NORTH AMERICAN LEVINAS SOCIETY
Fourth Annual Conference and Meeting: “Philosophy and Its Others”
June 28-30, 2009
University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada)

Call for Papers

“The priority of knowledge is the temptation of temptation….
The temptation of temptation is the life of Western man becoming
philosophy.” ~Levinas, “The Temptation of Temptation”

Celebrating the fourth anniversary of our founding, the North American
Levinas Society continues in our aim to build interest and promote dialogue
around the important work of Emmanuel Levinas. Last year’s conference at
Seattle University was a tremendous success, again bringing Levinas’ family
from Paris and Jerusalem together with young scholars from across the world
to forge important relationships and foster respectful discussion around
the question of the sacred, the holy, and the ethical.

This year, the Society broadens its international scope, as we organize our
first meeting and conference outside of the United States. We are pleased
to announce our 2009 annual meeting and conference, to be hosted by the
University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada).

The North American Levinas Society invites submissions of individual paper
proposals and panel proposals for the fourth annual meeting and conference
to be held June 28-30, 2009. While we will organize the conference around
the broad theme of “Philosophy and Its Others,” we will consider proposals
for paper and panels on any topic related to Levinas in an effort to draw
the widest array of interests.

Especially in the Continental traditions, Levinas’ work is integral to a
serious and sober examination of the history of philosophy and its
priorities, blindnesses, insights, inner tensions, and possibilities. We
pose this broad theme at a time when certain modes of rationality continue
to prop up structures of economic inequality, perpetual war, and
uncertainty. Given the current state of global economic and political
relations, how must philosophy orient itself to help effect a healing and
mending of the world? What is the relationship between philosophy and hope,
activism, and reconciliation? We might begin by asking questions about
Levinas’ difficult relationship with philosophy. How has the discipline
and history of philosophy affected Levinas’ thought, and how has Levinas
impacted the discipline and history of philosophy? How has Levinas’
philosophical critique of ‘the tradition’ been received and appropriated by
other domains of inquiry, such as religious studies, Jewish studies,
political science, communication, women’s studies, gender studies,
sociology, history, performance and media studies, race theory, legal
studies and jurisprudence, literature, cultural studies, disability
studies, environmental and ecology studies, medicine, and others? How has
Levinas’ reception and application in these various fields in turn affected
the discipline of philosophy?

Certainly, these are only a few questions regarding “Philosophy and Its
Others” broadly posed, but it is clear that such questions open our own
work to a more difficult, and perhaps edifying, scrutiny. We are also
interested in receiving panels that address the relation between
philosophy, the ethical, community, justice, and pedagogy.

Submissions
● Individual paper proposals: Individual abstracts, prepared for blind
review, should be 500 words outlining a 20-minute presentation. Accepted
papers will be organized into panels of two or three presentations.
● Panel proposal: Panel proposals, consisting of 2-3 speakers, should be
1000 words for a 75-minute session. Please include the session title, name
of organizer, institutional affiliations, discipline or department, along
with the chair’s name and participants’ names in addition to 250 word
abstracts detailing the focus of each paper. Prepare panel proposals for
blind review as well.

Please send materials via email attachment (preferably Microsoft Word) to:
submissions_at_levinas-society.org.

If you have questions regarding the Society or the conference, please send
inquiries to secretary_at_levinas-society.org.

The deadline for submissions is April 13, 2009.

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Received on Thu Jan 22 2009 - 14:18:35 EST