D. R. Koukal | University of Detroit Mercy (original) (raw)

Presentations by D. R. Koukal

(2007-present)

Back to the Things Themselves! (BTTTT!) is an annual attempt to effect a liberation from textual ... more Back to the Things Themselves! (BTTTT!) is an annual attempt to effect a liberation from textual exegesis/critique and return to the lived world to divine the essential structures of experience through rigorous phenomenological description. Please visit website at www.btttt.net

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, McGill Universi... more Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, McGill University (Montreal, Canada), June 18, 2024

In this paper I am seeking an understanding of what it means to be fully in the midst of a world brimming with accrued significance and confronted with a future of possibilities, portended by a living present evolving out of a meaningful past. At the same time, I invite my readers to also reflect on what it might mean to be deficient in “world.” It is my hope that these reflections will serve to highlight what concrete elements of lived experience are in play within situations where abortion emerges as a possibility, so we can more clearly see the ontological stakes involved. By pointing out these elements, it is my hope that we can begin to more thoroughly inspect the ground upon which the abortion debate is founded, a ground which in my view has not yet been sufficiently explored.

Presented by video to the German Society for Phenomenological Research, Friedrich-Schiller-Univer... more Presented by video to the German Society for Phenomenological Research, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität (Jena, Germany), September 29, 2022

Accepted for presentation to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture,... more Accepted for presentation to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, Western University (London, Canada), June 1-3, 2020. Meeting canceled due to coronavirus pandemic. Presented virtually April 30, 2021.

Presented by video to the annual meeting of the British Society of Phenomenology, University of E... more Presented by video to the annual meeting of the British Society of Phenomenology, University of Exeter (Exeter, UK), September 3, 2020

Accepted for presentation to the annual meeting of North American Society for Early Phenomenology... more Accepted for presentation to the annual meeting of North American Society for Early Phenomenology, St. John's University (New York, NY), April 22-24, 2020. Meeting canceled due to coronavirus pandemic.

Presented to the annual meeting of the Philosophy of the City conference, University of Detroit M... more Presented to the annual meeting of the Philosophy of the City conference, University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), October 4, 2019

Local Co-Organizers: D. R. Koukal, Professor of Philosophy, University of Detroit Mercy, College... more Local Co-Organizers:
D. R. Koukal, Professor of Philosophy, University of Detroit Mercy, College of Liberal Arts & Education
Noah Resnick, Professor and Associate Dean, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture

Presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education, Loyola University ... more Presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education, Loyola University (Chicago, IL), July 11, 2019

Presented to "Teaching Philosophy in the Michigan Area," Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti,... more Presented to "Teaching Philosophy in the Michigan Area," Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti, MI), September 24, 2016

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, University of Calgary (Calgary, Canada), June 1, 2016

Expression has long been considered a central theme in Merleau-Ponty's thought, but only in recen... more Expression has long been considered a central theme in Merleau-Ponty's thought, but only in recent years has this phenomenon been subject to more rigorous thematization by a number of scholars. 1 What these recent efforts reveal is that for Merleau-Ponty expression functions not only at aesthetic, perceptive, linguistic, bodily, behavioral,

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, University of Ottawa (Ottawa, Canada), June 2, 2015

Many thanks to Chris Nagel for inviting me to provide some commentary for this panel, and to our ... more Many thanks to Chris Nagel for inviting me to provide some commentary for this panel, and to our three authors for exposing me to a field of study of which I'm basically ignorant. Bearing this ignorance in mind I hope you will judge my comments generously when-not if-I transgress against well-established categories, theories, terminology, or

Presented to the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters at Andrews University (Berrien Springs, MI), March 13, 2015

Critical thinking" is one of the most powerful and frequently used buzzwords in academia today, a... more Critical thinking" is one of the most powerful and frequently used buzzwords in academia today, and is universally seen as something with positive educational value, something we want our students to be able to do. But the term has been remarkably resistant to any univocal definition. We want our students to be critical thinkers, but are frequently unable to say with any degree of precision what that actually means.

