Call for Participation 
Winter Symposium 2025

The I that writes:
auto-theory as poetic attention 

NSU Study Circle 4 An/Other\not-I/(m)\Other in Feminist Philosophy
invites you to participate in its Winter Symposium.
27-30 March 2025, Turku, Finland

What does it mean to write what we perceive, as we perceive it? Who is this I that writes? How is this I written? Fournier argues that the autotheoretical turn signals the tenuousness of illusory separations between art and life, theory and practice, work and the self. (1)

Auto-theory, although the label is perhaps not the right one, can be understood as a way of returning our attention to the relationship of the self with ourself and the other around us. It requires a high degree of compassion and with-ness. (2) At its heart this type of attention is a religious practice: “it is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer. If we turn our mind towards the good, it is impossible that little by little the whole soul will not be attracted there to in spite of itself.” (3) This kind of attention and its phenomenological foundation is, according to Matisse, what makes something art: “All art worthy of the name is religious. Be it a creation of lines, or colours: if it is not religious, it does not exist. If it is not religious, it is only a matter of documentary art, anecdotal art … which is no longer art.” (4)

Another question we would like to explore is ‘what is the opposite of auto-theory?’ We expect the answer to this is… auto-theory, in the sense that Catharine Malabou expresses the following about gentleness: “The true enemy of gentleness is… gentleness. Fake gentleness, mawkishness, this passivity sold to us via every New Age commercial technique, of relaxation or of an overused meaning of ‘zen’. This gentleness that one does not feel and is another name for an indifference to authentic gentleness.” (5)

Invitation

In this symposium we invite participants to share their own work and explorations around these themes. 

We are actively welcoming proposals for workshops, proposals for collaborative and interactive sessions, which may be accompanied by presentations and theoretical framing. We welcome personal experiences and artistic practices. We discourage formal and purely academic presentations. If you would like to (in addition) propose a reading of a specific work, we welcome you to share your suggestions. 

Please send an email with your application, including a title of your workshop and a short description (2 paragraphs is sufficient) to: nicole.nobyeni@nsuweb.org

Please also include practical information as discussed below. 

Deadline: 31 January 2025. If you wish to attend without proposing a workshop/session, the deadline is 28 February 2025.

Practical Information

Unfortunately we will not be able to support participants with funds for travel and accommodation.

The participation fee includes:

• accommodation for 27th of March until 30th of March, including breakfast
• all meals during the conference, so: lunch and dinner
• coffee breaks with snacks
• NSU membership fee 2025 (25 euro)

We will be reserving low-cost accommodation in Turku for participants. Once you have paid the participation fee, we will reserve that type of accommodation for you – please select the type of room you prefer, shared double room or single room.

For students and self-employed people, we offer discounts. Please ask for the discount code to enter while booking. We will not return money, so please ask us for the code if you fall in the discount category (no proof needed).

Participation fees:

• No accommodation – 60 euro (discount: 35 euro)
• Shared accommodation – 170 euro (discount: 120 euro)
• Single room accommodation – 230 euro (discount: 165 euro)

Please write in the notes when booking, when you would like to share your room with a specific person, and we will try to honour all wishes if possible.

This conference is co-organised and co-funded by Polin Institute, Turku, Finland. Another funder is the Swedish Academy (Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien).

About this Study Circle

This study circle explores feminist methods of collaboration in reading and writing, and returns again and again to several contemporary thinkers: Bracha Ettinger, Luce Irigaray,  Djamila Ribeiro, as well as Audre Lorde, Maggie Nelson, Clarice Lispector, bell hooks, Anne Dufourmantelle and Conceição Evaristo. 

Footnotes

1. Autotheory as Feminist Practice in Art, Writing, and Criticism, Lauren Fournier, MIT Press 2022.
2. See the work of Bracha Ettinger.
3. Simone Weil.
4. As paraphrased in Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood, Allen & Unwin 2023.
5. Catharine Malabou, in the introduction to The Power of Gentleness: Meditations on the Risk of Living by Anne Dufourmantelle, Fordham University Press, 2018.