Lectures and Events
KEYNOTES – For International Academic Associations / Research Institutes
Vienna, May 22, 2025
Bras (France) – Dante conférances, January-March 2025
Navarra (Spain) January, 2025 Seminarios Filosofia Navarra 2024-2025
London (UK), July 13, 2024
*Featured Speaker for A Dante Conversation with John Took and David Mcleod Black, moderator Aaron B. Daniels, Psychology & the Other London Conference, Northeastern University’s London Campus, Devon House, St. Katherine’s Docks, London, England, July 13-14, 2024
***
Florence Italy, May-June, 2024
The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Villa i Tatti), William Franke | I Tatti | The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Francesco de Dombrowski Visiting Professor, Florence, Italy, Spring, 2024
Pavia, Italy, May 2, 2024
“Politiche identitarie e giustizia sociale: Come rifondare l’etica e la politica dopo la rivoluzione woke,” Collegio Fratelli Cairoli, Facoltà di Filosofia, University of Pavia, May 2, 2024
Videorecording of Lecture: “Come rifondare l’etica e la politica dopo la rivoluzione woke”?
Paris, December 15, 2023
“Kénose et wokisme : une alternative à l’instrumentalisation de la justice sociale” [“Kenosis and Wokisme: An Alternative to the Weaponizing of Social Justice”], Symposium on René Girard and the Bible: « Girard, Lecteur de l’Écriture », Collège des Bernardins, Paris, France, December 15, 2023
Boston, October 5-9, 2023
Invited Address for the Third Dante Salon at Psychology and the Other Conference, Boston College, October 5-9, 2023
Videorecording of Boston College Vita Nuova lecture: William Franke, “Dante’s New Life, or How Phenomenological Reduction Enables Theological Revelation” (youtube.com)
|
|
William Franke, “Dante’s New Life, or How Phenomenological Reduction Enables Theological Revelation”
This lecture presents Dante’s youthful work the Vita Nuova (The New Life) as the inaugural work of modern phenomenology and as fully revealing of the latter’…
|
Krakow, Poland, June 26- July 2, 2023
IPS International Plato Society
“Taking Letters Literally and Figuring the Unsayable: Plato’s Apophatic Legacy,” GUEST LECTURE for 7th Platonic Summer Seminar: ἄγραφα δόγματα, Lanckorona (Krakao), Poland, June 25-August 2, 2023
|
|
GUEST LECTURE for 7th Platonic Summer Seminar: ἄγραφα δόγματα, Lanckorona (Krakow), Poland, June 25-July 2, 2023
|
Warsaw, Poland, May 11, 2023
“Transmedial Transmissions: Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Cult of the ‘Vita Nova,’” FEATURED LECTURE for the International Seminar in Philosophy, Architecture, Education, and Legislation: The Truth of/in Painting, Philosophy Department, University of Warsaw [via Google meet]
Warwick, England, April 13-14, 2023
“Pandemics and Apocalypse in World Literature and Indigenous Salvation,” KEYNOTE SPEECH for Processing the Pandemic III: Hope, University of Warwick, Warwick, England, April 13-14, 2023
Call for Proposals_ Processing the Pandemic III
|
|
KEYNOTE SPEECH for Symposium on “Processing the Pandemic III: Hope,”Interdisciplinary Approaches to Emotions in the Wake of COVID19,Center for Renaissance St…
|
Kuwait, February 7-9, 2023
*“Unaying Wokeism, or the Role of Self-Critique in Judging Others” KEYNOTE SPEECH Home | GUST International Conference 2023 Gulf University of Science and Technology, Mubarak Al-Abdullah, Kuwait, February 7-9, 2023
Conference Program – Kuwait HL
Apophatic Ethics as an Alternative to Identity Politics, or How to Avoid Wokeism GUST Newsletter mini-version
Newsletter | The Global Studies Center at Gulf University for Science and Technology (gust.edu.kw)
Nashville (USA) November 2022
*“Dante’s New Life for Poetic Language as Theological Revelation in a Modern Secular Key,” Inaugural Lecture for Annual Dante Lecture Series, Vanderbilt University, November 29, 2022, Nashville, Tennessee
Berlin May 2022
*“Self-Reflection and Reduction in the Language of Lyric,” Reduction Lecture Series, ICI (Institute for Cultural Inquiry) Berlin, May 16, 2022
Introduction by Manuele Gragnolati
Discussion
*“Self-reflection and the Other in Dante’s “Paradiso,”” Plenary Address for the Dante Salon at Psychology and the Other Conference, Boston College, September 17-19, 2021
University of Anbar, Iraq, May 2020
*“Much Virtue in Vagueness: Premonition of the Eternal and Encountering t he Other” Keynote Speech for Literary Workshop on: “Obsession with Eternity and Challenges of the Other,” Departments of Arabic and English, College of Arts, University of Anbar, Iraq, May 11, 2020 (online conference) Intervention starts at 1:25:51 in videorecording
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts October 2019
“Dante and Phenomenology”: PLENARY ADDRESS with respondent for “Psychology and the Other 2019 Conference,” section on “Dante and Phenomenology,” Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, October 4-6, 2019
Xi’an, Xianxi, China September 2019
