“Levinas,
the
Environment,
and
Cultures
of
Place”
May13-15,2012|Anchorage,Alaska
CallForPapers
…[E]arth,
sea,
light,
city.
Every
relation
or
possession
is
situated
within
the
non-possessable
which
envelops
or
contains
without
being
able
to
be
contained
or
enveloped.
We
shall
call
it
the
elemental….
The
element
has
no
forms
containing
it;
it
is
content
without
form.
Or
rather
it
has
but
a
side
[face]:
the
surface
of
the
sea
and
of
the
field,
the
edge
of
the
wind….
“Nothing
ends,
nothing
begins.”
[.
.
.]
Hence
we
can
say
that
the
element
comes
to
us
from
nowhere….
It
is
wind,
earth,
sea,
sky,
air.
~Levinas,
Totality
and
Infinity
The
North American Levinas Society is excited to announce that our
seventh annual meeting and conference will take place May 13-15, 2012
in beautiful downtown Anchorage, Alaska.
Our
2012
conference
hopes
to
take
advantage
of
the
distinctive
environmental
and
cultural
opportunities
unique
to
Alaska
in
order
to
open
our
readings
of
Levinas’
work
to
a
number
of
difficult
questions
and
challenges.
“Alaska”—derived
from
the
Aleut
word,
alaxsxaq,
meaning
“the
Great
Land”—is
a
land
of
unparalleled
beauty,
and
while
its
very
name
often
conjures
wilderness
images
of
sublime
geological
landscapes
and
rich
ecological
diversity,
it
is
a
land
marked
also
by
complicated
histories—of
rich
indigenous
cultures,
brutal
colonialism,
devastating
militarism,
mercantilism,
and
frontierism.
