Department of Philosophy Spring 2015 DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY um on Foucault, the Chicago graduates, Pleshette DeArmitt Greetings from Area Consortium in German (PhD, 2006), Associate Pro- Philosophy, a two-day confer- fessor and Chair of Philosophy ence on the History of the Chi- at the University of Memphis. the cago Forest Preserves, and Pleshette did so much for the an international conference on department both when she What a six-month period this the Colombian artist Doris was here (some of you will has been! Though the university Salcedo. All this was in addi- remember the extraordinary tion to the many fantastic conference she organized, just as a whole and the College of events organized by Peter a couple of weeks after 9-11, Speakers & Liberal Arts & Social Sciences in particular have hit a few bumps Steeves in the Humanities on the work of Sarah Kofman) Conferences 2-5.5 of late with declining enrollments Center. and afterwards, as one of the and changes in leadership, I In an increasing difficult job most enthusiastic and elo- Faculty News 5.5-11 don’t know if I can recall another market, no fewer than seven quent advocates of our pro- six-month period that has been of our recent doctoral gradu- gram. Every year, one of our Graduate News 12-19 this busy or this successful for ates were able to land tenure- alumni will be invited back to students and faculty in the De- track jobs, long-term appoint- give the “Pleshette DeArmitt Undergrad News 20-21 partment of Philosophy. ments, or post-docs, and ten Memorial Lecture” in order to celebrate the life and work of We were extremely fortunate to undergraduate students were someone who represented Alumni News 22-23 be able to hire back to DePaul accepted with fellowships into everything that is best about as Professor of Philosophy and topnotch graduate programs our program. Humanities Wicklander Chair our old friend in philosophy, psychology, and law. And all that is an ad- I wish you all a Center Connection 24-25 and former colleague Daryl Koehn. Daryl will bring back to dition to numerous graduate healthy, happy, and productive us not only her expertise in Busi- student, faculty, and alumni summer, publications, grants, speaking ness Ethics, Ancient Philosophy, engagements, interviews, and Eastern philosophy but her Michael Naas awards, and so on… It has intellectual generosity, her good Professor and Chair DePaul University been quite a year… humor, and her wickedly quick, incisive, and inventive mind. But it also has to be Department of In addition to nine visiting speak- said that the joys brought Philosophy ers over the last two quarters about by all these accomplish- (including the recent visit of ments have been severely 2352 N. Clifton Jean-Luc Nancy via Skype), we tempered by the news of the Suite 150 hosted the first annual HOPS sudden death of one of our Chicago, IL 60614 conference, a one-day symposi- las.depaul.edu/ Page 2 Philosophy@DePaul Spring 2015 VISITING SPEAKERS The Department of Philosophy wishes to thanks all of our visiting speakers for their memorable presentations during WQ & SQ 2015 Miguel Vatter Robert Bernasconi University of New South Wales, Australia Penn State University Jan.23, 2015 April 24, 2015 Marc Crépon Jeff Powell Eco Normale Superieure Marshall University May 12, 2015 January 30, 2015 Lambert Zuidervaart John Russon University of Toronto, Canada University of Guelph, Canada April 10, 2015 May 22, 2015 Juan Manuel Garrido Graham Parks Alberto Hurtado University, Chile University of Cork, Ireland May 29, 2015 April 17, 2015 2015-2016 Visiting Speaker Preview - Amy Allen Laura Anna Macur Penn State University Univ. of Oxford Sept. 11, 2015 April 8, 2016 Étienne Balibar Pol Vandervelde Univ. of California, Irvine Univ. of Marquette Oct. 23-24, 2015 April 22, 2016 Lynn Huffer Santiago Zabala Emory University Pompeu Fabra University April 1, 2016 May 20, 2016 VISIT OUR EVENTS PAGE OVER THE SUMMER FOR FURTHER DETAILS: las.depaul.edu/philosophy/about/events Philosophy@DePaul Spring 2015 Page 3 HOPS - HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY SOCIETY 1st Annual Conference METHODOLOGY IN/OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY The first annual conference of the History of Philoso- phy Society (HOPS) was held at DePaul University on May 15th & 16th. Prof. Richard A. Lee, a founding member and co-director of the society explains that the society was established to support and encour- age scholarship on the history of philosophy from diverse perspectives. Welcoming the richness of multiple traditions, HOPS provides a forum for femi- nist, phenomenological, deconstructive, hermeneu- tic, Straussian, and Anglo-American interpretations of texts and philosophers from ancient Greece through the 19th Century. (L-R) Daniel Dahlstrom, Christia Mercer, Richard Lee, and Kristi Sweet Participating Speakers - Shane Ewegen (Trinity College) Anne-Marie Schultz (Baylor University) Sean D. Kirkland (DePaul University) Brady Bowman (Pennsylvania State University) Christia Mercer (Columbia University) John Whipple (University of Illinois at Chicago) Mirem Boehm (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) J. Colin