The Nordic Network Gender, Body, Health

in collaboration with

RIKK – Center for Women’s and Gender Research

and

EDDA – Center of Excellence at the University of Iceland

2-4 November, 2011

University of Iceland, Reykjavik

The body has become a veritable hot spot in contemporary theorizing that forcefully disrupts given disciplinary identities and fields of investigation. Bodies make themselves present at the very core of a range of different phenomena, such as emotions, desires, identity, and agency. Resisting rigid dichotomies and categories, the materiality of bodies sticks to our thinking in not always comfortable ways, and their singularities question the very possibility of retaining stability in generalizing notions and frameworks of thinking. The field of feminist thinking on the body and materiality has a long history. We might even say that the body has always figured in one way or another into the field of feminist theory and that contemporary understandings of the body have been directly or indirectly shaped by this field. From discussions of motherhood, pregnancy and abortion, of pleasure and sex, of eating disorders and the incorporation of disciplinary regimes to theoretical discussions of embodiment and individuation of bodies, feminist thinkers have played a key role in forming different ideas and understandings of the body in numerous areas.

With the conference Bodies in Crisis we turn attention to a range of different ways in which bodies are brought to presence in times of crisis and bring times and states of crisis to presence, are lived in crisis and are produced and normalized as being in crisis. The conference highlights topics such as bodily integrity, representations and discourses of bodies in crisis, violence and trauma, body weight, organ donation, stigmatization of bodies in crisis, self-injury, sexual health perspectives, reproductive technologies.

For registration information and updates of possible changes in the program please see www.genna.gender.uu.se/bodiesincrisis. For more information, please contact the network coordinator Lisa Folkmarson Käll at body@gender.uu.se.

Wednesday, November 2

Location: Askja 132, University of Iceland

17.00 Welcome

Keynote address

Robin May Schott, Danish Institute for International Studies

18.45 Reception

Thursday, November 3

9-10.30 Parallel Session I

Location: Stanford I, Saga Hotel

I A. Violence Vulnerability and Trauma

“The Body, Violence and Memory”

Rashmika Pandya, The American University in Cairo

“Women war narratives in Kosova: an ideological trap?”

Kassia Aleksic

“An Unsafe Body: The Precarious Threads of an Akratic Subject”

Julia Horncastle, Murdoch University

Location: Stanford II, Saga Hotel

I B. Governing Bodily Integrity

“Sexual Rights: The rights of the human body and bodily integrity”

Sólveig Anna Bóasdottir, The University of Iceland

“Addiction: Science Proves It’s All in Your Head (Brain Actually)!”

Peg O’Connor, Gustavus Adolphus College

“Sadean Bodies in Crisis: Torturous Bodily Encounters as the Symptom of a Decisive Biopolitical Regime in the Writings of Marquis de Sade”

Alexandra Claudia Manta, Central European University

Location: Harvard I, Saga Hotel

I C. Representations and Discourses of Bodies in Crisis

“Chronic diseases: processes of objectifying illness and gender”

Ulrike Manz, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

“Heroin withdrawal: a body in crisis”

Ian Walmsley, University of the West of England

“‘A fearful physical, social and moral wretchedness’: 150 years of vulvovaginal pain in medicine”

Ulrika Nilsson, Stockholm University

11-12.30 Parallel Session II

Location: Stanford I, Saga Hotel

II A. Intersubjective Understandings of Bodies in Crisis

“Global Bodies: Rethinking World-Travelling through Lukas Moodysson’s Mammoth”

Jenny Björklund, Uppsala University

“‘It doesn’t hurt to cut myself, but it hurts like hell not to’: When suffering becomes invisible, mute and constant – how to detect and describe it?”

Anita Moe, University of Oslo

“Bodies in crisis: lived emotions and interpersonal space”

Hildur Kalman, Umeå University

Location: Stanford II, Saga Hotel

II B. Body Weight I: The Body and the State

“Visible and Invisible Bodies in the U.S. Financial Crisis”

Jyl Josephson, Rutgers University

“Job loss in economic crisis: The leverage of gender and body weight”

Tinna L. Ásgeirsdóttir, Harpa H. Berndsen, Bryndís Þ. Guðmundsdóttir,

Bryndís A. Gunnarsdóttir and Hugrún J. Halldórsdóttir, University of Iceland

“Neoliberal Bodies and Fatness”

Hannele Harjunen, University of Jyväskylä

Location: Harvard I, Saga Hotel

II C. Bodily Experience of Organ Donation

“Fertility in Crisis, Reproduction in Transition: Cross-Border Egg Donation in Post-Socialist Europe”

Jenny Gunnarsson Payne, Södertörn University

“Exceptional Sub-Humans, Murderous Carers and the Ethics of Organ Donation in Contemporary Dystopian Fiction”

Donna McCormack, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies

“Myopic eyes, transplanted hearts: from the suffering body to the hybrid discourses of contemporary theory”

Apostolos Lampropoulos, University of Cyprus

14-15.30 Parallel Session III

Location: Stanford I, Saga Hotel

III A. “Possibilities for a vulnerable citizen: rethinking ethics, politics and agency in the wake of the welfare state”

