The Human Experience of Disasters Explored at Phenomenology Symposium

If phenomenology is the exploration of the essences of human experience, what can be done when what is experienced is horrific, unsettling and cataclysmic?

This and other related questions will be examined at the 33rd annual Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center Symposium, Experiencing Disaster, which will be held on Monday, March 30, and Tuesday, March 31, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Africa Room of the Union.

According to Dr. Jeffrey McCurry, director of the phenomenology center who organized the event, the experience of disaster is one that can define human life, and for some—define it profoundly. Through meditating on experiences such as genocide and rape, ecological destruction, colonial violence and the religious, the symposium will seek to explore the far edges and beyond of intelligible human experience.

“Phenomenology wants to articulate the nature of all dimensions and registers of human experience, and it seems important that we attend to the experience of disaster,” McCurry explained. “By doing so, we might begin to explore ways to ethically and politically respond to traumatic events in a manner that helps prevent disasters when we can and provide hope in its aftermath when it has happened.”

Featured presenters at the symposium include:

• Dr. Debra Bergoffen, the Bishop Hamilton Lecturer at American University and Professor Emerita at George Mason University, will present The Living Death of Statelessness
• Dr. Jane Gordon, associate professor at the University of Connecticut, will present Of Divine Warning: Reading Disaster in the Modern Age
• Dr. Kevin Hart, the Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Virginia, will present The Absolute Event of History: The Shoah and the Outside
• Dr. David Loy, independent scholar and Zen Buddhism teacher, will present Best Disaster Ever.

The following McAnulty College faculty will serve as session moderators during the symposium:

• Dr. Will Adams, associate professor of psychology
• Dr. Tom Eyers, assistant professor of philosophy
• Dr. Kathleen Glenister Roberts, associate professor of communication and rhetorical studies
• Dr. George Yancy, associate professor of philosophy.

Participants can attend one or all of the sessions according to their interest. Registration for Experiencing Disaster is requested and can be completed by visiting www.duq.edu/phenomenology or by emailing phenomenology@duq.edu.