“Religion, Culture, and Art: Their Common Matrix,” KEYNOTE SPEECH for ICRCA International Conference on Religion, Culture, and Art, MIGCCA (Modern International Green Culture Communication Association), (Co-Organizers: University of Zagreb, Yun Tech, University of Glasgow), Xi’an, China, September 21-22, 2019
Taiwan (Greater China) October 2018
“From Blake’s ‘Eternal Great Humanity Divine’ to Confucian Jūnzǐ 君子: Apophatic Paths between Post- and Pre-Modern Secularity and Divinity,” KEYNOTE SPEECH for Conference “Between Humanity and Divinity: In Literature, Art, Religion and Culture” of the Taiwan Association of Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies (TACMRS) National Chi Nan University, Taiwan, October 19-20, 2018
會議手冊 Taiwan TACMRS print program
https://www.stfran.qld.edu.au/keynote-presenters/
Brisbane, Australia June 2018
“Negative Theology and Negative Poetics: A Strained Relationship or an Elective Affinity?” KEYNOTE SPEECH for “Tell it Slant: A Symposium on Theology and the Arts,” St. Francis Theological College of Charles Sturt University, Brisbane, Australia, Public and Contextual Theology Research Centre (PACT), June 15-17, 2018
York, UK June 2018
“Apophatic Mysticism as Paradigm of Learned Ignorance,” KEYNOTE SPEECH for Conference “Paths Beyond Words: The Ways of Unsaying in Early Modernity” Centre for Research on Early Modern Studies (CREMS) and Humanities Research Centre (HRC), University of York, June 1, 2018
Lecture, with introduction by Kevin Killeen and questions from audience:
Full-length Lecture alone:
Oxford, UK September 2017
“Poetry as Prophecy: From Anthropological Origins to Postmodern Apocalypses” KEYNOTE SPEECH for The Prophetic Word: Poetry, Philosophy and Theology in Conversation, The Power of the Word International Conference V, Heythrop Institute for Religion and Society (Heythrop College, University of London) and the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture, Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford
Audio Recording of Oxford Poetic Prophecy Lecture, Part 1
Audio Recording of Oxford Poetic Prophecy Lecture, Part 2
Audio Recording of Oxford Poetic Prophecy Lecture, Part 3 (Questions & Answers)
Glasgow, UK December 2016
“Apophatic Paths from Europe to China: Method and Mysticism in Intercultural Philosophy” KEYNOTE SPEECH for Comparative Mysticism: Renewing a Neglected Project, Annual Conference of the Mystical Theology Network, University of Glasgow, Scotland, December 15, 2016
Beijing, China May 2016
“Universality of Knowledge and Specialization at the University: A Path from France to China,” KEYNOTE SPEECH for International Academic Conference to Inaugurate the School of Foreign Studies, Beijing Capitol University of Business and Economics (CUEB), Beijing, May 26, 2016
Beijing, China November 2015
“The Tradition of the Chinese Classics and the Idea of World Literature Today” KEYNOTE SPEECH (with simultaneous translation into Chinese) at International Symposium on “The Orient vs. The Occident: Cultural Exchanges and Influences,” sponsored by Foreign Language Department of Capital University of Economics and Business, jointly organized by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Capital International Culture Research Center of Beijing Language and Culture University, and the Comparative Literature Studies Center of Soochow University. Beijing, November 27-29, 2015
Macao (Greater China) January 2015 (conjoint with Institute for Advance Study of Religion, Toronto)
“Natural Cognition, Universals, and the Nothing of Religion” Keynote Address for “Cognition, Religion, and Science”: A Conference of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR), co-sponsored by the Toronto Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion Philosophy and Religious Studies Program, University of Macao, January 13-14, 2015
Pretoria, South Africa January 2012
“The Art of Memory or the Forgetting of Art? The Visionary Moment in Dante and Blanchot” KEYNOTE SPEECH for International Conference: “Memory: Impressions, Expressions, Reflections: An Interdisciplinary Conference,” The Department of English Studies at the University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, March 28, 2012
Bamberg, Germany March 2011
“Letargo and the Argo: Total Forgetting as the Moment of Truth at the Climax of Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Christian Epic Tradition” Internationale Nachwuchstagung des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs: Generationenbewußtsein und Generationenkonflikte in Antike und Mittelalter: “Erfahren, Erzählen, Errinern: Narrative Konstruktionen von Gedächtnis und Generation in Antike und Mittelalter”
[4th International Postgraduate Colloquium, DFG (German Research Foundation): “Record, Relate, Remember: Narrative Constructions of Memory and Generation in Antiquity and the Middle Ages”]
Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg, March 2- 4, 2011