Ingeborg Svensson, Maria Jönsson, Sara Edenheim and Katarina Andersson, Umeå University

Location: Stanford II, Saga Hotel

III B. Body Weight II: Producing the Perfect Body

“Erasing embodied text: A Critical feminist analysis of the surface text and embodied flesh of ‘anorexic’ bodies”

Helen Malson, University of the West of England

“When I look at my body now, it is not pretty, and I think that I do need those plastic surgeries. I can’t envision a future without removing the excess skin”

Karen Synne Groven, University of Oslo

“‘Today work is beauty is body is thinness’: Unattainable perfect body in Finnish eating disorder novels”

Hanna Mikkola, University of Eastern Finland

Location: Harvard I, Saga Hotel

III C. Categorizations of Risky Bodies

“Ageing and disabled bodies in women-only sports events”

Karin S. Lindelöf, Stockholm University

“Experience of HIV and access to the physical and sport practice: are “the women” an homogeneous group?”

Julie Thomas, Université Montpellier 1

“HIV, Sexual Practice and Biological Citizenship: Exploring Embodied Understandings of Risk and Responsibility”

Ingrid Young, Newcastle University

16-17.30 Parallel Session IV

Location: Stanford I, Saga Hotel

IV A. Mini-workshop

“From suffering to Symposiums: Healing Trauma while Raising Community Consciousness”

Genevieve Brackins, Florida State University

Location: Stanford II, Saga Hotel

IV B. Self-injury and Shame

“Self-injury and Interpellation: The Case of Ellie Nash”

Hans T. Sternudd, Linnaeus University

“Body Shame and Gender: The Shameful Experience of Female Embodiment”

Luna Dolezal, University College Dublin

Location: Harvard I, Saga Hotel

IV C. Reproductive Technologies and Bio-Ethics

“Gendered bodies, gendered subjectivities and regenerative medicine”

Julie Kent, University of the West of England

“Challenging a ‘Panoptics of the Womb’: Phenomenological Responses to the Problem of Diminished Epistemic Authority in Pregnancy”

Lauren Freeman, Concordia University

Friday, November 4

9-10.30 Parallel Session V

Location: Stanford I, Saga Hotel

V A. Vulnerable Bodies

“The Transgender Narrative of a Wrong Body, a Body in Crisis?”

Ulrica Engdahl, Linköping University

“Crisis of Intercorporeal Exposure: The Case of David Cronenberg’s M. Butterfly”

Lisa Folkmarson Käll, Uppsala University

“Bioethics: a Crisis of Human Vulnerability”

Eva de Clercq, University of Pisa

Location: Stanford II, Saga Hotel

V B. Sexual Health Perspectives on Bodies in Crisis

“Tolerant, affirming and equal: Youthrelated sex, health and relationship clinics (UMOs) in multicultural environments – a tool for sexual integration?”

Maria Bäckman, Stockholm University

“Experiences of Non-Consensual Sex Among Students of the Polytechnic Ibadan, Nigeria”

Oladipupo Samuel Olaleye, University of Ibadan

“Challenged sexuality: how women suffering from vulvar pain try to reshape their sexual practice”

Renita Sörensdotter, Stockholm University

Location: Harvard I, Saga Hotel

V C. Sharing Experience of Bodies in Crisis

“The Body with Alzheimer’s Disease: Individual and Social Crisis?”

Chung-yi Chu, Ntl. Chung-Hsing University

“Feeling at home: Men with chronic pain and their stories about being in rehabilitation”

Birgitte Ahlsen, Anne Marit Mengshoel, Kari Nyheim Solbraekke, University of Oslo

“Breast, hair, sweat, and tears: Discussion on identity in the wake of breast cancer”

Anna Morval, Linköping University

11-12.30

Location: Stanford I, Saga Hotel

Keynote Address

Ingunn Moser, Diakonhjemmet University College Oslo

“The Return of Metaphysics”

April 8-9, 2011 Driscoll Hall, room134

Keynote Speaker: Graham Harman

Department of Philosophy

American University in Cairo

via Annual Philosophy Conference – Program.

Second Annual International Summer School

in German Philosophy

(July 4th – July 15th, 2011)

Organizer:

Professor Dr. Markus Gabriel

Chair in Epistemology, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy (Bonn University)

Keynote Addresses:

Professor Michael Forster (University of Chicago)

Professor Dr. Rolf-Peter Horstmann (Humboldt University, Berlin)

Professor Dr. Axel Hutter (LMU, Munich)

Course Description:

This year we will examine Hegel’s subjective logic, the famous concluding book of the Science of Logic, with a particular emphasis on the notion of subjectivity and the Idea. At first glance, Hegel’s understanding of concepts and their relation to subjectivity seems at least at odds with some plausible realist platitudes about conceptual content. Hegel either clearly seems to have been surpassed by modern logics or, at the best, to operate on a fundamentally different level. However, there are some recent developments in the theory of conceptual content (most notably Brandom’s inferentialism), which might be read as an attempt to reconcile Hegel with Frege. Still, a good deal of contemporary Neo-Hegelianism tends to ignore the actual role content plays in Hegel’s notion of logical form. In the summer school, we will review the subjective logic in order to bring to light some unfortunately widely neglected aspects of Hegel’s most far-reaching claims which, despite appearances, might amount to a serious contribution to contemporary debates.

