10th Annual Conference of the Hannah Arendt Circle

Conference Program

Host: Department of Philosophy, West Chester University.

Conference Committee: Tal Correm (Allegheny College), Jennifer Gaffney (Texas A&M University),

Cassie Striblen (West Chester University).

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Location:  Philips Memorial Building, Autograph Library (2nd floor)

2:30pm- Conference Registration opens, coffee and cookies

3:30pm – 5:30pm: Working Groups: Arendt, Gender, Race and Queer Theory

Co-Conveners: Lisa Stenmark (San Jose State University), Katy Fuller (Hood College), Anne O'Byrne (Stony Brook University), Lorraine Krall McCrary (Villanova University).

6:00pm: Arendt Circle Reception

Friday, March 11, 2016

Philips Memorial Building, Conference Room (Lower Level)

8:30am- Conference Registration opens, coffee and danish

9:00am – 11:00pm: Political Judgment and Political Freedom

Moderator: Tal Correm, Allegheny College.

·     Jonathan Schwartz, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “Hannah Arendt's Pursuit of Authentic Political

    Philosophy.”

·     Gisli Vogler, University of Leeds, “The Hollow Heart of Political Realism: An Arendtian Critique of

    Realists’ Conception of Political Judgment.” 

·     Kei Hiruta, University of Oxford, “Political Freedom and Republican Liberty: Arendt contra Skinner and

    Pettit.”  

11:10pm – 12:40pm: The Challenge of Violence

Moderator: Lisa Stenmark, San Jose State University.

·     Brian Smith, Boston University, “Arendt's Killer Robots: Power, Violence, and the Targeted Killing

    Program.”

·     Anne O'Byrne, Stony Brook University, “The Banality of Ethics: An Arendtian Argument for Why

    Genocide Is Not an Ethical Problem.”

Buffet Lunch on site

1:40pm – 3:00pm:  Thinking and the Problem of Evil

Moderator: Parish Conkling, Houston Community College.

·     Margot Wielgus, Auburn University, “Avoiding Evil: Developing Conscience and the Infinitude of

    Thinking.”

·     James Couch, Keene State College, “Arendt and Gadamer’s Socratic Answer to the Question of Evil.”

3:10pm – 4:40pm: Arendtian Dialogues

Moderator: Jennifer Gaffney, Texas A&M University.

·     Gregory Hoskins, Villanova University, “Hannah Arendt and Paul Ricoeur on Political Judgment.”

·     Karin Fry, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, “Hannah Arendt: Between Heidegger and Jaspers.”

5:00pm – 6:30pm: Working Groups: Hannah Arendt and her Contemporaries

        Ian Storey, Harvard University, “Hungers on Sugar Hill: Hannah Arendt, the New York Poets, and the Remaking of Metropolis.”

        Respondent: Jennifer Gaffney, Texas A&M University.

7:00pm Conference Dinner near Hotel Warner in town of West Chester, location TBD

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Location: Philips Memorial Building, Autograph Library (2nd floor)

9:00am- Conference Registration open, coffee and danish 

9:30am – 10:50am: Responsibility, Memory, and Action

Moderator: Kei Hiruta, University of Oxford.

Kevin Miles, Earlham College, “Arendt’s Spectral Memory: Haunted by a Past Never Past.” 

·     Lauren Eichler, University of Oregon, “To Love Thy Neighbor: Hannah Arendt and Jewish

    Responsibility after the Holocaust.”

11am – 12:20pm: Palestine/Israel

Moderator: Joshua Mousie, Oxford College of Emory University.

Shmuel Lederman, The Open University of Israel, “Making the Desert Bloom: Hannah Arendt and Zionist Discourse.”

·     Norma Musih, Indiana University, “Imagining a common citizenship in Palestine/Israel: Thinking with

    Arendt.”

Buffet Lunch on site

1:30pm – 2:15pm: Business Meeting

2:30pm – 4:30pm: Arendt in the 21st Century

Moderator: Cassie Striblen, West Chester University.

·     Lorraine Krall McCrary, Villanova University, “Arendtian Natality, Disability, and the Web of Human

    Relationships.”

·     Wade Roberts, Juniata College, “Resisting the Neoliberalization of Higher Education: Arendt and the

    Subversive Potential of Thinking.” 

·     Hanna Lipkind, Vanderbilt University, “Acting into Nature as Making History: Arendt on Climate

    Change.”

4:40pm – 6:00pm: Rethinking Violence and Revolution

Moderator: Matt Rupert, West Chester University.

Gabriel Rockhill, Villanova University, “Restoring Revolution to Its Proper Place: Politics and the Social Question in Arendt.” 

·     Torsten Menge, Georgetown University, “Violence and the Materiality of Power.” 

6:00pm – 6:30pm: Closing Remarks