NORTH AMERICAN LEVINAS SOCIETY
Eighth Annual Conference and Meeting
“Emmanuel Levinas and Interreligious Dialogue”
July 28-31, 2013 | Duquesne University
CALL FOR PAPERS
To approach the Other in conversation is to welcome his expression, in which at each instant he overflows the idea a thought would carry away from it. It is therefore to receive from the Other beyond the capacity of the I, which means exactly: to have the idea of infinity.
~Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity
The North American Levinas Society is excited to announce that our eighth annual meeting and conference will take place July 28-July 31, 2013 at Duquesne University on the theme, “Emmanuel Levinas and Interreligious Dialogue.”
As “culture wars” and regional conflicts around the world continue to enlist various religious traditions and worldviews, it seems timely to open robust, deliberative meditations on how Emmanuel Levinas’ “ethics as first philosophy” might help shape edifying interreligious dialogue for building peace and justice. For our 2013 conference, we invite you to bring your questions and concerns on these matters to Duquesne University, an historically important institution for Levinas studies in North America, in order to open a number of discussions concerning, but not limited to, issues such as:
- Developing concepts and practices for interreligious and interfaith dialogue
- The influence of religion in war zones, from stoking conflict to building peace
- The interreligious dimensions of post-conflict resolution and reparation
- The role of religion in educating for social activism and responsibility
- The voices of women in building interreligious dialogue
- The postsecular intersections of religion and critical theory
- The environmental aspects of interreligious dialogue
- The affect of interreligious dialogue on indigenous rights and postcolonial struggles
- The possibilities of postsecular and interreligious responses to poverty and economic inequality
- The existential dimensions of interreligious dialogue and reparative justice.
We hope that scholars use this conference to take part in the ongoing conversation about the ramifications of Levinas’ thought for various faith and non-faith traditions. Although preference will be given to papers that address the conference theme, it is Society custom to consider papers and panels on any topic related to the work of Emmanuel Levinas.
Our eighth annual conference program will continue to include important Society traditions such as our annual Talmudic Reading from Georges Hansel, a pedagogy session, Society banquet, a film screening, and provocative plenary presentations from James Marsh, Leah Kalmanson, Roger Burggraeve and others.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Please prepare materials for blind review and send them via email attachment to cfp@levinas-society.org:
• Individual paper proposals should be 200-300 words for a 20-minute presentation.
• Panel proposals should be 500 words for 75-minute sessions. Please include on separate cover the session title and name of organizer or chair, along with participant’s names, institutional affiliations, disciplines or departments, and brief abstracts detailing the focus of each paper.
THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS MARCH 31, 2013.
CONTACT & INFORMATION
Please direct all inquires concerning the conference to the organizers:
• Erik Garret, Duquesne University (garrette@duq.edu)
• Rick Sadlier, Duquesne University (sadlierr@duq.edu)
• Sol Neely, University of Alaska Southeast (sjneely@uas.alaska.edu)
General questions regarding the Society should be directed to
• Sol Neely, NALS President (sjneely@uas.alaska.edu)
• Michael Paradiso-Michau, NALS Executive Secretary (secretary@levinas-society.org)
Information on conference registration, accommodations, and program information will be made available by mid-April via email and at www.levinas-society.org/conference