Keynote presentation for “Essays of Significance: A Graduate Philosophy Conference” at the University of Windsor (Windsor, Canada), March 22, 2014

A preface: phenomenology, philosophical citizenship, political change, and social media Many than... more A preface: phenomenology, philosophical citizenship, political change, and social media Many thanks to the philosophy department at the University of Windsor and the Humanities Research Group for sponsoring this conference, and many thanks to its organizers for extending their kind invitation across the river and asking me to come over and talk with you this evening. I'm deeply flattered, and very happy to be here.

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, Saint Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick (Fredricton, Canada), May 30 – June 4, 2011

In Jane Martin's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Keely and Du, Keely, a young working class woman i... more In Jane Martin's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Keely and Du, Keely, a young working class woman intending to terminate her pregnancy, is abducted by a group of religious fundamentalists, who spirit her away to an undisclosed location where she is held prisoner.

Presented at the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (San Diego, CA), April 23, 2011

Presented to the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters at Saginaw Valley State University (Saginaw, MI), March 11, 2011

We in the liberal arts are ever engaged in the search for meaning, but how often do we consider t... more We in the liberal arts are ever engaged in the search for meaning, but how often do we consider the meaning of the liberal arts within the contemporary academy? In other words, how do our colleagues outside of the liberal arts regard us? One concrete way this regard might be measured is to look at where we stand within the core curricula of our various institutions. We could look at small liberal arts colleges with strong cores, where we, not surprisingly, figure prominently. Or we could look at for-profit or technical colleges, where the liberal arts have only a token (if any) presence in their general education requirements. We enjoy a significant presence within two-year community colleges, but because of their focus on transfer, career, developmental and continuing education, this typically precludes such institutions from offering

Presented at “Flesh and Space: Intertwining Merleau-Ponty and Architecture,” Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS), September 9, 2009

This paper claims that torture involves an experience and expression of space, and offers a pheno... more This paper claims that torture involves an experience and expression of space, and offers a phenomenological description of this practice that delves beneath its mere physical effect on the human body, in order to demonstrate that bodily pain is only one dimension of the experiential structure of torture. This claim is supported by Merleau-Ponty's comments about spatiality, which are closely interwoven with his theories of the embodied subject and perception. This analysis underscores what space means to us as the spatial and spatializing beings that we are, and shows that no matter how "unscarred" survivors of torture may be, their lived world remains irretrievably damaged at the ontological level, due to the living spatiality stolen from them during their ordeal.

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada), May 26-30, 2009

This paper will offer a phenomenological analysis of litter. The analysis proper will be preceede... more This paper will offer a phenomenological analysis of litter. The analysis proper will be preceeded by a brief overview of the method employed in the analysis. The analysis is then presented in a way that draws subtle attention to the various methodological "moves" undertaken, hopefully without being overly technical and diminishing the force of the description. And last, the conclusion will outline the philosophical insights derived through this phenomenological analysis, at it relates to the present meaning of the city of Detroit.

Presented to the inaugural meeting of the Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists, Romapo College (Mahwah, NJ), May 8, 2009

(2007-present)

Back to the Things Themselves! (BTTTT!) is an annual attempt to effect a liberation from textual ... more Back to the Things Themselves! (BTTTT!) is an annual attempt to effect a liberation from textual exegesis/critique and return to the lived world to divine the essential structures of experience through rigorous phenomenological description. Please visit website at www.btttt.net

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, McGill Universi... more Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, McGill University (Montreal, Canada), June 18, 2024

In this paper I am seeking an understanding of what it means to be fully in the midst of a world brimming with accrued significance and confronted with a future of possibilities, portended by a living present evolving out of a meaningful past. At the same time, I invite my readers to also reflect on what it might mean to be deficient in “world.” It is my hope that these reflections will serve to highlight what concrete elements of lived experience are in play within situations where abortion emerges as a possibility, so we can more clearly see the ontological stakes involved. By pointing out these elements, it is my hope that we can begin to more thoroughly inspect the ground upon which the abortion debate is founded, a ground which in my view has not yet been sufficiently explored.

