Limits of and Beyond Experience 9.–11.4.2014
The aim of the seminar is to discuss the theoretical and methodological possibilities of studying human experiences that are at the limit of our understanding or perhaps beyond it. How to study the invisible, voices which are not shared intersubjectively, presence which is experienced convincingly as being true but which is weird? These experiences have been of interest to phenomenology in the form of “boundary experiences”. Representations and narrations of “otherworldly beings” and conceptions of magic are also a core area of research within folklore studies and anthropology.
However, within present day research we are still facing a great deal of confusion. People frequently report experiences that they find“supernatural”, “paranormal”, “extraordinary”, or “otherworldly”. There is a lack of unambiguous concepts to describe or understand these phenomena. The applied notions are problematic, skewed, and largely stigmatizing, which consequently affects the everyday life situations of people reporting these kinds of experiences.
Schedule
April 9, 2014
Guest lecture 16–18 (Sirkkala campus, Janus-hall)
Prof. Robert Desjarlais (Sarah Lawrence College, NY, USA): Hitchhiking Beatitudes: A Personal Cultural History of Rough Travel
Organized by Cultural History, University of Turku
April 10, 2014
Plenary lecture 10–12 (Sirkkala campus, Janus-hall)
Prof. Robert Desjarlais (Sarah Lawrence College, NY, USA): Strangeness at the Mouth of Death
Lunch break 12–13.30
Workshop 13.30–17
April 11, 2014
Plenary lecture 10–12 (Sirkkala campus, Janus-hall)
Prof. Ülo Valk (University of Tartu, Estonia): Narratives of ghosts in contemporary post-soviet Estonia
Lunch break 12–13.30
Workshop 13.30–17
The plenary lectures are free for all. Preliminary registration is required for the workshops.
Please send you registration to varpu.alasuutari@utu.fi by April 1, 2014.
Welcome!
On behalf of the research project ‘Mind and the Other’, funded by the Academy of Finland
Marja-Liisa Honkasalo
mindandother.com
www.utu.fi/ktt
Welcome!
On behalf of the research project ‘Mind and the Other’, funded by the Academy of Finland
Marja-Liisa Honkasalo
mindandother.com
www.utu.fi/ktt
