Program for the

Fourth annual meeting of the

Hannah Arendt Circle

Hosted by the Department of

Philosophy DePaul University

Chicago, IL

April 16-18, 2010

Friday April 16

6:00-8:00

Evening Social Gathering (Note Change: Duke of Perth, 2913 N Clark Street, at the corner of Surf)

Saturday April 17

8:30-9:00

Welcome (Coffee/Tea and Light Refreshment)

9:00-10:45

Responsibility and Accountability

·        "Arendt’s Perspective Change: Exploring the Impact of Adolf Eichmann’s Trial on Hannah Arendt’s View of Responsibility"

Steven Bloch-Schulman, Elon University

·        "Arendt in Jerusalem: Moral Agency and the Victim"

Diane Enns, McMaster University

·        "Freedom, Responsibility and Judgment"

Antonia Grunenberg, Director, Hannah Arendt Center, University of Oldenburg

Moderator: Annika Thiem, Villanova University

10:55-12:05

Visions of the Self

·        "Telling Stories: Story and History in Arendt’s Thought"

Julia Urabayen, University of Navarra and Visiting Professor, Fordham University

·        "Rahel Varnhagen: The Role of the Lie in Self-Interpretation"

Kristina Lebedeva, DePaul University

Moderator: Robin Weiss, DePaul University

12:05-1:40

Lunch (Enjoy Local Restaurants)

1:40-2:50

Thinking With Friends

·        "Why Return to Augustine?  Arendt’s Love and Saint Augustine in the Context of the Mid-20th Century New York Intellectual Life"

Joanna Vecchiarelli Scott, Eastern Michigan University

·        "Thinking Beyond Philosophy: The Discursive Contexts of Hannah Arendt’s Early Work"

Liisi Keedus, European University Institute

Moderator: Ulrike Björk

3:00-4:10

Arendt, Politics and Being Human

·        "The Ambiguity of “The Right to have Rights”:  Hannah Arendt’s Critique of Human Rights Discourse"    

Julia Honkasalo, The New School

·        "Given Life:  Arendt, Butler and the Politics of Non-Violence"

Julia Ireland, Whitman College 

Moderator: Karin Fry, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point

Business Meeting immediately following panel

5:00-6:30

Book Panel

·        Peg Birmingham’s Hannah Arendt and Human Rights: The Predicament of Common Responsibility

Dianna Taylor, John Carroll University

Kevin Thompson, DePaul University

Dana Villa, University of Notre Dame

Response by Peg Birmingham, DePaul University

Moderator: tba

7:30   

Dinner arrangements have been made for Saturday night at Pars Cove. Please RSVP by March 21st to Tama Weisman at tweisman@dom.edu. 

Place: Pars Cove

Time: 7:30

Dinner will include:

Appetizers

Set dinner menu with three options: vegetarian; Lamb; seafood

Table Wine

Cost: faculty $20; Students $10 (to be collected at conference)

Sunday April 18

8:45-9:15

(Coffee/Tea and Light Refreshment)

9:15-10:20

Thinking, Judgment and Responsibility

·        "Trying to Fill the Gap: Between the Kantian Ideal and Eichmann’s Actions"

Gisele Velarde,  A. Ruiz de Montoya University, Lima, Peru, and Visiting Scholar, Loyola University Chicago

·        "Preparing Thought for Politics: Arendt’s Rehabilitation of the Activity of Thinking"

Wout Cornelissen, VU University Amsterdam

Moderator: James Manos, DePaul University

10:30-11:40

Action Today

"What It Takes to Go Visiting: An Arendtian Ethos of Critical Self-Doubt"

Simona Goi, Calvin College

"Reading Arendt in Iran/Reading Iran Through Arendt: Speech, Action, and the Question of Street Politics"

Norma C. Morruzzi, University of Illinois at Chicago 

Moderator: Lou Agosta, Independent Scholar

11:50-1:00

Politics Philosophy and Religion

·        "The Time of Forgiveness: Messianic Strains in Arendt's Theory of Action"

Daniel Brandes, Dalhousie University

·        "The Memory of a Common World: Arendt, Schmitt and Politics After Totalitarianism"

John Ackerman, Northwestern University

Moderator: Sam Galloway

We would like to thank DePaul's University Research Council and Department of Philosophy for their generous support.