Ankara, Turkey August 2010
“The Scientific Paradigm and the Poetic Epistemology of the Humanities” PLENARY ADDRESS: 12th International Conference of ISSEI (International Society for the Study of European Ideas): “Thought in Science and Fiction” Cankaya University, Ankara, Turkey, August 4, 2010
Tampere, Finland August 2009
“’Il Trapassar del Segno’: Language and Transcendence in Dante’s Paradiso”” KEYNOTE SPEECH:The Fourth Interdisciplinary Conference of the Nordic Dante Network: “Dante and Transgression,” University of Tampere, Finland, August 20, 2009
************************************************************************************************
SYMPOSIA – On William Franke’s Work
Syndicate Theology Symposium, April 2016
Syndicate Theology, vol. 3, issue 2, March/April (2016) “William Franke, A Philosophy of the Unsayable,”
Macao (Greater China) March 2015
“What is Apophatic Thinking and Why is it Relevant Today? Discussions around William Franke’s ‘A Philosophy of the Unsayable’” International Philosophy Colloquium, Program of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Macao, March 7th, 2015
Tokyo, Japan October 2013
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ‘DANTE AND THE SENSE OF TRANSGRESSION’: “Transgression and Transcendence: What Makes Religion Radical? A two-day symposium to discuss Prof. William Franke’s book “Dante and the Sense of Transgression: ‘The Trespass of the Sign,’” Institute for Christianity and Culture,International Christian University (ICU), Tokyo, Japan, October 11-12, 2013
***********************************************************************************************
ACADEMIC LECTURES: Anniversary Lectures, Series Lectures, Named Lectures
Nashville, USA, November 29, 2021
Vanderbilt Dante Lecture Series, Inaugural Lecture on the Vita Nuova
video recording
*******************************************
Berlin, Germany, May 16, 2022
“Self-Reflection and Reduction in the Language of Lyric,” Reduction Lecture Series, ICI (Institute for Cultural Inquiry), Berlin, May 16, 2022
Introduction by Manuele Gragnolati
Discussion
Flyer Berlin Reduction Lecture
UCLA, California, November 12, 2021
*“Dante and East Asia: The Apophatic Connection,” PLENARY ADDRESS for Symposium: “Afterlives: Dante in Dialogue with East Asian Buddhism”
UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS), November 12, 2021
Pasadena, California, October 15, 2021
“Transcendence, Immanence, and Transdescendence in Modern Art from Dante to Mallarmé,” JIS (Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies) International Symposium: “The Arts & Transcendence: In Search of Beauty, Truth & Goodness,” Pasadena, California, October 16, 2021 [remote]
Madrid, Spain, October 14, 2021
“La nuova vita per il linguaggio poetico come rivelazione teologica in una chiave moderna e secolare secondo Dante,” [The New Life for Poetic Language as Theological Revelation in a Modern Secular Key” International Conference “La modernità di Dante], Complutense University of Madrid, October 16, 2021
Nancy, France, October 7, 2021
“Dante’s Relevance to and Impact on Postmodern Thought,” Colloque International: “La mondialisation de Dante,” Société française de littérature générale et comparée, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France, October 7, 2021
Regensburg, Germany May 2019
“The Fate of Philology in a Logo-decentered Culture: The Challenge of Media Studies,” Guest Lecture, Lehrstuhl fuer Medienwissenschaften (Institute for Media Studies) in Fakultät für Sprach-, Literatur-, und Kulturwissenschaften [Faculty of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies], University of Regensburg, May 9, 2019
Poitiers, France April 2019
**“De Dante à Mallarmé à travers l’Hamlet de Shakespeare: Négativité de la révélation prophétique-poétique dans la modernité” (“From Dante to Mallarmé via Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Negativities of Prophetic Revelation in Modernity”), International Conference: « Dante and Shakespeare: Cosmology, Politics and Poetics », University of Poitiers / Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale, FRANCE, 4-6 April 2019
Berlin, Germany April 2019
*”Apophasis und die Achsenzeit: Transzendente Ursprünge des kritischen Bewusstseins”[“Apophasis and the Axial Age: Transcendent Origins of Critical Consciousness”]
International Conference on “Negation und Wissen. Zur Kategorie der Negativität in Theologie, Anthropologie und Ästhetik der Vormoderne” [Negativity and Knowledge: On the category of negativity in theology, anthropology and aesthetics in the pre-modern period] Interdisciplinary Conference under auspices of SFB: Sonderforschungsbereich: Episteme in Bewegung, Freie Universität, Berlin, April, 4-5, 2019
Pamplona, Spain May 2018
“Negative Theology, Poetic Prophecy, and the Religious Bonding of Society,” Lecture Series: “Lecturas sobre Religión y sociedad,” Institute for Culture and Society, Department of Philosophy, Universidad de Navarra, May 15, 2018