Presented by video to the German Society for Phenomenological Research, Friedrich-Schiller-Univer... more Presented by video to the German Society for Phenomenological Research, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität (Jena, Germany), September 29, 2022

Accepted for presentation to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture,... more Accepted for presentation to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, Western University (London, Canada), June 1-3, 2020. Meeting canceled due to coronavirus pandemic. Presented virtually April 30, 2021.

Presented by video to the annual meeting of the British Society of Phenomenology, University of E... more Presented by video to the annual meeting of the British Society of Phenomenology, University of Exeter (Exeter, UK), September 3, 2020

Accepted for presentation to the annual meeting of North American Society for Early Phenomenology... more Accepted for presentation to the annual meeting of North American Society for Early Phenomenology, St. John's University (New York, NY), April 22-24, 2020. Meeting canceled due to coronavirus pandemic.

Presented to the annual meeting of the Philosophy of the City conference, University of Detroit M... more Presented to the annual meeting of the Philosophy of the City conference, University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), October 4, 2019

Local Co-Organizers: D. R. Koukal, Professor of Philosophy, University of Detroit Mercy, College... more Local Co-Organizers:
D. R. Koukal, Professor of Philosophy, University of Detroit Mercy, College of Liberal Arts & Education
Noah Resnick, Professor and Associate Dean, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture

Presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education, Loyola University ... more Presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education, Loyola University (Chicago, IL), July 11, 2019

Presented to "Teaching Philosophy in the Michigan Area," Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti,... more Presented to "Teaching Philosophy in the Michigan Area," Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti, MI), September 24, 2016

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, University of Calgary (Calgary, Canada), June 1, 2016

Expression has long been considered a central theme in Merleau-Ponty's thought, but only in recen... more Expression has long been considered a central theme in Merleau-Ponty's thought, but only in recent years has this phenomenon been subject to more rigorous thematization by a number of scholars. 1 What these recent efforts reveal is that for Merleau-Ponty expression functions not only at aesthetic, perceptive, linguistic, bodily, behavioral,

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, University of Ottawa (Ottawa, Canada), June 2, 2015

Many thanks to Chris Nagel for inviting me to provide some commentary for this panel, and to our ... more Many thanks to Chris Nagel for inviting me to provide some commentary for this panel, and to our three authors for exposing me to a field of study of which I'm basically ignorant. Bearing this ignorance in mind I hope you will judge my comments generously when-not if-I transgress against well-established categories, theories, terminology, or

Presented to the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters at Andrews University (Berrien Springs, MI), March 13, 2015

Critical thinking" is one of the most powerful and frequently used buzzwords in academia today, a... more Critical thinking" is one of the most powerful and frequently used buzzwords in academia today, and is universally seen as something with positive educational value, something we want our students to be able to do. But the term has been remarkably resistant to any univocal definition. We want our students to be critical thinkers, but are frequently unable to say with any degree of precision what that actually means.

Keynote presentation for “Essays of Significance: A Graduate Philosophy Conference” at the University of Windsor (Windsor, Canada), March 22, 2014

A preface: phenomenology, philosophical citizenship, political change, and social media Many than... more A preface: phenomenology, philosophical citizenship, political change, and social media Many thanks to the philosophy department at the University of Windsor and the Humanities Research Group for sponsoring this conference, and many thanks to its organizers for extending their kind invitation across the river and asking me to come over and talk with you this evening. I'm deeply flattered, and very happy to be here.

