Fortnightly Research Seminars

Faculty of Theology and Philosophy

School of Philosophy

Each fortnight, the School of Philosophy holds a regular research seminar that unites the national ACU philosophical community via videoconference.

The seminar is an opportunity for post-graduate students, staff and invited guests to present their research, and to receive support and feedback through shared discussion and debate.

Seminars are held every second Monday, from 1pm - 3pm unless indicated otherwise. All seminars are held over ACU's video conference system and so, can be joined in your city of preference where ACU has a campus (Brisbane, North Sydney, Strathfield (Sydney), Canberra, Ballarat and Melbourne). Simply go to the ACU campus most convenient for you and go to the video conference facility there (the ACU website has maps for each campus that are helpful in finding your bearings). You should be able to join the seminar from that site.

Speakers and topics will be announced closer to each seminar.

For further information, please contact Dr. John Quilter by email: J.Quilter@mary.acu.edu.au

Philosophy Research Seminars 2009

July - December

Tuesday July 14, 2-4pm (Please note the unusual day and time of this week's seminar)

Prof Kevin Hart - "Religious Experience and the Phenomenality of God: Reading Jean-Luc Marion and Jean-Yves Lacoste"

Professor Hart is the Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a major poet, critic, theologian and philosopher of religion. The winner of numerous prizes for his poetry, his books of poems include Wicked Heat (1999), The Flame Tree (2002) and Young Rain (2008). His works on literary theory include A. D. Hope (1992), Samuel Johnson and the Culture of Property (1999)and Postmodernism: A beginner’s Guide (2004). Works of theology and philosophy of religion include The Trespass of the Sign: Deconstruction, Theology and Philosophy (1989), The Dark Gaze: Maurice Blanchot and the Sacred (2004), Derrida and Religion: Other Testaments (2004 with Yvonne Sherwood), The Experience of God (ed with Barbara Wall, 2005) and Counter-Experiences: Reading Jean-Luc Marion (ed, 2007).

Monday August 10, 1-3pm

Neill Morgan - “Justice in the Trans-Human Future” &

Timb Hoswell - “The Blake-Feyerabend Hypothesis”

Both speakers are honours students at ACU.

Monday August 17, 10.30am -12.30pm (Please note the unusual time of this week's seminar)

Prof Greg Restall - “Identity and Ultimate Reality”

Assoc Prof Restall has been teaching philosophy at the University of Melbourne since 2002. He is the author of An Introduction to Substructural Logics, Logic and, with JC Beal, Logical Pluralism. He has interests in Logic, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Religion and the history of 20th Century Analytic Philosophy.

Monday August 24, 1-3pm

Sean McKenna - "On the Distinction between Private Moral Outlooks and Public Roles"

& Robert Balzola - "The Making of Australian Law in Conformance with the Natural Law"

Both speakers are postgraduate student in philosophy at ACU

Monday September 14, 1-3pm

Dr. Robyn Horner - "Jean-Luc Marion and the Possibility of Revelation"

Dr. Horner is a senior lecturer in Theology at ACU and a former Dean of Melbourne College of Divinity. She is the author of Jean-Luc Marion: A Theo-logical Introduction, and Rethinking God as Gift: Marion, Derrida and the Limits of Phenomenology.

Monday September 28, 1-3pm

Assoc Prof Stan van Hooft - "Cosmopolitanism"

An abstract of "Cosmopolitanism" is available here.

Stan van Hooft is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Deakin University in Australia. He is the author of Caring: An Essay in the Philosophy of Ethics, (Niwot, University Press of Colorado, 1995) and numerous journal articles on moral philosophy, bioethics, business ethics, and on the nature of health and disease. He is also a co-author of Facts and Values: An Introduction to Critical Thinking for Nurses, (Sydney, MacLennan and Petty, 1995). His Life, Death, and Subjectivity: Moral Sources for Bioethics, was published by Rodopi (Amsterdam and New York) in 2004. Stan published two further books in 2006: Caring about Health, (Aldershot, Ashgate), and Understanding Virtue Ethics, (Chesham, Acumen Publishers). His current research centres on Global Ethics and the philosophy of Cosmopolitanism. Acumen Publishers published his Cosmopolitanism: A Philosophy for Global Ethics in July, 2009.

Monday October 12, 1-3pm

Thomas Lysaght - "The Decay of Modern Learning Theory"

Philosophy, ACU National.

Monday October 19, 1-3pm

Patrick Kavanagh - "Aquinas on Participation"

Philosophy, ACU National.

Monday October 26, 1-3pm

Dr. Philip Quadrio - "Rousseau, the Systemprogramme and the Poetising of Practical Solutions: Poetic answers to practical problems"

Philip Quadrio undertook a PhD in philosophy at the University of Sydney where he researched in the ethics, social theory and political philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel. He is currently working as a researcher at the University of NSW on the federally funded ARC project ‘Ethical Excellence in the Public Sector of NSW’ and is affiliated with the ‘Centre for Research on Social Inclusion’ at the Macquarie University. He has published a number of papers on ethics, social theory and the intersection of religion with issues in ethics, social theory and political theory. Most recently Philip was involved in co-editing the book: Politics and Religion in the New Century: Philosophical Perspectives (Sydney University Press, due February 2009). Currently he is involved in a number of editorial projects connected to politics, ethics and religion.

Seminars 2009 January - June

Seminars 2008 January - June

Seminars 2008 July - December