Instituto Cultura y Sociedad, Universidad de Navarra
Saarbrücken, Germany June 2017
“Traumepistemologie und religiöse Offenbarung in Dantes Vita Nuova,” DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 2021 “Europäische Traumkulturen,” University of Saarbrücken, 13 June, 2017
Beijing, China October 2016
“Liberal Arts Education as Learned Ignorance: From an East-Asian Vantage Point,” 60th ANNIVERSARY LECTURE, Beijing Capitol University of Business and Economics (CUEB), Beijing, China, October 14, 2016
Chicago, Illinois February 2016
2016 Annual Dante Lecture: Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies, Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, February 27, 2015
Manila, Philippines December 2015
“Negative Theology,” Philippine Academy of Philosophical Research, University of Santo Tomas (“The Catholic University of the Philippines”), Manila, Philippines, December 6, 2015
Seoul, South Korea October 2015
Invited Speaker and Panelist on “Liberal Arts Education in the East-Asian University: The Unspeakable Basis of Comparative Humanities,” Symposium on “Liberal Arts in the Age of Globalization,” 10th Anniversary Celebration of Underwood International College, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, October 28, 2015
Shandong, China October 2015
Lecture/Seminar on “Apophatic Paths from Europe to Asia: A Personal Philosophical Journey,” Guest Lecture for Center for Zhouyi and Ancient Chinese Philosophy, Philosophy Department, Shandong University, China, October 20, 2015
Tübingen, Germany June 2015
“Die Apophase als Paradigma der belehrte Unwissenheit” [“Apophasis as Paradigm of Learned Ignorance”], Die Thematik der Weisheit in den Idiota- Schriften des Nikolaus von Kues, Universität Tübingen, June 5-6, 2015
Florence, Italy July 2014
“Self-Reflection and the Theological Apotheosis of Lyric in the Paradiso,” NEH Summer Institute on Dante, Poetry, Philosophy and the City of Florence, NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Summer Institute:, Dante’s Divine Comedy, poetry, philosophy, and the city of Florence, Florence, July 21-24, 2014
Tokyo, Japan October 2013
“The Humanities and the Ideal of Wholeness—Epic Pasts, Partisan Presents, Plural Futures” – The 5th Lecture of the 50th Anniversary series
International Speakers Series on “The Future of the Humanities,” International Christian University (ICU), Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2013
Macao (Greater China) November 2012
Distinguished Lecture Series, English Department, University of Macao, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,University of Macao, October 27, 2011
Hong Kong November 2011
“The Holistic Ideal of the Humanities and Religious Revelation: Linguistic-Cultural Diaspora or a New Universality?” Lecture for the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong, November 7, 2011
Urbino, Italy August 2011
“Dante e la teologia negativa” [Dante and Negative Theology], ISSR (Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose), University of Urbino Carlo Bo, August 18, 2011
Notre Dame, Indiana October 2006
“Scripture as Theophany in Dante’s Paradiso,” 2006 Annual Lecture in Religion and Literature, University of Notre Dame, October 30, 2006
Hong Kong December 2005
“Primordial Sacrifice, Typology, and the Theological Vocation of Literature in Finnegans Wake,” University of Hong Kong Comparative Literature Lecture Series (2006)
Hong Kong September 2005
“The Death of God and the Crisis of Values in Secular Modernity and Post-secular Postmodernity,” Lecture Series on Culture, Value, and the Meaning of Life, Department of Philosophy, University of Hong Kong, September 28, 2005
***********************************************************************************************
PUBLIC TALKS AND SEMINARS
Chicago, Illinois September 2018
“Dante Between Philology and Philosophy (After the Theological Turn),” Graduate Research Methods Workshop, Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies, September 8, 2018 (jointly led with Justin Steinberg, University of Chicago)
Lake Forest Place, Illinois December 2017
“How to Read the Bible: Can Fundamentalists and Secularists be Brought into Dialogue?” Presentation of “A Theology of Literature: The Bible as Revelation in the Tradition of the Humanities,” Ecumenical Chaplaincy, Lake Forest Place, Lake Forest, Illinois, December 21, 2017
Chicago, Illinois October 2017
“The Other Italian Renaissance: Between Religion and Humanism, Dante to Vico,” with Rocco Rubini, Newberry Library Research Methods Workshop, Chicago, October 13, 2017
Frankfurt, Germany August 2016
Block-Seminar: “Apophatische Theologie und ihre Wirkung auf die neuzeitliche Philosophie” [Apophatic Theology and its Consequences in Modern Philosophy], Goethe University of Frankfurt, Philosophy Department, Summer Semester, 2016
