The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute's Calley Symposium: "The New Politics Of Existence"

Description

The 2022 Alexander Grass Humanities Institute's Calley Symposium explores "The New Politics Of Existence."

Existentialist thought from Kierkegaard and Heidegger to de Beauvoir and Sartre emphasizes the precarity and vulnerability of existence as well as its freedom and responsibility. In today's world of impending climate catastrophe, misogynist and racist retrenchment, and nationalist resurgence, the philosophical inquiry into the nature of human existence has attained renewed urgency. See the full schedule of talks online.

Speakers:

• Martin Hägglund, Yale: "The Material Conditions of Spiritual Freedom"
• James Haile, University of Rhode Island: "All Hail King Kunta: The Death of the Black Subject and the Resurrection of the Black Individual in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man"
• Yi-Ping Ong, Johns Hopkins: "Kierkegaard and Heidegger on the Concept of the Public"
• William McBride, Purdue: "Beauvoir and Sartre as Public Individuals in 2022"
• Sonia Kruks, Oberlin College & Conservatory: "Thinking about Old Age with Simone de Beauvoir"
• Jennifer Gosetti-Ferencei, Johns Hopkins: "The Ecologies of Existentialism"
• William Egginton, Johns Hopkins: "Made to Measure: Existentialism and the Anthropic Principle"
• Taylor Carman, Barnard College Columbia University: "Is Existence Intelligible?"
• Nancy Bauer, Tufts: "The Existence of Women"

All in-person events at Johns Hopkins must follow university COVID-19 policies. See current guidelines online.