Invitation to the Seminar of LUCE IRIGARAY
13 – 18 June 2011
Since 2003, Luce Irigaray holds a seminar with researchers doing their PhD
on her work. This way, they have the opportunity to receive personal
teaching from Luce Irigaray and to exchange ideas, methods and experiences
between them. The seminar has been welcomed by the University of Nottingham
during the first three years (see Luce Irigaray: Teaching edited by Luce
Irigaray with Mary Green, and published by Continuum, London & New York,
2008), by the University of Liverpool the fourth year, by Queen Mary,
University of London, the fifth year, by the Goodenough College of London
the sixth year and by the University of Nottingham the seventh year. It
will take place in Bristol in 2011, co-hosted by the University of the West
of England and the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Bristol.
The framework of the seminar is this: A group of at most fifteen
researchers, doing their PhD on the work of Luce Irigaray, stay one week on
the university campus. The timetable includes a presentation by each
researcher of the aspect of their PhD which most focuses on the work of
Luce Irigaray, the discussion of this presentation by the group, the
comments of Luce Irigaray herself and her answers to the questions asked by
each one, and also sessions devoted to an explanation of some key-words or
key-thoughts chosen by the participants. Personal meetings with Luce
Irigaray are organized on the last day. The participants pay for their
travel, but receive, at least in part, hospitality from the university. The
language of the seminar is English.
The participants in the seminar come from different regions of the world,
they belong to different cultures, traditions and fields of research –
Philosophy, Gender Studies, Religious Studies, Literature, Arts, Critical
and Cultural Studies, etc. The themes of their research include, for
example: the treatment of personal or cultural traumatic experience; the
resources that various arts can offer for dwelling in oneself and with the
other(s); the maternal order and feminine genealogy; the interpretation and
embodiment of the divine today; the contribution of sexuate difference to
personal and social development; new perspectives in philosophy etc. In
each of these fields, diverse domains, approaches and methods are
represented. To date, the participants came from Australia, Vietnam, Korea,
China, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, Latvia, Spain,
Italy, Ireland and from different regions and universities of the U.S.A.
and of the U.K. Beyond the multicultural teaching which results from such a
gathering, the participants learn to live together and to share in
difference during the time devoted to the work, and during meals, walks,
personal meetings etc. The atmosphere of the seminar is intense but
friendly and joyful, and its outcome highly successful for both the
research and the life of each participant.
If you are interested and would like to participate in such a seminar
please send as soon as possible a CV, a PhD abstract (1 page) and a
presentation of the issues and arguments of your PhD that most focus on the
work of Luce Irigaray (5 - 6 pages) to Luce Irigaray (by mail: 15, rue
Lakanal, 75015 Paris, France). After receiving this material, Luce Irigaray
will tell you if you can participate in the seminar of 2011. You will be in
contact, for further practical information, with an office of secretary in
the Spring after the selection of the candidates.
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