02) Erika's philosophical, political and spiritual journey (08:33) The rationale for Erika's book The Rights of Women and its focus on Mary Wollstonecraft (17:28) The balance between rights and duties and the emphasis on virtues in Wollstonecraft's thinking (25:56) The lost legacy of first-wave feminism (37:30) Mary Ann Glendon's work on care, families, and social policy (43:35) Erika's critique of feminist care ethics, and her understanding of the distinctive role of fathers in care (49:38) The role of the state in supporting caregiving within families (59:34) A distinctive Catholic feminist position on care (01:03:37) Erika's plans for a sequel to The Rights of Women (01:07:33) Some of the writers, thinkers and activists mentioned in the episode: Aristotle [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle] Cicero [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero] John Locke [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke] Mary Wollstonecraft [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft] William Godwin [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Godwin] Joseph Priestley [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Priestley] Richard Price [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Price] Abigail Adams [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams] Lucrecia Mott [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucretia_Mott] Jane Addams [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Addams] Susan B. Anthony [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony] Sarah Moore Grimké [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Moore_Grimk%C3%A9] Betty Friedan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Friedan] Ruth Bader Ginsburg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg] Mary Ann Glendon [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Glendon] Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt] Eva Feder Kittay [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Kittay] Dorothy Day [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Day] Rachel Coleman [https://www.assumption.edu/people-and-departments/directory/rachel-m-coleman] Kate Phelan [https://fairerdisputations.org/kate-phelan/] Abigail Favale [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Favale] Leah Libresco Sargeant [https://leahlibresco.com/] Holly Lawford-Smith [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Lawford-Smith] Bernie Sanders [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders] Articles by Erika Bachiochi cited in the episode 'Embodied equality: debunking equal protection arguments for abortion rights [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1873485]' (2011) 'Embodied caregiving [https://firstthings.com/embodied-caregiving/]' (2016) 'Dobbs, Equality and the Contested Meanings of Women's Rights [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4632976]' (2023) Other publications mentioned in the episode 'Declaration of Sentiments [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Sentiments]' (1848) Mulieris dignitatem [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulieris_dignitatem] (1988) Mary Ann Glendon, Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse [https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Rights-Talk/Mary-Ann-Glendon/9781439108680] (1991) Eva Feder Kittay, Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency [https://www.routledge.com/Loves-Labor-Essays-on-Women-Equality-and-Dependency/Kittay/p/book/9781138089921] (1999) 'Catholic and Radical Feminism: a dialogue' (Fairer Disputations) [https://fairerdisputations.org/radfem-catholic-dialogue/] (2024) Leah Libresco Sargeant, The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto [https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268210335/the-dignity-of-dependence/] (2025) Useful links Catholic Social Teaching [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_social_teaching] Catholic Worker Movement [https://catholicworker.org/] New Deal [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal] Communitarianism [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communitarianism] New Democrats [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrats_(United_States)] World Conference on Women [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Conference_on_Women,_1995] (Beijing, 1995) - and see Mary Ann Glendon's account [https://fairerdisputations.org/beijing-conference/] You can download a transcript of the episode by following this link [https://carefulthinking.substack.com/p/a-catholic-feminist-perspective-on] to the Careful Thinking Substack.

