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Continental Philosophy

Among our professors who specialize in areas of Continental philosophy, particular interests include German Idealism and Romanticism, Contemporary Continental Philosophy (including Phenomenology, Existentialism, Philosophical Hermeneutics, Critical Theory), Philosophy and Literature, and Feminist Theory. This area in the Department maintains a very active scholarly calendar. The Department is home to a Continental Study Group, which meets monthly to discuss texts or attend lectures in Continental Philosophy. We also regularly host conferences; recently, for example: The Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy; Hermeneutics, the Humanities, and the Future of Interpretation; The Arendt Circle; Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem: 50 years on; The History of Philosophy Society; On Heidegger’s ‘National-Humanism’: A symposium on Derrida’s Geschlecht III. In 2022, Texas A&M will host the annual meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. The Department is also home to Epoché: a journal for the history of philosophy.

Departmental strengths in Continental Philosophy are complemented by the teaching and research of faculty members who work in the History of Philosophy, Aesthetics, Social and Political Philosophy, Metaphysics, Classical American Philosophy, Africana Philosophy, and Latin-American/Latinx Philosophy.

Students also benefit from the larger College and University environment. Faculty members trained in or sympathetic to Continental Philosophy work in the departments and programs of French, German, Political Science, Hispanic Studies, Performance Studies, Film Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, Geography, Communication, Comparative Literature, Africana Studies, Architecture, and English.

FACULTY DOING RESEARCH IN CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY INCLUDE:

  • Daniel Conway maintains active teaching and research interests in post-Kantian European philosophy, contemporary political theory, philosophy of film and literature, philosophy and religion, and genocide studies. His recent publications include papers on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Arendt, Camus, French existentialism, the “death of God,” and depictions of genocide in the cinematic genre of science fiction.
  • Theodore George focuses on continental European philosophy since Kant, with emphasis on Gadamer, contemporary hermeneutics, contemporary continental ethics, philosophy of art and aesthetics, as well as Hegel and German Idealism and Romanticism.
  • Claire Katz
  • Kristi Sweet works principally on Kant and German Idealism. Her training is in Continental Philosophy and the history of philosophy more broadly, and she publishes in ethics, aesthetics, and social and political philosophy. She is founder and Executive Co-Director of the History of Philosophy Society, and she is the Director of the Collegium Phaenomenologicum as well as host of SPEP in 2022.