Roundtables
Roundtable on Peter Winch's The Just Balance
Peter Winch’s Simone Weil: The Just Balance has been one of the most important philosophical works on Simone Weil since it appeared in 1989. The book is not an easy one, and many of the questions that Winch pursued, and what he was after in pursuing them, have not been fully understood. This panel discusses Winch’s book, tackling questions such as: How did Winch read Wittgenstein? How did his reading of Wittgenstein inform his interpretation of Weil? What attracted him to Weil in the first place, and why did her work continue to occupy his thought?
Conversation with all colloquy participants will be encouraged. It is hoped that audience members will get a chance to read or reread Winch’s book prior to the colloquy.
With the participation of:
Eric Springstead, Chair
Mario von der Ruhr, Emeritus, Swansea University, UK
David Cockburn, Emeritus, University of Wales Trinity St David, UK
John Edelman, Emeritus, Nazareth College, Rochester, NY
Steven A. M. Burns, Emeritus, Dalhousie University, Canada
Roundtable: Rethinking Theology
(Friday Zoom Series)
"Rethinking Theology" is a group of young scholars working on the role theology plays and can play in the crises and aporias of the twenty-first century asking what ultimately matters. In this panel each of the five members of "Rethinking Theology" will give a brief summary of how their investigation into the present state and future possibilities of theology can draw on Simone Weil. The panel is envisaged as a virtual roundtable which will include issues like: how Weil’s concept of decreation speaks to the growing confluence of climate denialism and Christian white nationalism; how Weil’s analysis of force illuminates contemporary research in sociology and political science; Weil’s understanding of beauty and prayer and their relationship to negative aesthetic circumstances and feelings; Weil’s reception and re-application of biblical imaginaries against the backdrop of fundamentalist biblicism; and eusymbiotic practices in times of the pandemic and the loss of solidarity. In striving for a politically sensitive theology, "Rethinking Theology" is committed to transcending the political thinker/religious thinker divide in Weil scholarship - not only to do justice to Weil, but also heading for a theology that is accountable to the political implications it always bears.
With the participation of:
Emily King, University of Chicago
Gwen Dupré, University of Oxford
Joanna Winterø, University of Copenhagen
Mac Loftin, Harvard University
Tom Sojer, University of Erfurt
Roundtable on translating Weil's work
April 1st 2022, 11:30 - 1:00 pm EST
(Friday Zoom Series)
A special roundtable with scholars producing new English translations of Simone Weil’s writings.
With the participation of:
Ros Schwartz - New translation of L'Enracinement / The Need for Roots for Penguin Classics, UK (forthcoming November 2022).
Silvia Panizza and Philip Wilson - Translation of Venise Sauvée for Bloomsbury Press. They are also currently translating Simone Weil's poems (for Bloomsbury).
Tess Lewis, an internationally acclaimed translator, will moderate the discussion on the challenges of translating Weil’s works into English.
Q & A will follow.
Robert Chenavier
