2016 Meeting
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