Nashville, Tennessee April 2016
“Books, Bread, and Bubbles: or How to Read Dante Backwards and Forwards in Time on the Way to China.” Vanderbilt University Book Talk, Nashville, April 6, 2016
Chicago, Illinois February 2015
“Poetry as Theology: New Theoretical Approaches to Dante,” with Vittorio Montemaggi, Graduate Workshop, Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies, Chicago, Illinois, February 26, 2015
Macao (Greater China) November 2015
Philosophy Café: “Philosophical Universalism and the Role of China in the World Today,” Cunha Foundation Macau Cultural Center, November 2, 2015
Macao (Greater China) October 2015
Seminar with Philippe Beck (French Poet Laureate, 2015), Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Macao, October 26, 2015
Hong Kong (Greater China) April 2014
“Porphyry’s Hermeneutics of Revelation and the Philosophical Criticism of Literature,” Lecture and Seminar at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of English, April 11, 2014
Macao (Greater China) April 2014
Faculty Seminar on Knowledge and the Humanities, Faculty of Arts and
Humanities, University of Macao, April 30, 2014
CERISY-la-Salle, France September 2013
“L’éloge de la fadeur et la litote du neutre: Entre François Jullien, Maurice Blanchot et Roland Barthes” [The Eulogy of Blandness and the Litotes of the Neutral: Between François Jullien, Maurice Blanchot, and Roland Barthes] CERISY Colloquium on François Jullien, Cerisy-la-Salle (France) Des Possibles de la pensée: Autour des travaux de François Jullien, September 14-21, 2013
Seattle, Washington January 2012
“Christian Figuralism and Kenosis: From Otherworldliness to the Becoming Worldly of Otherness,” MLA (Modern Language Association) National Convention, Religion and Literature Section, Panel on “Secularism,”
Seattle, January 6, 2012
Macao (Greater China) October 2011
Seminar on Emily Dickinson, Department of English, University of Macao, “Reading Emily Dickinson: Three Approaches to One of her Poems,” with linguist Martin Montgomery and translator Zhang Meifang, October 21, 2011
CERISY-la-Salle, France August 2011
“Le commencement et la fin de la philosophie dans le mysticisme apophatique : de Platon au postmodernisme,” CERISY-la-Salle (France) Colloque: « Philosophie et Mystique: Autour de Stanislas Breton », August 25-September 1, 2011, Colloquium organized by Jean Greisch, Jérôme Du Gramont, Marie-Odile Métra
**********************************************************************************************
EVENTS IN SERIAL ORDER OF OCCURRENCE
2020
“Four Lectures: Dante’s Vita nuova, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Goethe’s Faust, Mallarmé’s Coup de dés,” Renmin University, Beijing, November, 2020
“Selbst-Reflexion auf der Schwelle zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit: eine theologische Genealogie des Zeitalters der Vorstellung,” lecture for the Alfred Magnum Forum, University of Regensburg, October 2020
“Walter Benjamin und die Weltliteratur, ” Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik (IVG), XIV. Kongress: Wege der Germanistik in transkulturellen Perspektiven, Palermo 26 July – 2 August 2020
“Apophatic Thinking and its Applications: Between Exhaustion and Explosion,” 2020 Annual Conference of The Mystical Theology Network & The Association for Continental Philosophy of Religion: Thinking About Nothing: Negation, Philosophy and the Mystical, Liverpool Hope University, July 3–5, 2020
“La Vita nuova entre poésie et prose: renouvellement de vie et révélation théologique,” Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur la Littérature Italienne du Moyen Âge (CERLIM), Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3), May 16, 2020
“Scientific versus Symbolic Representation of the Real: Duns Scotus and Dante,” Seminario de Dantología: Spring 2020, La Asociación Complutense de Dantología, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, March 6, 2020
“The Discourse of Social Justice in a Negative Theological Perspective,” invited lecture for Lecture Series: “Lecturas sobre religión y sociedad civil,” Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, January 21, 2020 twitter news release
2019
* “The Birth of Modernity and its Crisis in the Dante’s Phenomenology of the Self-Reflective Subject,” PLENARY LECTURE WITH RESPONDENT for “Psychology and the Other 2019 Conference,” section on “Dante and Phenomenology,” Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, October 4-6, 2019
* “Speculative Philology: From Ancient Theological Hermeneutics to Modern Linguistic Epistemologies,” Presenter at Yale-NUS and Princeton “Comparative Antiquity” workshop on “Global Classicism,” National University of Singapore, August 1-5, 2019
Postclassicisms: Global Collaborative Networks
*“Technological Transformation and Postmodern Re-enchantment of the Everyday,” Round Table on “Sacredness and the Everyday,” ICLA (International Comparative Literature Association) Annual Convention, University of St. Joseph, Macao, China, July 29-31, 2019
