Colloquium: Three Philosophers of Religion — Counter-traditions in Conversation

For an afternoon of open presentations and exchange, this colloquium brings together three scholars with distinct approaches to philosophy of religion. The three perspectives—foregrounding Levinasian ethics, rabbinic hermeneutics, and Irigaray’s feminist philosophy—will enter into dialogue as three distinct voices, but with the common determinator that they each challenge mainstream views.

Schedule
14:15 – 14:30 Welcome address

14:30 – 15:15 Panu-Matti Pöykkö: Levinas, Thickness of the Real, and a New Modality of Faith

15:15 – 16:00 Laila Seri: Brushing Against the Grain: “Talmudic Reading” as a Philosophical Method

16:00 – 16:30 Tea & coffee

16:30 – 17:15 Patrik Fridlund: Opening the French Window Behind the Curtain of Sexual Difference — Reading Luce Irigaray

17:15 – 18:30 Round table: Three Interventions, Three Perspectives — Or Not?

Speakers
Patrik Fridlund is Associate Professor (docent) of philosophy of religion at Lund University. Informed by readings of contemporary philosophers such as Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas and Paul Ricœur, Fridlund studies populism, post-truth and conspiracy theories from a philosophical perspective. The Belgian philosopher Luce Irigaray is a constant source of inspiration for his work.

Panu-Matti Pöykkö holds a PhD in philosophy of religion from University of Helsinki. His doctoral thesis is titled “The Ambivalent Other: A Transcendental Reading of Emmanuel Levinas”. He is currently post-doc at the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki and a member of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Meliorist Philosophy of Suffering. 

Laila Seri holds a PhD in philosophy of religion with ethics from Lund University. Her thesis is titled “In Search of Another Law: Three Talmudic Readings of Benjamin's Kafka” and contributes to contemporary discourse on Talmud and philosophy through a reading of Walter Benjamin’s Kafka essays. 

Chairperson
Valeria Dessy is a Visiting Research Fellow in Church History at Lund University. She holds a PhD in Theology from Aarhus University and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Milan. At Aarhus University she participated in a research project on contemporary philosophy of dialogue.

The event is sponsored by Oscar & Signe Krooks stiftelse