Apart from Hegel’s claim that the necessary relation between concepts and subjectivity requires that the relation between subjectivity and objectivity can only be grasped by understanding the self-referential properties of inferences, we will examine Hegel’s highly dense remarks concerning his own dialectical method.

Classes will be seminar-style, with an emphasis on close textual analysis, five days a week in the mornings and evenings. Students will have access to Bonn’s University Libraries. Some knowledge of Hegel’s Science of Logic is required. The whole course will be conducted in English. The textual basis of the seminar is:

Hegel’s Science of Logic. Translated by A.V. Miller, New York: Humanity Books, 1969 – in particular, pp. 575-704 and pp. 755-844.

Suggested additional readings:

Frege, G.: Logical Investigations. Translated and Edited by Peter Geach, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977.

Brandom, R.B.: Reason in Philosophy. Belknap Harvard: Cambridge, MA, 2009. Part One.

Brandom, R.B.: Tales of the Mighty Dead. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 2002. pp. 178-276.

Applications:

Please send your application in English (CV and a short letter of intent) to idealism2011@gmail.com. The deadline for applications is March 15, 2011. Participants must have a degree in philosophy. All texts and discussions will be in English. The course will be open to max. 40 participants.

Stipends:

For foreign graduate students, there are some stipends available, which cover travel expenses and part of the accommodation. To apply for a stipend, please send a short, separate letter that explains your need for financial support.

Please note that there are no registration or course fees for the summer school.

Accommodation:

We will help all participants find accommodation in Bonn (youth hostel, hotel rooms). More information regarding housing will be made available soon. Please contact Matt Congdon, the student organizer of the school at: idealism2011@gmail.com. Aside from a conference dinner, the participants will be responsible for meals.

via http://www.idealism.uni-bonn.de/.

THE ANATOMY OF MARGINALITY

A One-Day Seminar at the Indiana University Bloomington

Friday October 15, 2010
218 Woodburn Hall, Department of Political Science

9.30-10.00: Aurelian Craiutu (Indiana University) and Costica Bradatan (Texas Tech University): “The Paradox of Marginality” (Introduction to the Marginality Project)

Morning Session (Moderator: Costica Bradatan)
10.00-10.30: Giuseppe Mazzotta (Yale University), “The Margins of Thought”
10.30-10.45: Response: Hall Bjornstad (Indiana University)
10.45-11.00: Coffee Break
11.00-12.15: Discussion of Giuseppe Mazzotta’s paper

After-noon session (Moderator: Hall Bjornstad)
2.00-2.30: John A. Hall (McGill University), “Marginality Imposed and Embraced, Understood and Interpreted: The Case of Ernest Gellner”
2.30-2.45: Response: William Scheuerman (Indiana University)
2.45-4.00: Discussion of John A. Hall’s paper
4.00-4.15: Coffee Break
4.15-5.30: Round-Table Session (Moderators: Aurelian Craiutu, Costica Bradatan and Hall Bjornstad): “The Proper Study of Marginality”: Theoretical Framework, Conceptual Apparatus and Methodologies

The event is jointly sponsored by Indiana University’s Institute for Advanced Studies, Department of French and Italian, Department of Political Science, the Tocqueville Program, and the Horizon of Knowledge Lecture Series.

Participation is open to the public.

We are pleased to announce the first UK conference on the philosophy of Salomon Maimon (1753-1800). With the recent publication of the first English translation of Maimon’s principal work, the Essay on Transcendental Philosophy, Maimon’s thought has become accessible to the English speaking world for the first time. The conference celebrates this event and aims to stimulate scholarly interest in the thought of this brilliant but neglected philosopher. As well as exploring Maimon’s philosophy, it will look at his influence on successors, including Deleuze and the post-Kantian tradition in general.

The Essay on Transcendental Philosophy (1790) is Maimon’s response to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Here he recognizes that the Critique marks a revolution in philosophical method, and wholeheartedly endorses Kant’s turn to ‘transcendental’ philosophy. However, he argues that Kant’s solution to the fundamental problem of transcendental philosophy, viz. how are concepts applied to intuitions, fails. He offers an alternative solution, a transcendental
philosophy based on different foundations or, to be more precise, based on a foundation of difference.

Maimon’s published philosophical works cover a wide spectrum ranging from philosophy of science and mathematics to logic, morals and aesthetics. We welcome papers on any aspect of his thought and of its relation to that of other philosophers, as well as papers on the Essay itself.

Confirmed Speakers:
Paul Franks (Toronto)
Gideon Freudenthal (Tel Aviv)
Beth Lord (Dundee)

Full details can be found at: maimonconference.wordpress.com

If you have any questions, please contact the organisers at:
maimonconference@googlemail.com