“Dante’s New Life and the New Testament: Hermeneutics of Revelation in the Vita Nuova,” Congresso Dantesco Internazionale: “Alma Dante 2019,” Ravenna, June 1, 2019
* “The Fate of Philology in a Logo-decentered Culture: The Challenge of Media Studies,” Gastvortrag [Guest Lecture], Lehrstuhl für Medienwissenschaften [Institute for Media Studies] in Fakultät für Sprach-, Literatur-, und Kulturwissenschaften [Faculty of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies], University of Regensburg, May 9, 2019
Poitiers, France April 2019
*“L’invention par Shakespeare d’une poésie prophétique moderne à la suite du modèle dantesque” (“Shakespeare’s Invention of a Modern Prophetic Poetry and its Revision of Dante’s Precedent”), International Conference: « Dante and Shakespeare: Cosmology, Politics and Poetics », University of Poitiers / Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale, FRANCE, 4-6 April 2019
[4-6 avril 2019] Dante et Shakespeare : cosmologie, politique, poétique
Berlin, Germany April 2019
International Conference on “Negation und Wissen. Zur Kategorie der Negativität in Theologie, Anthropologie und Ästhetik der Vormoderne” [Negativity and Knowledge: On the category of negativity in theology, anthropology and aesthetics in the pre-modern period] Interdisciplinary Conference under auspices of SFB: Sonderforschungsbereich: Episteme in Bewegung, Freie Universität, Berlin, April, 4-5, 2019
“From Blake’s ‘Eternal Great
Humanity Divine’ to Confucian Jūnzǐ 君子: Apophatic Paths between Post- and Pre-Modern Secularity and Divinity” KEYNOTE SPEECH for Conference “Between Humanity and Divinity: In Literature, Art, Religion and Culture” of the Taiwan Association of Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies (TACMRS), National Chi Nan University, Taiwan, October19-20, 2018
CFP – TACMRS_2018_Conference_Announcement.1
“Dante Between Philology and Philosophy: Graduate Research Methods Seminar, Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies, September 8, 2018 (jointly led with Justin Steinberg, University of Chicago)
“Outline of an Apophatic Approach to an Intercultural Philosophy of Universalism,” 24th World Congress of Philosophy, Section 29: Intercultural Philosophy, Beijing, August 13-20, 2018
“Negative Theology and Negative Poetics: A Strained Relationship or an Elective Affinity?” KEYNOTE SPEECH for Conference on “Theology and the Arts,” St. Francis Theological College of Charles Sturt University, Brisbane, Australia, June 15-17, 2018
Closing Panel
“Apophatic Mysticism as Paradigm of Learned Ignorance,” KEYNOTE LECTURE for Conference “Paths Beyond Words: The Ways of Unknowing in Early Modernity” at the Centre for Research and Early Modern Studies (CREMS) and Humanities Research Centre (HRC), University of York, UK, June 1, 2018
VIDEO-RECORDED LECTURE: “Nicholas of Cusa as Focal-Point for Advocating Apophatic Vision and Thought Today”
Beyond Words York Conference Poster
Negative Theology, Poetic Prophecy, and the Religious Bonding of Society,” Lecture Series: “Lecturas sobre Religión y sociedad,” Institute for Culture and Society, Department of Philosophy, Universidad de Navarra, May 15, 20
“Dante and the Crisis of Representation in the Modern Age,” 2018 MLA Panel on Crisis in Dante, New York, Modern Language Association National Convention, New York City, January 4-7, 2018. Dante Society of America event
“How to Read the Bible:Can Fundamentalists and Secularists be Brought into Dialogue,” Lake Forest Place, December 21, 2017
The Other Italian Renaissance: Between Religion and Humanism, Dante to Vico, Newberry Library Research Methods Workshop, Chicago, October 13, 2017
“Poetry as Prophecy: From Anthropological Origins to Postmodern Apocalypses,” Keynote Speech for The Prophetic Word: Poetry, Philosophy and Theology in Conversation, Fifth Power of the Word Project Interdisciplinary Conference, Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, September 13-16, 2017
FINAL.1 Power of the Word final call for papers_0
Audio Recording of Oxford Poetic Prophecy Lecture, Part 1
Audio Recording of Oxford Poetic Prophecy Lecture, Part 2
Audio Recording of Oxford Poetic Prophecy Lecture, Part 3 (Questions & Answers)
“Traumepistemologie und religiöse Offenbarung in Dantes Vita Nuova,” DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 2021 “Europäische Traumkulturen,” University of Saarbrücken, 13 June, 2017
—
“Writing as Theophany,” Deutsche Gesellschaft für allgemeine und vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 6 June 2017
schrift_und_graphisches_im_vergleich_programm_stand_13.3
“Apophatic Paths from Europe to China,” Keynote Speech, Conference on Mysticism in a Comparative Perspective, University of Glasgow, Scotland, December 14-16, 2016
VIDEO-RECORDING
Video Recording of Glasgow lecture with response by Victoria Harrison