McQuillan (St. Mary’s University) Darin McGinnis (Wheeling Jesuit University) Daniel Dahlstrom (Boston University) Daniel Dahlstrom, and Richard Lee (L-R) Will McNeill, Michael Naas, Maria Acosta, Kristi Sweet, Shannon Mussett and Daniel Dahlstrom Photographs courtesy of Monika Lozinska Philosophy@DePaul Spring 2015 Page 4 Interdisciplinary Panel on the work of Colombian artist Doris Salcedo On the occasion of the first major retro- the Art Institute Chicago), and Julie Ro- spective exhibition of Doris Salcedo in drigues (Curator of the exhibition, Chicago, the departments of Philosophy, MCA). History of Art & Architecture, Humani- Doris Salcedo’s work is directly inspired ties Center and Philosophy Today, in by her experience with victims of ex- partnership with the Museum of Con- treme forms of violence, particularly in temporary Art Chicago, held an interdis- relation to Colombia’s history and cur- Artist - Doris Salcedo ciplinary panel on some of the political, rent political conflicts. Her work, how- aesthetic, and philosophical aspects of ever, concerned with questions of artistic the work of Doris Salcedo in April. The representation of violence, does not event was coordinated and moderated by evoke a univocal approach to such graduate student, Miguel Gualdrón. events. In its singularity, it speaks a uni- versal language of memory and mourning Speakers at the event included Rebecca that addresses the spectator with ques- Comay (Philosophy and Comparative tions regarding history, violence and rep- Literature at the University of Toronto), resentations. The possibilities of differ- Juan Carlos Guerrero-Hernández (Art ent interpretations of her work lie pre- History and Criticism at Stony Brook cisely in this double aesthetic character of University), Daniel Quiles (Art History, details that at the same time encourage Theory, and Criticism at the School of and dissuade the spectator. Miguel Gualdrón, Moderator The Chicago Area Consortium in German Philosophy “GERMAN ROMANTICISM” The Chicago Area Consortium in German Philosophy held its annual workshop here at DePaul in March and enjoyed four lively sessions as outlined below. Chair: Howard Pollack-Milgate, DePauw University María Acosta, DePaul University, “On the Poetical Nature of Philosophical Writing: Schiller’s Response to Fichte” Commentator: Jessica Tizzard, University of Chicago Chair: Robert Richards, University of Chicago Elizabeth Millán, DePaul University, “Alexander von Humboldt’s Nature mälde: A Romantic Poetry of Nature” Commentator: Naomi Fisher, University of Notre Dame Chair: Hanne Jacobs, Loyola University, Chicago Guy Elgat, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, “Nietzsche and Romanticism” Commentator: Doug Walters, Loyola University, Chicago Chair: Avery Goldman, DePaul University Karl Ameriks, Notre Dame University, “On Some Reactions to Kant’s ‘Tragic Problem’” Commentator: Reza Hadisi, University of Illinois, Chicago Philosophy@DePaul Spring 2015 Page 5 Prof. Anna Yeatman visits DePaul Anna Yeatman is a professori- conference will take place at and Appearance: Ethics al research fellow in the Whit- DePaul in early October, and the Politics of Writing lam Institute at the University 2016. in Hannah Arendt of Western Sydney. In addi- (Continuum 2011); and tion to her lecture, Anna was Anna’s current research is on The Aporia of Rights: here co-organizing a confer- individualized personhood Explorations in Citizen- ence with Peg Birmingham, and the public authority. She ship in the Era of Human Jason Hill, and María Acosta is the co-editor of several Rights (forthcoming titled, "The Dialectical Rela- recent collections: State, Se- Bloomsbury) co-edited tion Between Neoliberalism curity and Subject Formation with Peg Birmingham. and Social Democracy." The (Continuum 2010); Action Prof. Jean-Luc Nancy - virtual visit to DePaul Prof. Jean-Luc Nancy, Georg Agamben,” the students read his ence, and the connections be- Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Chair at philosophical contributions to the tween the former questions and the European Graduate School discussion of community and poli- his concept of being in com- EGS visited DePaul via Skype tics in books such as Being Singular mon. connection in May. He was invit- Plural, The Inoperative Community and To view a video recording of ed by Prof. María Acosta to speak The Disavowed Community. The dis- the Skype visit, click here. to her seminar graduate students cussion with Prof. Nancy focused for a couple of hours, about his on his reflections on the relation- work on community. In the Grad- ship between ontology and politics, uate Seminar titled “Narratives of his critical approach to the Western Community: Nancy, Esposito and tradition and metaphysics of pres- QIC Grant & Collaborative Research Grant - Prof. H. Peter Steeves Prof. Peter Steeves has two new grants. If these two grants weren’t enough, Prof. A Collaborative Research Grant, from Steeves has also given 5 fantastic lectures, the DePaul University Research Coun- organized and led two Catholic Intellectual cil, for 2015-16 to fund a project with Salons and written a book chapter.