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, Saint Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick (Fredricton, Canada), May 30 – June 4, 2011

In Jane Martin's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Keely and Du, Keely, a young working class woman i... more In Jane Martin's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Keely and Du, Keely, a young working class woman intending to terminate her pregnancy, is abducted by a group of religious fundamentalists, who spirit her away to an undisclosed location where she is held prisoner.

Presented at the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (San Diego, CA), April 23, 2011

Presented to the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters at Saginaw Valley State University (Saginaw, MI), March 11, 2011

We in the liberal arts are ever engaged in the search for meaning, but how often do we consider t... more We in the liberal arts are ever engaged in the search for meaning, but how often do we consider the meaning of the liberal arts within the contemporary academy? In other words, how do our colleagues outside of the liberal arts regard us? One concrete way this regard might be measured is to look at where we stand within the core curricula of our various institutions. We could look at small liberal arts colleges with strong cores, where we, not surprisingly, figure prominently. Or we could look at for-profit or technical colleges, where the liberal arts have only a token (if any) presence in their general education requirements. We enjoy a significant presence within two-year community colleges, but because of their focus on transfer, career, developmental and continuing education, this typically precludes such institutions from offering

Presented at “Flesh and Space: Intertwining Merleau-Ponty and Architecture,” Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS), September 9, 2009

This paper claims that torture involves an experience and expression of space, and offers a pheno... more This paper claims that torture involves an experience and expression of space, and offers a phenomenological description of this practice that delves beneath its mere physical effect on the human body, in order to demonstrate that bodily pain is only one dimension of the experiential structure of torture. This claim is supported by Merleau-Ponty's comments about spatiality, which are closely interwoven with his theories of the embodied subject and perception. This analysis underscores what space means to us as the spatial and spatializing beings that we are, and shows that no matter how "unscarred" survivors of torture may be, their lived world remains irretrievably damaged at the ontological level, due to the living spatiality stolen from them during their ordeal.

Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada), May 26-30, 2009

This paper will offer a phenomenological analysis of litter. The analysis proper will be preceede... more This paper will offer a phenomenological analysis of litter. The analysis proper will be preceeded by a brief overview of the method employed in the analysis. The analysis is then presented in a way that draws subtle attention to the various methodological "moves" undertaken, hopefully without being overly technical and diminishing the force of the description. And last, the conclusion will outline the philosophical insights derived through this phenomenological analysis, at it relates to the present meaning of the city of Detroit.

Presented to the inaugural meeting of the Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists, Romapo College (Mahwah, NJ), May 8, 2009

Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2022

This essay offers a critique of the culture of specio-vocationalism in American higher education ... more This essay offers a critique of the culture of specio-vocationalism in American higher education by first drawing on Edmund Husserl's conception of "world" and connecting this notion to education conceived as a "world-disclosing" activity. The essay will then give an account of how the trends of vocationalization and specialization manifest themselves in contemporary university culture, and how they work together to "de-world" the lives of our students and deprive them of possibilities that are part of what it means to be human. After showing how this impoverishment undermines the world-disclosing function of higher education, the essay will then suggest one way to counter this "de-worlding of world": the teaching of the situated finitude of the human condition by reminding our students that our knowledge or sense of the world is always only partial. It is this realization that has the potential of placing our students once again before the vastness of the world in wonder and curiosity. In this realization they will gain a better sense of the world as a distant horizon still to be explored in all of its inexhaustible complexity and meaning. At the same time, coming to grips with their own ignorance will imbue them with an intellectual humility that will shield them not only from their own finitude, but the finitude of others as well.

Open Philosophy, 2020

In recent years a burgeoning bicycle culture has reanimated the city of Detroit. The following es... more In recent years a burgeoning bicycle culture has reanimated the city of Detroit. The following essay analyzes this reanimation through the themes of embodiment, mobility, spatiality, and the intersubjective creation of place, using the techniques of phenomenology. The description that emerges is an evolving social ontology with implications for cities like Detroit. In such cities any plan for re-urbanization must re-conceptualize both transportation schemas and public space on terrain once dominated by the automobile. The provisional phenomenological description on offer here should be thought of as just one tool in this project, as Detroit and cities like it negotiate the reconstitution of their communities.