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=0nPE5IvKKiE
Besharma Magazine – Interview with George Pattison about Comparative Mysticism 2016 Conference
“Liberal Arts Education as Learned Ignorance: From an East Asian Vantage Point,” 60th Anniversary Lecture, Beijing Capitol University of Business and Economics (CUEB), Beijing, October 14, 2016
“Apophatische Theologie und neuzeitliche Philosophie” [Apophatic Theology and its Effects in Modern Philosophy], Summer-Semester Seminar, invited by Prof. Wilhelm Essler, Philosophy Department, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt, August 2-6, 2016
link to Goethe University Frankfurt seminar
ICLA (International Comparative Literature Association) Weltkongress, University of Vienna, July 21-27 2016
“Universality of Knowledge and Specialization at the University: A Path from France to China,” KEYNOTE SPEECH for International Academic Conference to Inaugurate the School of Foreign Studies, Beijing Capitol University of Business and Economics (CUEB), Beijing, May 26, 2016
“Books, Bread, and Bubbles: or How to Read Dante Backwards and Forwards in Time on the Way to China.” Vanderbilt University, Nashville, April 6, 2016
2016 Annual Dante Lecture: Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies, Chicago, Illinois, February 27, 2015
The Apotheosis of Self-Reflection: Dante and the Inauguration of the Modern Era,
Poetry as Theology: New Theoretical Approaches to Dante, Graduate Workshop, Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies, Chicago, Illinois, February 26, 2015
Graduate Workshop at Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies, Chicago
Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies
Poetry as Theology: New Theoretical Approaches to Dante
Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, 1502. Newberry Wing ZP 535 .A354. Click image to enlarge.
William Franke, Vanderbilt University
Vittorio Montemaggi, University of Notre Dame
Research Methods Workshop for Early-Career Graduate Students
Friday, February 26, 2016
9 am to 5 pm
Room 101
Led by William Franke, Vanderbilt University, and Vittorio Montemaggi, University of Notre Dame
Application deadline: December 1
Center for Renaissance Studies Programs
Renaissance Graduate Programs
One recent approach to research on Dante emphasizes the use of poetry as a vehicle of religious discourse and even of theological revelation. Dante has a paradigmatic value for this topic that has widely influenced study throughout numerous subfields of literature and religion, intensely engaging a considerable variety of medieval and Renaissance writers—mystics and humanists alike.
This workshop will bring together Dante scholars who have given decisive impulses to the new theologically—and at the same time theoretically—oriented readings of Dante, to suggest how the techniques developed in Dante studies might be applied to the study of other authors and even to Biblical literature. Key to this undertaking is understanding the theology of the divine Word not as a dogmatic system but as interpreting a dimension of literary communication, a dimension of the poetic word that in some ways can transcend pragmatic contexts of communication. Such interdisciplinary study moves the traditional disciplines of theology and philology into a new kind of dynamic interaction.
Learn more about the workshop directors:
William Franke, Vanderbilt University
Vittorio Montemaggi, University of Notre Dame
*“Negative Theology” Philippine Academy of Philosophical Research, University of Santo Tomas (“The Catholic University of the Philippines”), Manila, Philippines, December 6, 2015
“Theological Revelation and Secular Reason: Critical Proposals for a Meeting of Minds and Cultures,” Guest Lecture Department of Philosophy, Pontifical & Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines,December 5, 2015
Keynote Speech at International Academic Symposium: “The Orient vs. The Occident: Cultural Exchanges and Influences,” Foreign Language Department of Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing, November 27-29, 2015
国际学术研讨
The International Symposium on
The Orient vs. The Occident: Cultural Exchanges and Influences
会议日程
| 11:00-12:00 | Main Hall, Fragrant Hill Hotel
Keynote Speech SessionChair： Professor Zhang Hua |
3．The Chinese system of world literature: Cross East and West Civilizations
（Professor Fang Hanwen, Doctoral Supervisor and the Director of Comparative Literature and Civilization Study Center at Soochow University） 4. The Tradition of the Chinese Classics and the Idea of World Literature Today （William Paul Franke, a philosopher of the humanities and literary theorist, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Macao） |
AAR (American Academy of Religion) Annual Meeting), Atlanta, November 24, 2015
Exploratory Session on Negative Theologies and Apophaticism
