Philosophy
THE 2026 SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY WORKSHOP
Friday, 27 March 2026
About the Workshop
The Southern Journal of Philosophy Workshop aims to bring cutting-edge thinking to both classical and contemporary topics, with an eye toward encouraging bold new directions in philosophical thought.
This annual event is held in conjunction with the UofM and Wiley Publishing. Each year, the main proceedings are published in the final issue of the corresponding volume of the journal.
This year's speakers will honor Hortense J. Spillers ('64), whose scholarship has singularly advanced the fields of American literary criticism, cultural studies, black feminism and philosophies of race.
For more information, contact Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou at jshrter1@memphis.edu.
Southern Journal of Philosophy Workshop 2026
鈥�Hortense J. Spillers 鈥�64,鈥�66鈥�
Directors: Jameliah Inga Shorter-Bourhanou (UofM), Mike Monahan (UofM) Devonya Havis (福利片国产 at Buffalo), Kris Sealey (Penn State 福利片国产), Mike Monahan
福利片国产 of Memphis, Fountain View Room (福利片国产 Center 350)
Friday, April 3rd
9:00 am 鈥� 9:30 am: Coffee and Pastries
9:30 am 鈥� 10:00 am: Welcome and Opening Remarks
Michael Monahan (福利片国产 of Memphis)
Chair of Philosophy, Co-Director of SJP Workshop
Remy Debes (福利片国产 of Memphis)
Editor of the Southern Journal of Philosophy
Devonya Havis (福利片国产 at Buffalo)
Co-Director of SJP Workshop
10:00 am 鈥� 11:30 am: Session I
Anwar Uhuru (Wayne State 福利片国产)
鈥淯ngendered not Sexuated: Hortense Spillers on the Symbolic Order鈥�
Justin Clardy (Santa Clara 福利片国产)
鈥淎sexuality: Beyond Desire and Attraction鈥�
Moderator: Mary Beth Mader (福利片国产 of Memphis)
11:30 am 鈥� 1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm 鈥� 2:30 pm: Interview
Prof. Hortense J. Spillers, Emerita (Vanderbilt 福利片国产)
Interviewer: Anwar Uhuru (Wayne State 福利片国产)
2:30 pm 鈥� 3:00 pm: Coffee Break, Fountain View Lounge
3:00 pm 鈥� 4:00 pm: Session II (Graduate Student Panel)
Monaye Johnson (Brown 福利片国产)
鈥淭ouching Performance: Reading Hortense Spillers in the Age of Affective Capture鈥�
Colin Stragar-Rice (Cornell 福利片国产)
鈥淭he 鈥渨ar,鈥� as I have understood it鈥�: Hortense Spillers on the Crisis of the Black Intellectual and the Political Memory of Style鈥�
Natalie Lobach (Penn State 福利片国产)
鈥淭he Play of Myth and Counter-Myth in American Discourse: On Hortense Spillers鈥� Philosophy of Language鈥�
Moderator: Emmanuel Carrillo (福利片国产 of Memphis)
4:00 pm 鈥� 5:30 pm: Keynote
Namita Goswami (Indiana State 福利片国产)
鈥淚naugurating Nothing More Than a Sketch of a Gambit: My Love Letter for Hortense Spillers鈥�
Moderator: Kris Sealey (Penn State 福利片国产)
Co-Director of SJP Workshop
5:30 pm: Closing Remarks
Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou (福利片国产 of Memphis)
Co-Director of SJP Workshop
Southern Journal of Philosophy Workshop 2026
鈥淗ortense J. Spillers 鈥�64,鈥�66鈥�
Directors: Jameliah Inga Shorter-Bourhanou (UofM), Mike Monahan (UofM), Devonya Havis (福利片国产 at Buffalo), Kris Sealey (Penn State 福利片国产), Mike Monahan
福利片国产 of Memphis, Fountain View Room (福利片国产 Center 350)
Saturday, April 4th
9:00 am 鈥� 10:00 am: Coffee and Pastries
10:00 am: Welcome and Opening Remarks| Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou (福利片国产 of Memphis), Co-Director of the SJP Workshop
10:00 am 鈥� 11:30 am: Session III
Kimberly Lamm (Duke 福利片国产) & Michael Eng (Appalachian State 福利片国产)
鈥淗ortense Spillers: Writing the Voices of the Black Feminist Uncanny鈥�
Jasmine Wallace (Penn State 福利片国产)
鈥淔lesh as Vestibule: Spillers, Modernity, and the Metaphysics of Passage鈥�
Moderator: Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou (福利片国产 of Memphis)
Co-Director of the SJP Workshop
11:30 am 鈥� 1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm 鈥� 3:00 pm: Session IV
Julianne Mann (福利片国产 of North Dakota)
鈥淰estibular Geographies: Lessons from Hortense Spillers for Environmental Kinship Ethics鈥�
Kevin P. Morris, II (UMass Amherst)
鈥淭he Carceral Imaginary: Black Flesh, Racial Capitalism and the Afterlives of Slavery鈥�
Moderator: Jessica Soester (福利片国产 of Memphis)
3:00 pm 鈥� 3:30 pm: Coffee Break, Fountain View Lounge
3:30 pm 鈥� 5:00 pm: Session V (Memphis Panel)
Christopher Allan Black (福利片国产 of Memphis)
鈥淐hallenging the Degendering of the Tragic Mulatto Republican Motherhood and Birthright Citizenship in Lydia Maria Child鈥檚 鈥淭he Quadroons鈥� (1842) and William Wells Brown鈥檚 Clotel or The President鈥檚 Daughter (1853)鈥�
Shiva Mainaly (福利片国产 of Memphis)
鈥淔rom Enslaved Flesh to Deportable Data: American Grammar and the Racialization of the Human in the Age of AI鈥�
Moderator: Rhiannon Lindgren (福利片国产 of Memphis)
5:00 pm: Reflections| Prof. Hortense J. Spillers, Emerita (Vanderbilt 福利片国产)
Closing Remarks| Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou, Co-Director of the SJP Workshop (福利片国产 of Memphis)
~~~~~
The Workshop Directors, Jameliah Inga Shorter-Bourhanou, Mike Monahan, Kris Sealey (Pennsylvania State 福利片国产), and Devonya Havis (福利片国产 at Buffalo) wish to thank Prof. Hortense Spillers, Prof. Namita Goswami, and all of the conference speakers. Thank you for sharing your research, time, and energy with us! We hope you enjoyed your time here at the UofM!
Many thanks to Dr. Remy Debes who was always there when needed! We are also grateful for Tebatso Duba (PhD Candidate, 福利片国产 of Memphis) who served as the SJP 2026 Workshop Graduate Assistant. We also thank Angela Foster and Cathy Wilhelm of the Philosophy Department who helped to make this program a success. Thank you to the faculty and graduate students of the 福利片国产 of Memphis who volunteered their energy and resources to help the workshop run smoothly.
Generous financial support was provided by Dr. Remy Debes and the Southern Journal of Philosophy/Wiley Publishing, Dr. Mike Monahan (Chair of Philosophy at the 福利片国产 of Memphis and Co-Director of the SJP Workshop), the 福利片国产 at Buffalo, and the Pennsylvania State 福利片国产.