Current Upcoming Events, possible to join:

• Collaborative embodied listening/responding around texts of Luce Irigaray – Online meetings January until May 2024. Possible to join at any moment.

• Symposium during NSU Summer Session 2024 (29 July – 5 August) on ‘Write with an-other\(m)/Other‘ CFP (deadline 25 April 2024, rolling applications accepted afterwards).

Deadline passed / previous events:

• Winter Symposium 2024 (6-9 June 2024, Iceland) on ‘Touching the World’
  in collaboration with the Luce Irigaray Circle and University of Iceland.
  CFP (deadline 10 January 2024, rolling applications accepted afterwards).

About NSU Study Circle 4 (2024-2026)

An/Other\not-I/(m)\Other in Feminist Philosophy

1. Outline 

How to think/write/be/inter-act without being limited by an already outlined goal/outcome/impact? How to explore what is messy/confused/embodied while accepting that exploration is always also taking place within philosophy/genre/language/life – within what is. That is, our attempt to explore, to transcend our sites of speech happens in this world and is framed by the situatedness of our lives. Could it be otherwise? This study circle aims to take advantage of the network, space and openness provided by the Nordic Summer University to raise questions that cannot be answered/grounded/voiced, for philosophers/writers/feminists and/or/as-well-as those who are other(s/ed/ing). 

This study circle will explore the liminality of not belonging in a discipline/space/frame/ category/nation. Accepting language as the limit/tool/curse and an unavoidable starting point, building upon the work of Irigaray/Arendt/Ettinger, this state of exception of being-with/in/of language is not simple put aside, but accepted as a reality which is “disturbing, overwhelming, and sometimes too close for comfort” (Marie Gil Ulldemolins, Kris Pint, Nadia Sels, On Tying a Meaningful Mess of Nets, In: Passage #1: Intimate Lineages, p.6.). 

These tensions open up a liminal space – how to think/write/be/inter-act within such a space, while being an/Other\not-I/(m)\Other within feminist philosophy? How to write/create/live as a being that is more than the available categories available to mark/describe/situate them? How to explore power as a temporary space, a moment, political and liminal? How to read and ground ourselves in feminist philosophy while also living/m-othering/PhD-ing? How to even ask/write/question these questions, without falling prey to the linearity inherent in what/who/why it means to question? 

2. Outcomes 

Collaborations – This circle is mostly interested in establishing collaborations, in thinking, in writing, in creating. Both during the six planned symposia as well as throughout the year in online reading and writing groups, experimenting with different methodologies and approaches to reading and writing collectively, collaboratively and individually. 

Publications – This circle aims to provide places for participants to publish their thinking/writing/collaborations. We aim for at least one special issue in an open access academic journal around the topic ‘ The I that writes: auto-theory & phenomenology’ which is the topic for the 2024 summer session for an exploratory symposium with a lot of workshop sessions and a winter symposium in 2025 in Finland to bring together the endeavours and collaborations. Another goal is the publication of one non-academic work. We have contacts in both areas that make us confident we will be able to achieve these goals within the three years of the study circle. 

3. This Circle within NSU 

This circle is born out of collaborations and friendships started in the previous feminist philosophy circle, yet it builds upon a somewhat different interest within the larger project of feminist philosophy. This circle aims to (re)invite those who feel and/or felt alone in doing feminism/feminist philosophy/et.al. and who have experienced or want to experience that NSU can provide a home for their otherwise ‘strange’ and ‘messy’ topics and thoughts. 

We aim to actively bridge the divide between theorists and creators, and therefore relate to both the more artistic as well as the more theoretical circles within NSU. We aim to continue the types of collaborations with most if not all of the circles which the one-year circle on ‘Experiencing Liminal Spaces: An Endeavour within Feminist Philosophy’ has set out to accomplish during the 2023 NSU summer session. 

4. Overview of the activities 

Online groups – throughout the year: 

– Reading groups: creating a shared vocabulary, focussing on key texts and exploring different genres and methodologies, in philosophy and autotheory and beyond – Writing groups: providing a platform of collaborative writing practices, as well as feedback and support for individual writing practises 

Symposia: 

2024 Winter Symposium: Iceland 

Collaboration with Irigaray Circle & University of Iceland. Topic: Touching the World 

2024 Summer Session: Denmark  – Topic: Write with an-other\(m)/Other 

2025 Winter Symposium: Finland, Collaboration with Åbo Akademi, Topic: The I that writes: auto-theory & phenomenology 

2025 Summer Session: tbd, Topic: m-Otherhood in feminist theory 

2026 Winter Symposium: Norway, Collaboration with University of Bergen, Hordaland kunstsenter, aerial (art studio) Topic: Messiness in Liminal Spaces

2026 Summer Session: tbd, Topic: Potentialities of liminal spaces: transcending sites of speech and temporary power

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Coordinators