Critical Phenomenology & Merleau-Ponty's Open Futures

45th Annual Conference of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle will be held Virtually
Oct 22-24, 2021
Through Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

Given the continued uncertainty over the international rates of vaccination, international travel, and the safety of in-person gatherings, the decision has been made to hold the 45th gathering of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle on-line. We see this virtual meeting as an unusual opportunity to bring new members into our community who might not otherwise be able to attend the conference in person.

Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological approach has greatly influenced the emerging field of critical phenomenology. We invite scholars from a diverse range of disciplines to question the normalized power structures that shape how we make sense of the world and organize social existence. Scholars of Indigenous philosophy, critical race theory, feminist phenomenology, critical disability studies as well as researchers in cognition and neuroscience, and other phenomenology related areas are invited to submit papers on this theme broadly construed.
As well, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Phenomenology of Perception, papers that take up historical, textual and/or contextual analysis of this text are also welcome.

The conference is directed by Helen A. Fielding. Plenary addresses will be delivered by Donald A. Landes (Université Laval), Dolleen Tisawii’ashii Manning (York University), and Evan Thompson (The University of British Columbia); keynote talks will be given by Dorothea Olkowski (University of Colorado), Gail Weiss (George Washington University) and Shiloh Whitney (Fordham). The annual conference features the M. C. Dillon prize and lecture for the best graduate student paper submission.