Call for Participation

Nordic Summer University’s study circle An/Other\not-I/(m)\Other in Feminist Philosophy would like to invite participation in:

Collaborative embodied listening/responding
around texts of Luce Irigaray

In a time in which being together in and with difference is being violently dismissed, in which dialogue seems to be impossible and the individual response to trauma is easily forgotten, we propose a collective project that aims to explore the plurality of being with the same. Exploring texts that do not point at one thing and one answer, yet instead allow for a myriad of responses and being-with – we invite you to explore liminal spaces around text. This means we invite you to allow for differences while collaborating and preserving these differences. What does it mean to read, be, and respond to a text, each from our own places of being? What does it mean to slow down, to not speak, to build a community with your hands, to craft a space that is outside of the realm of the possible? 

This project rallies collaborators around five meetings during which we will listen to live readings of pre-selected texts of Luce Irigaray. We will choose texts that span the width of Irigaray’s writing and thinking practice. The aim is to broaden our experience of knowing-being-thinking with a text. And to allow for an individual response from our own localities and spaces, brought together as a collective response. 

Meetings – active listening

From January to May 2024, once a month, there will be an online meeting scheduled during which one or more texts / excerpts of a text will be read aloud (by one or more voices). Participants join in this live reading session from their own place in time and space. We especially invite people to listen while working or crafting with one’s hands, while walking around outside, to invite an embodied reality while encountering a voiced text. After the reading there might be a few minutes to respond or share a silence, but we will refrain from an active discussion online. 

Response – writing letters

As a response, we ask each participant in the following weeks to write a response in the form of a letter. The addressee of the letter is the text. The letter can be short or long, handwritten or typed, written in a way and format true to the participant’s own situation. It can be written in any language, but we ask it to be sharable and printable in a book-format. The letters (or pictures of it) are then sent to the organisation, who will collect the texts and put them together. 

Outcome

The original texts, the recorded voiced readings and the letters will be collected and presented during the 12th Meeting of the Luce Irigaray Circle organised in collaboration with NSU around the theme ‘Touching the World’ (June 6-9, 2024, Reykjavik, Iceland). (Information about participation can be found here: https://www.nsuweb.org/study-circles/circle-4-an-other-not-i-m-other-in-feminist-philosophy/) Depending on the outcomes of this project, the results may be published in book-format, and/or the project might continue after these five initial meetings. Participants will be asked to take part in this publication process every step of the way. It is also possible to send in a response and not participate in the publication process afterwards.

Practicalities

Five online meetings, each exploring (a) different text(s), after which there is time to send in the responding letter – deadline to send in a response is the day of the next meeting. Texts will be read in English and will be made available in audio version and written version after the readings (to registered participants and for personal use only). It is not necessary to be able to attend all meetings. 

Dates: (1 – 1.5 hour meetings, 20:00-21:30 Central European Time)

• January: Wednesday 10 January 204, 20:00-21:30 CET
• February: Wednesday 7 February 2024, 20:00-21:30 CET
• March: Wednesday 6 March 2024, 20:00-21:30 CET
• April: Wednesday 3 April 2024, 20:00-21:30 CET
• May: Wednesday 1 May 2024, 20:00-21:30 CET

Signing up

Everyone is invited to sign up by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/JxXcQzKENx2JcRSe9 – when that doesn’t work you can also send an email to nicole.nobyeni@nsuweb.org. We will send link to the texts and zoom-meetings in an email before the meeting. It is not necessary to be able to attend all the online meetings. When you participate and send in a letter/response you allow recordings of the live readings and responses to be disseminated and published in a not-for-profit setting. You remain the author of your text. 

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Coordinators

Study Circle 4: An/Other\not-I/(m)\Other in Feminist Philosophy of the Nordic Summer University