Jacques Derrida’s

Participants will attend from colleges and universities throughout the United States and overseas.  Some of the schools involved include the Université Lille 3-Charles de Gaulle, the University of Southern California, Emory University, DePaul University, Concordia University, Bard College, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Memphis.

Kas Saghafi of the U of M’s Philosophy Department is the director of this year’s three-day conference.  Keynote speakers will be Peggy Kamuf of USC and Geoffrey Bennington of Emory, both general editors of the English translations of Deridda’s seminars. 

Derrida was an influential French philosopher who taught from1960 to 2003.  He argued that there were unacknowledged theological roots of political concepts and modern political institutions and practices.  In his seminars he examined in detail the works of Plato, Rousseau, Kant, Hugo, Camus, Schmitt, and Heidegger, among others, to question the supposed secularism of the modern nation-state.

The Spindel Conference is named in honor of the late Memphian Murray Spindel, who participated in University of Memphis philosophy courses for many years and became actively involved in the intellectual and social life of the department.  An endowment from him and his wife, Chris, funds the annual conference, which now bears their name.

Each year, the proceedings of the conference are published as a supplement to The Southern Journal of Philosophy.

Details about this year’s conference are available online at www.memphis.edu/philosophy/spindel_2011.php.