A seminar designed to integrate junior faculty members into the BC academic community by providing a forum for them to discuss their own work in progress. The idea is to demonstrate how research and collaborative interchange are possible in a modern university, and how it is valuable for us to have opportunities to talk about the interconnections between our lives, our teaching, and our research and writing projects, sharing our work even across the disciplinary boundaries that define the modern university. To read the December 2, 2004 Chronicle article about this program please click here.
Next Presentation
Tomeu Estelrich (Philosophy Department / Jesuit Institute)
Monsters,
Humans, and God:
Frankenstein, Faust, Notre Dame of Paris,
and the Limits
of Modernity
Monsters, Humans and God is an attempt to analyze the Modern Age from within its own theoretical assumptions; to reveal the underpinning structures of Modernity by using 'monstrosity' as a 'critical tool' to 'discern' ('dia-krinein,' to separate, to dissect) its multiple layers; and to elucidate, at the end of this process, the limits of the very concept of Modernity. In order to reach that goal, my talk will explore the concept of 'limit' as it appears in some of the most important philosophers of the Modern Age, and will set forth a 'geometrical' definition of Modernity, which will try to reflect and systematize the multiple tensions that exist during all this period. Once that is done, the following steps will be taken to analyze the impact of Modernity on the concepts of human nature and God, and to consider them as the two imaginary centers from which the limits of Modernity have been drawn. By exploring these two concepts, it will be possible to sketch a map, or better, a 'philosophical cartography' (see Timothy K. Beal, Religion and its Monsters (New York: Routledge 2002), 194) that, using monstrosity as a dissecting tool, will be able to reveal some of the most crucial issues that arose at the end of the Modern Age, and some of the aspects that denote the emergence of a new philosophical paradigm.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Conference Room
St. Mary's Hall
5:30-8:30
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Past presentations:
Noah P. Snyder (Geology & Geophysics), "Ways of Knowing: Field Science in the 21st Century."
Gergana Yordanova Nenkov (Carrol School of Management), "How Do Emotions Influence Retirement Saving Behavior?"
Crystal Tiala (Theater), "Angels in America."
Nancy Pineda-Madrid (Theology), "Shameful Malinche... Holy Guadalupe?: Excavating the Problem of ‘Female Dualism,’ Doing Theological Spade Work."
Mary Aruda (School of Nursing), "Myth busters: Adolescent Pregnancy Rates are Plummeting."
Crystal Tiala (Theater), "Scene Design Presentation in Theater Productions."
Gregory Kalscheur, SJ (Law School), "What Does it Mean to be Catholic in a Pluralistic, Democratic Society?"
Thomas Connelly (School of Nursing), "Hope in Children with Chronic Illness."
Stephanie Leone (Fine Arts), "Rome's The Palazzo Pamphilj."
Rosanna F. DeMarco & Robin Wood, "Promoting Jesuit Ideals of Justice in Health Care: Addressing Disparity in Cancer Screening and HIV Prevention for Vulnerable Populations."
Jeffrey Geoghegan (Theology),"Who wrote the bible, when and why?"
Sheila Gallagher (Fine Arts Department), "Chasing the rabbit: creativity and the search for meaning" To see where the rabbit comes in, please feel free to preview images from her last exhibition at the Clifford-Smith Gallery: http://www.cliffordsmithgallery.com/04sepgallagher.html
Pamela Grace (Adult Health Nursing), "Professional advocacy an illusive concept, a dangerous ideal: Defining the attributes of a 'good' professional."
Sarah Beckjord (Romance Languages), "Narrative Borders: Science and Religion in the Early Spanish Chronicles of the Indies."
Meredith Monaghan (Classics), "The Blame Game, When Good Mothers Go Bad."
Ann Morrison Spinney (Music/Irish Studies), "Musical Hybrids: Irish-American Pop and Passamaquoddy Catholic songs."