Protest, performance, and care - with Alisha Ibkar

What can a protest movement organised by Muslim grandmothers in India teach us about the role of care in political action? In what sense should we understand care as performance and everyday caring activities as artful practices? And how might interpersonal care nurture a wider caring imagination and foster a politics of care? These are some of the questions we discuss in this episode, with Alisha Ibkar [https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/alisha-ibkar/]. Originally from Kaliachak in West Bengal, India, Alisha has a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh, and a Master of Arts degree, also in English Literature, from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. She was a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Warwick, where she completed a Master’s degree in applied theatre, with her dissertation focusing on the study of ethics and the aesthetics of care in the context of political activism. Alisha is currently a School of Arts, Languages and Cultures doctoral fellow in Theatre and Performance at the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama in the University of Manchester. Since 2016 she has also held the post of Assistant Professor of English Literature and Language at Aligarh Muslim University. In Manchester, Alisha is associated with The Care Lab [https://www.thecarelab.org.uk/], which is partnered with the AHRC-funded Care Aesthetics Research Exploration (CARE) Project [https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/projects/care-aesthetics-research-exploration-project/], led by Professor James Thompson [https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/james.thompson], who was my guest in Episode 11 [https://careful-thinking.captivate.fm/episode/care-aesthetics-with-james-thompson]of the podcast. Alisha’s academic research places the burgeoning critical theorisations around the ethics and aesthetics of care in dialogue with socio-political protest movements, a context within which the relevance of caretaking is yet to be studied. Her research engages with women-led social movements in India to examine the extent to which care played a principal role, with her understanding of care emerging from Muslim women’s cultural and domestic practices of care. Through her work, Alisha seeks a decolonial reorientation, not only within care theory and scholarship, but also within political performance. Alisha has published articles about her research in The Sociological Review [https://thesociologicalreview.org/magazine/august-2023/strikes-and-care/protest-and-serve/]and in Theatre Journal [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/950295], and she has contributed a chapter entitled ‘On the art of Khidmat; political afterlives of Muslim women's everyday practices of care’ to a forthcoming collection on Care Aesthetics and the Arts [https://CareAestheticsandtheArts], edited by Kate Maguire-Rosier, Réka Polonyi andJames Thompson., We discuss the following topics in this episode: Alisha's early life in West Bengal and how it shaped her thinking about care and community (03:26) The importance of education in Alisha's upbringing and her choice of English Literature as a focus for her studies (07:43) The roots of Alisha's interest in theatre and performance (11:53) Alisha's critical engagement with feminist writers on care (14:11) The protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in India (18:15) The Shaheen Bagh protest and Alisha's relationship to it (21:52) The ethos of care underlying the protest (25:10) The practical care structures at Shaheen Bagh (30:42) Care as performance (33:35) The role of repetition and perpetuation in the performance of care (36:25) Everyday caring activities as artful practices (41:21) Storytelling as an ethical and aesthetic practice (46:21) Interpersonal care nurturing a wider caring imagination (51:34) The implications of Shaheen Bagh for thinking about protest as a form of care (57:18) Shaheen Bagh as 'a template for a caring state' (01:01:30) Alisha's involvement in The Care Lab and the CARE project in Manchester (01:05:40) Some of the writers, thinkers and practitioners mentioned in the episode Lila Abu-Lughod [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_Abu-Lughod] Saba Mahmood [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saba_Mahmood] Sherine Hafez [https://profiles.ucr.edu/app/home/profile/sherineh] Maurice Hamington [https://www.mhamington.com/] (see Episode 6 [https://careful-thinking.captivate.fm/episode/revolutionary-care-with-maurice-hamington]) Carol Gilligan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Gilligan] Joan Tronto [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Tronto] Virginia Held [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Held] Nel Noddings [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nel_Noddings] Daniel Engster [https://www.uh.edu/hobby/about/faculty/daniel-engster/index.php] Kathleen Lynch [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Lynch_(academic)] Ella Myers [https://profiles.faculty.utah.edu/u0586842] Bettany Hughes [https://www.bettanyhughes.co.uk/] Amina Wadud [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amina_Wadud] Amira Mittermaier [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amira_Mittermaier] Heba Raouf Ezzat [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heba_Raouf_Ezzat] Hi'ilei Hobart [https://erm.yale.edu/people/hi-ilei-hobart] Mia Sosa-Provencio [https://coehs.unm.edu/faculty-staff/profiles/sosa-provencio-mia.html] (see Episode 19 [https://careful-thinking.captivate.fm/episode/a-revolucionista-ethic-of-care-with-mia-sosa-provencio]) Sharankumar Limbale [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharankumar_Limbale] Sarah Munawar [https://www.ccmw.com/2020-women-who-inspire-award-winners/2020/9/21/vvllz0zwznmgfym0u9npm2vjfc8h2t] (see Episode 13 [https://careful-thinking.captivate.fm/episode/a-muslim-feminist-ethic-of-care-with-sarah-munawar]) Réla Polonyi [https://www.rekapolonyi.net/] Kate Maguire-Rosier [https://mrkategoestothetheatre.wordpress.com/about/] Jenny Harris [https://www.jennyharrisdrama.co.uk/] Elisa Imray Papineau [https://www.eliseimraypapineau.com/] J.L.Austin [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._L._Austin] Daryl Martin [https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/daryl-martin#Biography] Other links Jatra [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatra_(theatre)] (Bengali folk theatre) The Shaheen Bagh protest [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaheen_Bagh_protest] 'Land of My Dreams [https://ff.hrw.org/film/land-my-dreams/]' (film by Nausheen Khan [https://www.nausheenkhanfilms.com/land-of-my-dreams]) The Care Collective [https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/authors/collective-the-care] You can download a transcript of the episode by following this link [https://thislink] to the Careful Thinking Substack.