Philosophy in the Contemporary World, 2019

Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, 2019

This essay offers a phenomenological description of unwanted pregnancy so that the central place ... more This essay offers a phenomenological description of unwanted pregnancy so that the central place of lived embodiment can be reinserted into the abortion debate and properly taken into account. What this description will reveal is the ontological drama of such "aversely pregnant subjectivities" at a time when ever more legislation is being passed that imposes ever more restrictions on the reproductive rights of women in the United States. This investigation is all the more pertinent in light of a new conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, which may well put the right to legal abortions in jeopardy. This essay's highest ambition, however, is to convey to men the significance of these restrictions, since men by and large determine the policies that play a substantial role in shaping the bodies and lives of women.

Merleau-Ponty: Space, Place, Architecture, 2016

International Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2009

This paper offers a phenomenological description of torture that delves beneath its mere physical... more This paper offers a phenomenological description of torture that delves beneath its mere physical effect on the human body, in order to demonstrate that bodily pain is only one dimension of the experiential structure of torture. In fact, this paper' s central claim is that torture is better understood as a radical ontological violation of a lived world through the body. This claim is supported through Merleau-Ponty' s theory of the embodied subject. The main purpose of this paper is to show that no matter how physically "unscarred" a survivor of torture may be, their lived world remains irretrievably damaged.

PhaenEx, 2008

What is neither here nor there, now nor then? What resides or occurs in the in-between, and what ... more What is neither here nor there, now nor then? What resides or occurs in the in-between, and what is its meaning, purpose, potential, or effect? And what of the edges that mark the liminality of both this in-between, and the phenomena on either side of it? Can the in-between be known, can we dwell there-or do we only ever traverse this phenomenon, pass through or pass over? Do edges draw a clear line in the proverbial sand, or do they rather shift like the waves of sands across a desert? How do the phenomena of the in-between and edges support one another, challenge one another, or even form the condition of possibility for one another?

Meaning and Language: Phenomenological Perspectives, 2008

The communication of insight-be it through a transcription, translation, 5 a seminar or classroom... more The communication of insight-be it through a transcription, translation, 5 a seminar or classroom lecture-is a philosophical task as old as Plato. 6 Phenomenological insight, according to Husserl, is to be gained by tem-7 porarily "bracketing" the various presuppositions of the different realms 8 of human activity for the purpose of intuiting the essential structures 9 of experience that appear to a consciousness purified by the method of 10 the epoché. And Husserl makes it abundantly clear that an essential part 11 of phenomenology's task is the communication of phenomenology's in-12 sights to the various regions of human activity which it claims to ground 13 through its activity. It is through such communication that phenomeno-14 logy invites humanity to return to "the things themselves" that underlie 15 all of our various preconceptions of these things, so that it may have a 16 deeper understanding of the lived world common to all. This is often 17 forgotten about phenomenology: it is not only about intuition, but also 18 expression. 19 This first half of this essay will show that Husserl was acutely aware 20 of the role that language must play in the successful expression of pheno-21 menological insight It will also show, through an analysis of his theory 22 146 Meaning and Language in Phenomenological Perspective just communicating the insights gained by his method. This analysis will 1 also reveal what might be called a nascent but essential rhetorical element 2 in Husserl's understanding of how insight is gained and meaning consti-3 tuted. 4 This points to the second half of the essay, which concentrates on the 5 considerable problems of the mobility of phenomenological insight via 6 expression, and the subsequent constitution of phenomenological mean-7 ing and community. This investigation will yield a clear sense of the 8 demands being made on phenomenological expression, as well as nega-9 tive insights into what phenomenological expression can not be like. It 10 will also suggest a possible way in which practicing phenomenologists 11

Philosophical Perspectives on the War on Terrorism, 2007

Dichotomy: A Student Publication of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, 2006

