The Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the

International Merleau-Ponty Circle


September 17 - 20, 2003.

The University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada

CONFERENCE PROGRAM
All sessions to be held at Windermere Manor unless otherwise noted.


Wednesday, Sept. 17
Registration at Windermere Manor from 6:00-8:00pm


Thursday, Sept. 18
8:30 - 9:00am registration and coffee
(Registration continues throughout the day except during lunch)

9:00 - 9:15 welcome remarks
Dean Kathleen Okruhlik, Faculty of Arts, UWO
Helen Fielding, Conference Director, UWO

Session One
Moderator: Nancy Barta-Smith, Slippery Rock State College

9:15 - 10:00 Kym Maclaren, Northern Arizona University
'Life is Inherently Expressive'

10:00 - 10:45 Ted Toadvine, University of Oregon
'Life’s Refrain: Expression without Organisms'

10:45 - 11:00 break

Session Two
Moderator: Duane Davis, University of North Carolina at Asheville

11:00 - 11:45 David Morris, Trent University
'What is Living and What is Non-Living in Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy of Movement and Expression'

11:45 - 12:45 invited speaker
The Department of Philosophy and the Centre for Women's Studies and Feminist Research have also provided administrative support Martin C. Dillon, Binghamton University
'Life—Death'

12:45 - 2:00 lunch

Session Three
Moderator: Chris Nagel, California State University, Stanislaus

2:00 - 2:45 Robert Vallier, The George Washington University
'Institutions of Life'

3:00 - 3:30 Brett Buchanan, DePaul University
'’Some huge animal whose organs our bodies would be’: Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger on animal life'

3:30 - 4:15 David Farrell Krell, DePaul University
'Daimonic Flesh: Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, and a Possible Ontology of Nature'

4:15 - 4:30 break

Keynote Address
Moderator: Lawrence Hass, Muhlenberg College

4:30 - 6:00 keynote speaker:
Françoise Dastur, Université de Nice
'Merleau-Ponty and the Husserlian life-world problematic'

6:15 transportation to Museum London

6:30 - 8:00 reception



Friday, Sept. 19
8:30 - 9:00am coffee and registration

Session Four
Moderator: Brigitte Sassen, McMaster University

9:00 - 9:45 Alia Al-Saji, McGill University
'Merleau-Ponty and Bergson: Life, Rhythm and Flesh'

9:45 - 10:30 Davide Scarso, Universidade Classica de Lisboa
'Merleau-Ponty and the secret illness of Saussure'

10:30 - 10:45 break

Session Five
Moderator: Francine Wynn, The University of Toronto

10:45 - 11:30 Andreas Niederberger and Philipp Schink, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität
'Political World of ‘Life’ or Lifeworld? — A Criticism of the ‘Biopolitics’ — Diagnosis by Means of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Social Ontology'

11:30 - 12:15 Leonard Lawlor, The University of Memphis
'Un Écart infime: Foucault’s critique of the phenomenological concept of lived experience (vécu)'

12:15 - 1:30 lunch

Session Six
Moderator: Susan O’Shaughnessy, Concordia College

1:30 - 2:15 Jenny Slatman, Universiteit van Amsterdam/Universiteit Maastricht
'Erlebnis — Empfindnis: The Locus of Lived Experience'

2:15 - 3:00 Felix O’Murchadha, National University of Ireland, Galway
'Being Alive: The Place of Life in Merleau-Ponty and Descartes'

3:00 - 4:00 invited speaker
Dorothea Olkowski, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
'The Impersonal, The One'

4:00 - 4:15 break and transportation to Conron Hall, University College

4:15 transportation to Conron Hall, University College

Keynote Address - Conron Hall, UWO
Moderator: Gail Weiss, The George Washington University

4:30 - 6:00 keynote speaker
Renaud Barbaras, Sorbonne
'The Phenomenology of life as a path to Ontology'
(Sponsored by The Consulate General of France)

6:00 - 7:00 reception: 224a & 225 University College



Saturday, Sept. 20
8:30 - 9:00am coffee and registration

Session Seven
Moderator: Stephen Lofts, Kings College, UWO

9:00 - 9:45 Matthew Dowd, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
'A Constitutive Duet in the Key of the Flesh'

9:45 - 10:30 Antonio Calcagno, University of Guelph
'Michel Henry and the Possiblity of an Husserlian-Inspired Transcendental Life'

10:30 - 10:45 break

Session Eight
Moderator: Helen Fielding, The University of Western Ontario

10:45 - 11:30 Rachel McCann, Mississippi State University
'Experiencing Architecture: Transformative Exchange in Merleau-Ponty and Irigaray'

11:30 - 12:30 invited speaker
Samuel Mallin, York University
'Body Hermeneutics Demonstrated Through the Earliest Art'

12:30 - 2:00 business lunch

Session Nine
Moderator: Carol Bigwood, York University

2:00 - 2:45 Suzanne Cataldi, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
'Breathing (New) Life into Flesh. Merleau-Ponty, Irigaray and the Regeneration of Sexual Difference'

2:45 - 3:30 Galen Johnson, University of Rhode Island
'The Posthuman Body: A Phenomenological Response to the Biotechnology Debates'

3:30 - 3:45 break

Session Ten
Moderator: David Koukal, University of Detroit Mercy

3:45 - 4:30 Stefanie Wenner, Freie Universität Berlin
'Natality and Pregnance. Hannah Arendt and Merleau-Ponty'

4:30 - 5:30 invited speaker
Hugh J. Silverman, SUNY Stony Brook
'Merleau-Ponty/ Derrida: Living on (Borderlines)'

6:00pm banquet at Windermere Manor

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The following have contributed financially to the 28th International
Merleau-Ponty Circle:

Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada
The French Consulate
of Canada
UWO Provost's Office The Department of Philosophy
The Faculty of Social Science The Faculty of Arts
The Centre for Women's Studies and Feminist Research The Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism
The Department of English The Department of French
The Department of Modern Languages and Literature The Department of Visual Arts
The Department of Philosophy and the Centre for Women's Studies and Feminist Research have also provided administrative support