Program for 2007 Conference of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle, Memphis, Tennessee

Hosted by the University of Memphis

September 27-29, 2007

Conference Director: Professor Leonard Lawlor

Conference Assistant Director: Bryan Bannon

Conference Assistant: Carolyn O’Mara

Thursday, September 27

Registration opens at 8:00am

9:00-9:50

Moderator:                  David Dillard-Wright, University of South Carolina-Aiken

Speaker:                      Gregory Hoskins, Villanova University

Title:                            “Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Luc Marion on the Epoche, Subjectivity, and the Value of the Lifeworld”         

9:55-10:45

Moderator:                  Jorge Umberto Diaz, New University of Lisbon

Speaker:                      Luca Vanzago, Università di Pavia

Title:                            “The Temporality of Passivity and the Passivity of Temporality”      

10:50-11:00     Refreshment break

11:05-11:50

Moderator:                  William Tulius, York University

Speaker:                      Bryan Smyth, Mount Allison University

Title:                            “‘We Were Never Phenomenological’ --Toward a Progressive Phenomenology of Life”

11:55-12:45

Moderator:                  Kirk Besmer, Gonzaga University

Speaker:                      Jessica Wiskus, Duquesne University

Title:                           “At The End of Language and the ‘Beginning’ of Philosophical Thought: Depth, Rhythm and Expression after the later Merleau-Ponty”

12:50-2:30pm  Lunch

2:30-3:20

Moderator:                  Bryan Bannon, University of Memphis

Speaker:                      Heath Massey, Beloit College

Title:                            “Perchance to Dream: The Phenomenology of Sleep in Merleau-Ponty’s Passivity Lectures”

3:25-4:15

Moderator:                  Gayle Salamon, Princeton University

Speaker:                      Patricia Locke, Saint John’s College, Annapolis

Title:                            “Sleeping with Proust and Merleau-Ponty”

4:20-5:10

Moderator:                  Susan O’Shaughnessy, Concordia College

Speaker:                      Maria Talero, University of Colorado at Denver

Title:                            “The Image and the Workspace: Merleau-Ponty and Levinas on Passivity”

5:15-5:30pm    Refreshment Break

5:35-6:45

Moderator:                  Steven Watson, University of Notre Dame

Speaker:                      Hugh J. Silverman, Stony Brook University

Title:                            “Tracing Responsibility: Between Merleau-Ponty and Levinas”

This session is sponsored by the Bornblum Judaic Center at the University of Memphis

Friday, September 28

9:40-10:30am

Moderator:                  Rachel McCann, Mississippi State University

Speaker:                      Kirsten Jacobson, University of Maine

Title:                            “The Developed Nature of the Passivity of Home”

10:35-10:45                 Refreshment Break

10:50-11:35

Moderator:                  William Hamrick, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville

Speaker:                      Randy Johnson, Psychiatry (Private Practice), Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Title:                            “The Allure of Passivity”

11:40-12:30pm

Moderator:                  Gail Weiss, George Washington University

Speaker:                      Kym McClaren, Ryerson University

Title:                            “On Being Moved and Becoming Oneself: Intercorporeality as a Condition of Selfhood”

12:35-2:30pm              Lunch

2:35-3:20pm

Moderator:                  Alia Al-Saji, McGill University

Speaker:                      Ann V. Murphy, Fordham University

Title:                            “Anonymity, Passivity, Vulnerability”

3:25-4:15

Moderator:                  Helen Fielding, University of Western Ontario

Speaker:                      Saara Hacklin, University of Helsinki

Title                             “Almost There: On Merleau-Ponty’s Seeing with an Artwork”

4:20-5:20

Moderator:                  Lawrence Hass, Muhlenberg College

Speaker:                      Todd May, Clemson University

Title:                            “Metaphors”

5:20-5:35                     Refreshment break

5:35-6:50

Keynote Session

Moderator:                  Galen Johnson, University of Rhode Island

Speaker:                     John Russon, The University of Guelph

Title:                            “Freedom and Passivity”

7:15-8:15                     Reception

Saturday, September 29

9:40-10:30am

Moderator:                  Talia Welsh, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Speaker:                      Emily Lee, California State University at Fullerton

Title:                            “Homi Bhabha’s Postcolonial Metropolitan Subject:  A Comparison between Dialectic and Phenomenological Frameworks.” 

10:35-10:45                 Refreshment Break

10:50-11:35

M. C. Dillon Memorial Lecture

Moderator:                  Duane Davis, University of North Carolina-Asheville

Speaker:                      Matthew Goodwin, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

Title:                            “Art and the Deflagration of Being: Setting Passivity Afire”

11:40-12:30pm

Moderator:                  Leigh Johnson, Rhodes College

Speaker:                      Robert Vallier, DePaul University

Title:                            “Institutions: Of History”

12:35-2:30pm              Business Luncheon

2:35-3:20

Moderator:                  David Morris, Trent University

Speaker:                      Lisa Guenther, Vanderbilt University

Title:                            “Giving Birth to the Other: Filiation in ‘Dialogue and Perception of the Other’”

3:25-4:15

Moderator:                  James Morley, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Speaker:                      Caterina Rea, Institut Supérieur de Philosophie – Université Catholique Louvain

Title:                            “The Passive Background of Creativity”

4:20-5:20

Moderator:                  Pleshette DeArmitt, University of Memphis

Speaker:                      Kelly Oliver, Vanderbilt University

Title:                            “The Duplicitous Stickleback in Merleau-Ponty and Lacan”

5:20-5:35                     Refreshment Break

5:40-6:50

Keynote Session

Moderator:                  Mary Beth Mader, University of Memphis

Speaker:                      Rosalyn Diprose, University of New South Wales

Title:                            “Passivity and Feminism” (tentative title)

7:30pm                        Conference Banquet at the Majestic Grill, 145 South Main, Memphis, (901) 522-8555. The Majestic Grill is approximately 3 blocks from the Holiday Inn Select.