Although the German-Jewish-American Hannah Arendt refused the label of philosopher, and spent about half of her life abroad, she is most certainly fair game for historians of the intellectual life in the United States. She lived from 1906 to 1975.
As I understand things, Arendt’s best-known—and perhaps most influential—book was The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951). Another important Arendt work was The Human Condition (1958).
I confess that although I’m game to learn more and am fascinated by Arendt’s life, I have not read any of her works. I only indirectly knew of her speculations about totalitarianism and that she had made a splash in the 1950s. After that, I’m unsure of her overall influence in political theory and on U.S. intellectual life. I’d love to hear from Arendt scholars or enthusiasts in the comments.
On the conference, the due date for abstracts is November 14. It appears that history and not just philosophy papers are welcome. – TL
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CALL FOR PAPERS
The Departments of Philosophy, Communications, and Foreign Languages at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville will be hosting the third independent conference for the Hannah Arendt Circle March 27-29, 2009.
We invite individual submissions for papers on any aspect of Arendt’s work, including critiques and applications of her thinking.
Please send an abstract of the paper, by e-mail (750 word limit). Abstracts should be formatted for anonymous review and submitted to the program committee chair, Karin Fry at [email protected] on or before November 14th, 2008.
Please indicate “Arendt Circle submission” in the subject heading, and include the abstract as a “.doc” attachment to your message. Program decisions will be announced by the end of December.
Program Committee:
Karin Fry, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point
Tama Weisman, Quincy University
Irene McMullin, University of Arkansas
Our first two independent meetings were outstanding, and we are looking forward to the same camaraderie and intense discussion of Arendt’s work at this year’s conference. Each speaker will have approximately 35 minutes for paper presentation and discussion combined —papers should be a maximum of 3000 words (15-20 minutes).
The University of Arkansas is located in the beautiful Ozark Mountains.
Lodging has been reserved at Carnell Hall: 1-800-295-9118.
Program and other information will be available no later than January
2009 here.
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