Issues in Interpretation Theory , 2006

Glimpse: The Journal of the Society for Phenomenology and Media, 2004

Glimpse: The Journal of the Society for Phenomenology and Media, 2003

The Journal of Teaching in Marriage and Family, 2002

This essay analyzes distance learning that is totally computer mediated through the phenomenology... more This essay analyzes distance learning that is totally computer mediated through the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger. We claim that there are the rudiments of a pedagogy embedded in Heidegger's thought, the terms of which uniquely lend themselves to an analysis of the pedagogical possibilities of computer-mediated distance learning. After outlining Heidegger's nascent pedagogy, elements of this pedagogy are applied to the traditional and " virtual " classroom. Concrete examples are juxtaposed throughout the essay for the purpose of comparison at each level of the analysis. It is our hope that this essay opens a discussion in such fields as family sociology, marriage and family therapy, and family relations regarding the degree to which the various emergent instructional technologies should be brought into family studies classrooms.

Glimpse: The Journal of the Society for Phenomenology and Media, 2001

Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, 2001

Continental Philosophy Review, 2001

Southern Journal of Philosophy, 2000

Published as “Bigotry has no place on campus; expel the unrepentant.” Click on the two files below. The Varsity News, 2020

Chronicle of Higher Education, 2019

 PREMIUM ritical thinking" is one of the most prevalent buzzwords in the academy, but what does ... more  PREMIUM ritical thinking" is one of the most prevalent buzzwords in the academy, but what does it mean? We all want our students to be critical thinkers, but we are collectively unable to say with any degree of precision what that actually entails.

Blog of the American Philosophical Association (October 10, 2017)

Symposium: A Publication of Shimer College, 2012

Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, 2011

Technology and Culture, 2010

Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, 2007

Technology and Culture, 2007

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Technology and Culture, 2006

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Technology and Culture, 2003

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Technology and Culture, 2002

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Review of Metaphysics, 2002

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Technology and Culture, 2001

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Technology and Culture, 2001

A discussion on the dangers that emerging authoritarianism pose to the constitutional order and t... more A discussion on the dangers that emerging authoritarianism pose to the constitutional order and the rule of law at the University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), February 25, 2020

Presented by invitation at the Shimer Great Books School of North Central College (Naperville, IL), April 25, 2018, and to the College of Liberal Arts and Education Faculty Development Colloquium, University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), April 13, 2018

"Detroit Today" with Stephen Henderson. WDET 101.9 (Detroit, MI), February 16, 2017. Discussion on the value of a liberal arts degree in 2017.

Presented to the College of Liberal Arts and Education Faculty Development Colloquium, University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), November 4, 2016

Panelist, “Race and Policing,” sponsored by the African-American Studies program at the University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), April 19, 2016

Some announced the arrival of an enlightened "post-racial" society after the election of Barack O... more Some announced the arrival of an enlightened "post-racial" society after the election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008. Clearly these voices were mistaken.

Panelist, Honors Symposium, sponsored by The Honors Program at the University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), October 30, 2014

The only way to think of Michael Brown's death as a tragedy is to studiously ignore the tragedy o... more The only way to think of Michael Brown's death as a tragedy is to studiously ignore the tragedy of the American present and the American past.

Presented at “Defining Detroit: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Detroit,” sponsored by the Economic and Global Affairs Alliance at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), April 12, 2014

Presented at the Induction Ceremony and Dinner of The Honors Program at the University of Detroit Mercy, October 6, 2013

Detroit Architecture Awards, American Institute of Architects, September 19, 2013

Presented to the Muslim Student Organization and the Hispanic-American Student Association at the University of Detroit Mercy, November 16, 2010

Shimer College Keynote Address (Chicago, IL), October 17, 2009

Presented to the College of Liberal Arts and Education Faculty Development Colloquium, University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), January 29, 2004

