Dementia and the Body-Subject: The Margins of Agency in Philosophy and Literature (Public lecture, Newcastle University, 8 March 2017)

Posted on MARCH 3, 2017 by MDICLHUMANITIES
Dr Liz Barry (University of Warwick) will be the guest speaker in the School of English at Newcastle University, as part of the Visiting Speaker series. Her lecture will take place on Wednesday 8th March, 5-6:30pm in Room 1.19, Percy Building, Newcastle University, NE1 7RU.

Dr Barry’s paper will discuss the way in which phenomenological philosophy, and Merleau-Ponty in particular, has been martialled in sociological writing on dementia to argue for diametrically opposite positions on the personhood, autonomy and rights of the subject with dementia (see e.g. Davis 2004, Kontos 2005, Hughes et al 2006). Authors mount different arguments, and bring phenomenology to bear from their different perspectives, on how long the dementia patient remains a meaningful and autonomous subject at all, and, further, at what point the rights and needs of their carers, as agents purportedly more worthy of the name, start to outweigh their own.

This paper contends, as do the sociologists who use phenomenology (Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty) in this way, that the philosophy of embodiment and lived time has a lot to say in relation to both the concept of personhood in dementia and the lived experience of the dementia sufferer. But the radically divergent uses of this philosophy seem to point to a conceptual instability in current understanding of the subject with dementia, an instability that obviously opens the way to very different ethical stances. The paper will survey the uses of phenomenology made in the sociology of dementia, reconsider what phenomenology might have to offer (in relation to the patient’s experience of language, the body, memory and lived time, and how this bears on their construction as a subject), and investigate fiction and memoir as a source of knowledge about the lived experience of dementia.

http://centreformedicalhumanities.org/dementia-and-the-body-subject-the-margins-of-agency-in-philosophy-and-literature-public-lecture-newcastle-university-8-march-2017/

‘Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask’: Film Screening

Thursday 2nd March 4pm-c. 5:20pm. Room BSTC (Barbara Strange Teaching Centre, Bedson Building) 1.46

As part of the extra-curricular philosophy activities we’ve been organising, I’m showing a film on the 20th Century existentialist and philosopher of colonialism and race, Frantz Fanon, called ‘Black Skin, White Mask’ (after his book, entitled, Black Skin, White Masks. You might also know his work entitled, The Wretched of the Earth).

Everyone of whatever discipline who’s interested is more than welcome, and if you want to talk about it afterwards, I’m very happy to go to the pub and be bought drinks until I make sense.

It should interest everyone, but particularly those who want to find out about how existentialism and phenomenology were developed so as to address questions of race, colonialism, empire, exploitation, etc.

It’s a documentary, I should say, with some half-dramatic reconstructions.

The details:

Thursday 2nd March 4pm-c. 5:20pm. Room BSTC (Barbara Strange Teaching Centre, Bedson Building) 1.46

Yours,

Mike

Continue reading HASS Faculty’s Postgraduate Excellence Scholarships, Newcastle University & PG Open Day Tomorrow →

Continue reading The funded MA at the University of Florida—still time to apply for Fall 2017 →

Good Morning,

 call-for-papers_philonous-and-the-sheffield-ug-philosophy-conference-2017

I am writing on behalf of the University of Sheffield’s Philosophy Undergraduate Conference 2017 and the Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy to invite undergraduate students in your department to submit papers for consideration for both the conference and our third edition of the journal. If you could circulate this opportunity to your undergraduate students, we would be most grateful.

The Spring 2017 edition of PhilonoUS, the University of Sheffield’s Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy and the annual Sheffield Undergraduate Philosophy conference are now accepting submissions.

Continue reading Sheffield’s Philosophy Undergraduate Conference 2017 →

Just in case anyone is stuck for an object for the undergraduate research rpoject, read this and see whether it is worth investigating. Putting aside the rhetoic and huimour, it may well be pertinent to our days (or end thereof):

For those of you interested in further study and a career in academia, think about attending this or even submitting a presentation:

To Whom it May Concern,

I am president of the philosophy society at the University of Reading, and editor-in-chief of the society’s undergraduate journal, Laterális. Continue reading Conference for undergraduates →

Continue reading Library Update →

As part of your provision and education, Philosophy has organized a workshop for skills in academic writing. There will be one workshop for stage 1 students and a joint session for stages 2 and 3. We are also interested in organizing a workshop responding to your own needs (how to use sources, interpretation, critical writing for example). After you have attended these, and have some ideas for a follow up session, please feel free to drop us a line.

Stage 1  – ‘Approaching your first assignment: authorial voice’

Room: BEDB.1.75

Date: Wednesday 7TH December

Time: 12-1

Stages 2 & 3 – ‘Stepping up: enhancing your work at the next level’

Room: BSTC.1.46

Date: Friday 9th December

Time: 10-11

Attendance is compulsory and bear in mind these sessions are really worthwhile.