ISRS 2022/2023 seminars
We invite you to the next seminars (on-line) organized by ISRS. The first will be on 27th October 2022. Dr Anne Pirrie (University of West of Scotland, UK) will talk about finitude, solitude, and the renewal of generosity.
This contribution takes its inspiration from Edward Jabès’ observation that ‘thought has no ties: it lives by encounter and dies of solitude’ (Jabès, 1994). It will draw on reflections that have arisen in the process of organising a ‘convivium’ for a young colleague who is facing a terminal illness (Pirrie, 2022).
Facing the prospect of one’s imminent demise can be a time when we are confronted with being ‘but one’ in our mortality. And yet perhaps it is only by engaging with our mortality that we can make sense of what is meaningful in our lives and what is not. Only in this way can we fully appreciate the preciousness of the now and the intimacy of human connection, qualities that paradoxically are perhaps best appreciated in solitude, or in alone/together forms of association (in a theatre or cinema, for instance). Organising the convivium referred to above has brought about an anticipated ‘renewal of generosity’ among the prospective participants, casting further light on the being alone/together in higher education that was the subject of my co-authored contribution to the Bloomsbury Handbook of Solitude, Silence and Loneliness. The heightened sense of community and solidarity generated by the prospect of the convivium was also the animating principle for the creation of Dancing in the Dark. A Survivor’s Guide to the University, a richly illustrated pocket book (an anti-handbook, of sorts) in which the art and the text live by encounter and die of solitude (Pirrie et al, 2022).
Frank, A. (2004) The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine and How to Live. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jabès, E. (1996) The Little Book of Unsuspected Subversion, Stanford University Press.
Pirrie. A. (2022) ‘Educating for (the blossomest) of blossoms’, presentation at a convivium on the arts, finitude and education at Moray House School of Education, 29th October 2022.
Pirrie, A., Fang, N. and O’Brien, E. (2022) Review of Dancing in the Dark. A Survivor’s Guide to the University, Educational Philosophy and Theory
If you are interested in participating, please send an email to write.isrs@gmail.com
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