An audience of people listening to a speaker give a presentation

Human sciences seminars

An annual series of research seminars exploring a wide range of philosophical topics in both the analytic and continental tradition.

About

About these seminars

Organised by the University’s philosophy section, the human sciences research seminars are held regularly in the autumn and spring terms and feature talks by speakers from across the world.

All events are held on the Manchester Met campus. Please see the latest programme of events for specifics regarding buildings, rooms and times.

The series was founded by David Melling and Wolfe Mays in 1979 out of a desire to explore the various human sciences in a systematic way from the standpoint of critical philosophy.

It has run without break for nearly 40 years and continues thanks to the generous support of the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

Past speakers have included:

  • Prof Adrian Moore, University of Oxford

  • Prof Jeffrey A Bell, Southeastern Louisiana University

  • Prof Tina Chanter,Newcastle University

Who should attend?

The seminars are open to everyone. Attendees usually include a mix of interested members of the public, academic staff and postgraduate students. Registration for the majority of our talks is not required, but please see the latest programme for details.

This year's events

Seminars 2021/22

Each seminar explores a relevant topic, with presentations from leading researchers in their field.

Time: 17.00-19.00 (unless otherwise stated)

Room: GM 230 (unless otherwise stated)

Geoffrey Manton Building

Rosamond St. West

M15 6LL

  • 28 October 2021: DrSebastian Truskolaski (University of Manchester) - Bilderverbot: Adorno and the Ban on Images

  • 18 November 2021: DrTommy Curry (University of Edinburgh) - Decolonizing the intersection through a Reconstituting of the Black Male Object

  • 9 December 2021: Professor Sorin Baiasu (Keele University) - Kant, Sartre and (Self-)Consciousness: A Response to Skirke and Golob​​​​​​
  • 27 January 2022: Dr Joanna Burch-Brown (University of Bristol) - Public Lecture
  • 17 February 2022: DrSilvia Panizza (University College Dublin) - Simone Weil: defining the impossible
  • 24 March 2022: Dr Kamini Velodi (University of Edinburgh) - Title TBC
  • 7 April 2022: DrKate Kirkpatrick (University of Oxford) - Title TBC

ALL WELCOME

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Christopher Thomas

Department of History, Politics and Philosophy,

Manchester Metropolitan University

Geoffrey Manton Building

Manchester, M15 6LL

c.thomas@mmu.ac.uk

http://bit.ly/humansciencesseminar

Featured speakers

Featured speakers

Past events

  • Autumn 2019 / Spring 2020
    3 October: Phenomenological Innocence

    • Dr Sacha Golob, King’s College London

    24 October: Two Pyramids and a Measuring Rod: The Lorentz Transformations and Some Reflections on Michel Serres’ Principle of Scaling

    • Dr Bill Ross, Independent Scholar

    14 November: Philosophical Time-Travellers

    • Prof John Ó Maoilearca, Kingston University

    28 November: Making Sense of Politics 

    • Prof Jeffrey Bell, Southeastern Louisiana University

    23 January: Asceticism and Ethics

    • Dr Deborah Casewell, Liverpool Hope University

    28 February: To lose one’s bearings: Levinas on solitude, art and confinement

    • Prof Tina Chanter, Kingston University

    19 March: Reflections on Race in the History and Historiography of Philosophy: Fanon’s case

    • Dr Lucie Mercier, UoC Berkeley and Paris 8

    26 March: What is a Philosophical Art History?

    • Dr Kamini Vellodi, University of Edinburgh

  • August 2018 / Spring 2019
    4 October: Butler and Sellars: Unlikely Bedfellows? The Metaphilosophical Potential of Butler’s Critique of Feminist Identity Politics
    • Paul Giladi, Manchester Metropolitan University
    19 October: Immortality and Infinity
    • Adrian Moore, University of Oxford
    8 November: Deleuze and Guattari’s Institutional Philosophy
    • Edward Thornton, Royal Holloway, University of London
    29 November: On Left Spinozism
    • Neil Turnbull, Nottingham Trent University
    17 January: Dread and Dialectic: Heidegger, Sartre, and the Interface of Freedom and History
    • Matt Barnard, Manchester Metropolitan University
    7 February: ‘Molecular’ transformations: Gramsci and Deleuze and Guattari
    • Rob Jackson, Manchester Metropolitan University
    28 February: Bruno Latour and Distrust in Science
    • Liz de Freitas, Manchester Metropolitan University
    21 March: Recognition, Attention and Habits of Perception
    • Danielle Petherbridge, University College Dublin

  • Autumn 2017 / Spring 2018
    28 September: Several different ways we could have avoided Donald Trump: a survey of single-winner voting systems
    • Dr Adam Rieger, University of Glasgow
    12 October: Consequentialism and Free Will: The Conditional Analysis Resuscitated
    • Dr Maria Svedberg, Uppsala University/University of Manchester
    16 November: Lit From Within: a cognitive illusion about the self
    • Dr Lea Salje, University of Leeds
    30 November: The Complex Reality of Pain
    • Dr Jennifer Corns, University of Glasgow
    22 February: Deriving Culture from Nature: Articulate and Inarticulate Bodies in Spinoza’s Philosophy of Nature
    • Dr Christopher Thomas, Manchester Met

Presented with support from

Logo of the Royal Institute of Philosophy

The Royal Institute of Philosophy

Contact us

Contact us

For more information about the seminar series, you can contact Dr Christopher Thomas.

Email Christopher