International Merleau-Ponty Circle
Fall 2006 Newsletter
15 December 2006
The Thirty-First
International Conference of the Merleau-Ponty Circle was held at George Mason
University at the Arlington, VA campus, October 26-28, 2006. The Conference organizer was Professor
Wayne J. Froman and the conference theme was ÒBody and Institution.Ó There were twenty-two papers
presented. A Special Distinguished
Lecture was given by Jacques Taminiaux, ÒMerleau-PontyÕs Reading of
Heidegger.Ó The Keynote Address
was presented by Mauro Carbone, Universitˆ Degli Studi di Milano, ÒLove and
Music.Ó The full program is posted on the Merleau-Ponty Circle website at www.uri.edu/artsci/phl/impc.
The first annual Martin C. Dillon
Memorial Lecture was given by Caterina Rea, Institut SupŽrieur de Philosophie,
UniversitŽ de Louvain (Louvain-La-Neuve Belgique), titled ÒCorporeal Ipseity
Between Natural Finitude and Institution: The Enigma of Human Living According
to Merleau-Ponty and Castoriadis.Ó
The session was moderated by Larry Hass, Muhlenberg College, who, in his
introductory remarks explained the goal of the annual lectureship: ÒTo
commemorate Mike DillonÕs special talents as a mentor and a distinguished
teacher, it was decided that this honor and the monetary award that goes with
it should go to a deserving graduate student. We believe that even though Mike might have been embarrassed
at the thought of a lecture in his name, he would have enthusiastically
supported the idea that this honor would go to a deserving young scholar.Ó
The honorarium for the
lecture was made possible through contributions to the newly established M. C.
Dillon Endowment Fund.
Contributions are still very much welcome and should be made out to ÒThe
International Merleau-Ponty CircleÓ and sent to the General Secretary:
Galen A. Johnson
95 Spring Hill Road
Kingston, RI 02881
At the Saturday business
luncheon as well as the conference banquet Saturday evening, conference
attendees expressed their hearty gratitude to Professor Wayne Froman who
carried out the many tasks of making the conference run so smoothly, all done
with a sense of ease and good humor.
The Circle is grateful for the support received from faculty and
administrative staff at George Mason University. In particular, we would like to thank the Office of the
Provost, Peter Stearns, the Office of the Dean of the College of Humanities and
Social Sciences, The Department of Philosophy and its Chair, Theodore Kinnaman,
the College of Nursing and Health Services, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, The
Doctoral Program of Cultural Studies, the Institute for Conflict Analysis and
Resolution, the Program in Art and Visual Technology of the School of the Arts,
the New Seminar Program in Paris of the Office of Global Education.
Next yearÕs conference, the
Thirty-Second Annual Meeting of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle, will be
held at the University of Memphis in Memphis, TN. Professor Leonard Lawlor is the Conference Director and
Bryan Bannon is the Conference Assistant Director. The dates are September
27-29, 2007 and the theme of the conference is ÒPassivity.Ó Paper submissions directly pertinent to
this theme are particularly welcome, but papers on any area of current research
in Merleau-Ponty studies will be considered for inclusion in the program.
Completed papers are preferred (limited to 4,500 words), though detailed
abstracts also will be considered; a short curriculum vitae should accompany abstracts. The conference will
feature the second annual M. C. Dillon Memorial Lecture – an honor and monetary award for the best
graduate student submission. Graduate students who wish to be considered
for the Dillon award should indicate this in their cover
letter. Proposals may be submitted either in electronic or paper
format, though e-mail attachment submissions (in RTF) are preferred. The
deadline for paper submissions is June 1, 2007. For further information contact Professor Lawlor at: lrlawlor@memphis.edu.
The Fall, 2008 conference of
the Circle will take place in Toronto, Ontario jointly hosted by Kym Maclaren,
Ryerson University, and David Morris, Trent University. Further details will be forthcoming. The year 2008 is the centennial of the
birth of Merleau-Ponty (March 14, 1908).
There will be a special satellite sesion of the Circle held at the
meetings of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) in
Chicago, IL November 8-10, 2007.
The special session will be held on Thursday morning, November 8. It will be devoted to scholarship about
the philosophical writings of Mike Dillon, including his two posthumous
manuscripts on Nietzsche's ontology and on ethics from a Merleau-Pontean
perspective that are now being prepared for publication by Larry Hass. The session will be moderated by Galen
Johnson and the speakers will be Larry Hass, Marjorie Hass, and Duane Davis.
Respectfully submitted,
Galen A. Johnson
General Secretary