Parenthood as Transformative

This workshop asks the following question: what does it mean to become a parent and how does parenthood transform a person? While there is a steady stream of research on the moral justification for having a child, as well as the issue of whether having a child can be rationally decided, what has nevertheless been largely overlooked (save for a few exceptions) is the very process of becoming a parent (cf. Paul 2014). To address this lacuna, the workshop proposes the following key questions:

• What kind of transformation is involved in becoming a parent?
• Is parenthood necessarily transformative? Can we conceive of non-transformative experiences of parenthood?
• To what extent is it possible to “anticipate” becoming a parent?
• How does parenthood generate a perceptual and affective transformation in our understanding and experience of the world?
• How does parenthood transform our relation to others and ourselves?
• How does parenthood transform our embodied being-in-the-world?
• What role does parenthood play in the transformation of existing affective states?
• And how is the process of becoming a parent different for mothers and fathers, especially given that the gestation period and birth process is conventionally regarded as marking the onset of motherhood for women, whereas for men the transition to becoming a parent is less clearly defined?

Registration

Please register here. Registration is required and will be open until 3rd November.

Program

10:00—10:15 Welcome & Introduction

10:15—11:00: Fiona Woollard (University of Southampton)—"Parental Duties as Transformative: How duties to engage with our children’s interests change us”

11:00—11:45: Anca Gheaus (Central European University)—"What is the place of adults' interests in a child-centred account of childrearing?”

11:45—12:00: Coffee break

12:00—12:45: Claudia Serban (University of Toulouse)—"The Joys of Parenthood?"

12:45—14:00: Lunch

14:00—14:45: Heidi Wilm (Independent Philosopher, Vienna)—"Rhythms of Becoming: Explorations into Pregnancy with Merleau-Ponty”

14:45—15:30: Cornelia Schadler (University of Vienna): “Maybe, maybe, maybe: the production of parenthood while phasing in and out of pregnancy”

15:30—15:45: Coffee break

15:45—16:30: Line Ryberg Ingerslev (University of Copenhagen)—"Rediscovering the Past: Memory in the Context of Transformative Experiences"

Contact

Dylan Trigg ([email protected])

Funded by FWF PAT4547224 & City of Vienna