Invitation to the Seminar of
LUCE IRIGARAY
10 – 16 June 2012
Since 2003, Luce Irigaray has held 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 was 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, by the University of Nottingham the seventh year,
and was co-hosted by the University of the West of England and the University of
Bristol the eighth year. The seminar will most probably take place at the
University of Bristol in 2012.
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 2012. You will be in contact, for further practical information, with an
administrator in the Spring after the selection of the candidates.
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