York welcomes the seventh North American Schelling Society conference to campus  

Laptop and coffee cup

NASS 7: Schelling and Philosophies of Life will be hosted at York University in a hybrid format, with an in-person meeting from May 24 to 26 in the Accolade East building at the Keele Campus and in an online meeting from May 30 to June 1.  

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling
Image: Wikimedia Commons

The North American Schelling Society (NASS) hosts a conference every other year in a different North American location. NASS7 has been postponed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The theme of this year’s conference is “Schelling and Philosophies of Life.” Life is presented in diverse ways in Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling’s many works. Schelling’s nature philosophy gives prominence to organic life. Yet his emphasis on the activity of nature draws attention to the dynamic vitality of all natural phenomena. Many value Schelling’s work for its rich openings to spiritual life or the life of the mind. Some read his philosophy as a conspiracy of life and as exposing the tensions at the heart of philosophical systems. The conference also explores the connections of Schelling’s work to the philosophy of art and the history of philosophy. 

The conference will feature speakers from across North America as well as from across Europe. The North American Schelling Society is pleased to welcome several members of the Japanese Schelling Society for the first time to one of its meetings. 

Several York University graduate students will present papers at the conference. PhD students Robert O’Shea Brown, Cecilia Inkol and Chris Satoor in the Graduate Program in Humanities, are participating in the conference. Tyler Gasteiger and Shavez Imam, from the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought, are also giving talks. Associate Professor Joan Steigerwald from the Department of Humanities is the organizer of the conference. Associate Professor Jay Goulding in the Department of Social Sciences is also presenting a paper at the in-person meeting. Conference details and schedules are available on the NASS website.  

Adrian Johnston, Chair and distinguished professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and a faculty member at the Emory Psychoanalytic Institute in Atlanta will provide a keynote address during the NASS 7 conference. Johnston is the author of a number of books which address contemporary issues in philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychology, materialist theory, neuroscience and political theory. His current research interests have turned to Schelling’s nature philosophy.  

Participants who cannot attend in person will have access to the in-person presentations through the conference website. In-person participants may also participate in the virtual meeting. The website will have discussion forums for ongoing conversations. The conference website for this hybrid meeting is being maintained by York University Learning Technology Services. 

This event is sponsored by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant; the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; Department of Humanities; Vice-President Research and Innovation; Vice-President Academic and Provost; Faculty of Graduate Studies; Social and Political Thought graduate program; Department of Philosophy; Department of Political Science; and Faculty of Education. 

Further information about NASS7 can be found online. Registration is available through Eventbrite.