Presented at Shimer College (Waukegan, IL), March 28, 2003

Presented to the College of Liberal Arts Faculty Development Colloquium, University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), February 8, 2001

those who want the student to be active and engaged in the learning process, and on the other are... more those who want the student to be active and engaged in the learning process, and on the other are those who see the student as passive and inert, waiting to receive teacherdispensed knowledge. Though I'm no philosopher of education myself, there seems to be a broad consensus that the more active and engaged the student, the better the education. Among classical theories, Plato stresses dialectic co-inquiry, Rousseau promotes an active engagement with Nature as the teacher, and Dewey's progressive vision of education emphasizes free and vital activity in dialogue with the child's experience of a changing world. Later theorists follow this line, including the British innovator A. S. Neill and especially the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, who usefully contrasts a passive "banking concept of education" with an active and liberating model of education grounded in our being-in-the-world. 3

Presented to the University Club (Winter Park, FL), March 14, 2000

Presented to the Friends of the Volusia County Library lecture series (Daytona Beach, FL), May 13, 1999

iii What does it mean to talk about phenomenological expression? Does phenomenology need its own ... more iii What does it mean to talk about phenomenological expression? Does phenomenology need its own language, its own manner of speaking? Do not phenomenologists express themselves every day? If phenomenologists speak and write every day without recourse to a "language of phenomenology," then why is it necessary to broach the topic? Or am I suggesting that when phenomenologists speak they do not know what they are talking about? This may seem especially impertinent, one hundred years after the modern founding of phenomenology by Edmund Husserl.

Technology and Culture, 2003

Open Philosophy, 2020

In recent years a burgeoning bicycle culture has reanimated the city of Detroit. The following es... more In recent years a burgeoning bicycle culture has reanimated the city of Detroit. The following essay analyzes this reanimation through the themes of embodiment, mobility, spatiality, and the intersubjective creation of place, using the techniques of phenomenology. The description that emerges is an evolving social ontology with implications for cities like Detroit. In such cities any plan for re-urbanization must re-conceptualize both transportation schemas and public space on terrain once dominated by the automobile. The provisional phenomenological description on offer here should be thought of as just one tool in this project, as Detroit and cities like it negotiate the reconstitution of their communities.

MediaTropes, 2010

Of all of the various forms of political dissent, the most dramatic as a form of expression is th... more Of all of the various forms of political dissent, the most dramatic as a form of expression is that which places lived bodies in tension with the prevailing social order. Bodies so presented—in marches, strikes, sit-ins, demonstrations and other mass assemblies—are just the opposite of Foucault’s docile bodies. They are a collective will concretized, an intersubjective mass animated by a common purpose that fills a public space and obstinately makes their shared demand. The presence of such dissenting bodies assembled in various public spaces have at times been essential in dramatizing grievances and re-constituting the meaning of a political landscape. Though such dissenting bodies have often been met with the full force of the state, the political efficacy of such bodies has been seriously undermined in recent years due to more subtle strategies to suppress such dissent, and counterstrategies meant to circumscribe these efforts at suppression. The goal of this essay is to explore ...

Philosophical Perspectives on the "War on Terrorism", 2007

International Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2009

Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, 2011

Feminist Philosophy Quarterly

In this essay I endeavor to provide such an account, and describe at a pretheoretical level an em... more In this essay I endeavor to provide such an account, and describe at a pretheoretical level an embodied subjectivity at odds with its own state of embodiment, and on the other hand, to explore the limited agency induced by constraints that fall upon an embodied subject who is compelled to live a body which is free to engage the various possibilities of the world in every respect except one, within the context of an intercorporeal social reality. This description will provide a sound ontological foundation where the central place of embodiment in the abortion debate can be re-asserted and properly taken into account. What this description will reveal is the ontological drama of such “aversely pregnant subjectivities” at a time when ever more legislation is being passed that poses ever more restrictions on reproductive rights of women in the United States (Guttmacher Institute 2018). This investigation is all the more pertinent in light of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s recent announcem...