Seminar with Philippe Beck, Philosophy, University of Macao, October 26, 2015
“Apophatic Paths from Europe to Asia: A Personal Philosophical Journey” Center for Zhouyi and Ancient Chinese Philosophy, Shandong University, China, October 20, 2015
International Summit Dialogue and Forum: What is World Literature? Tension between the Local and the Universal, Beijng Normal University, 16-17 October, 2015
Beijing Normal University, October 16-17, 2015
Global Ethics and Politics in Relation to Ecological Philosophy, 27th International Conference of Philosophy (IAGP), Athens-Vouliagmeni, July 10-16, 2015
“From the Globalism of Nature to the Universality of Thought: Bringing Universalist Ethics and Politics back into Ecological Harmony by the Apophatic Way”
Die Thematik der Weisheit in den Idiota- Schriften des Nikolaus von Kues, Universität Tübingen, June 5-6, 2015
PhilHist’15: History of Philosophy Conference on “Interactions,” Eastern Mediterranean Research Center, Istanbul, Turkey, May 14-16, 2015
Cognitive Universality between Science and Humanities
Transcendence and Immanence in Intercultural Philosophy
FAH holds international conference on intercultural philosophy 人文學院辦國際研討會探討跨文化哲學
Transcendence and Immanence in Intercultural Philosophy – Proposal
Transcendence and Immanence in Intercultural Philosophy – Program
Transcendence and Immanence in Intercultural Philosophy – Abstracts
Transcendence and Immanence in Intercultural Philosophy – Biographies
What is Apophatic Thinking and Why is it Relevant Today? Discussions around William Franke’s A Philosophy of the Unsayable
Book Colloquium Proposal and Rationale
Colloquium Participant Biographies
For Videtape of recorded lectures, see page “Media Documents” on this website
Philosophy Café: Philosophical Universalism and the Role of China in the World Today
Philosophy Café – Cunha Foundation site with multiple pictures of the events
Philosophy café – picture (1st)
Philosophy cafe – press article
Macau Daily Times article online: “Philosophy Cafés to Spur Critical Thinking”
Religion, Cognition, Science (January 2015)
Chinese University of Hong Kong Philosophy Lecture
Book Interviews (Conversations with Chris Benda about three of recent books by William Franke)
Dante and the Sense of Transgression
The Revelation of Imagination: From the Bible and Homer through Virgil and Augustine to Dante
Videotaped Lecture : Rethinking Cultural Universality Today and The Question of Theological Transcendence
Rethinking Cultural Universality Today and The Question of Theological Transcendence
NEH Summer Institute on Dante, poetry, philosophy and the city of Florence
“Self-Reflection and the Theological Apotheosis of Lyric in the Paradiso”
NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Summer Institute:
Dante’s Divine Comedy, poetry, philosophy, and the city of Florence
Florence, July 21-24, 2014
Summer NEH Institute Announcement
20th Symposium of the Académie du midi: Wisdom East and West.
Alet-les-bains, France, June 8-14, 2014
Jungcusaner Symposium (“Wissensformen bei Nicolaus Cusanus”) Kueser Akademie für Europäische Geistesgeschichte Berncastle-Kues, Germany, May 26-28, 2014
Critical Theory and the Way:
A Symposium on Kantian Paradigms and Prospects in East Asia
Philosophy and Religious Studies Program, University of Macao
Faculty Seminar on Knowledge and the Humanities, Faculty of Arts and
Humanities University of Macao
The 1st Faculty of Arts and Humanities Seminar on Humanities
‘KNOWLEDGE AND THE HUMANITIES’
Date: 30 April 2014 (Wednesday)
Time: 1430-1600
Venue: RG09
Language: English
Other information will be announced soon.
Speakers:
Prof. Martin Montgomery
Chair Professor of English
Prof. William Franke
Professor Catedrático of Philosophy and Religions
Professor of Comparative Literature
All are Welcome.
Lecture and Seminar at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of English, April 11, 2014
Events & Seminars
“Porphyry’s Hermeneutics of Revelation and the Philosophical Criticism of Literature” by Prof. William Franke
Date:
11 Apr 2014
Time:
11:30 am
Speaker:
Prof. William Franke, Philosophy and Religious Studies Programme, The University of Macau
Topic:
Porphyry’s Hermeneutics of Revelation and the Philosophical Criticism of Literature
Venue:
E-Zone, 3/F Fung King Hey Building
Porphyry’s in the Cave of the Nymphs inaugurates a style of philosophico-allegorical interpretation of literary texts that flourished in antiquity and that finds analogues in criticism down to the present. It is distinguished by its use of literary interpretation to think through speculative problems of philosophy and theology. Although it became suspect in terms of Enlightenment philological principles prescribing interpretation of the text. In its own terms, this kind of criticism reveals the originally philosophical motives and purpose of literary criticism and restores to literature the vocation of disclosing a properly poetic truth higher than that of fact or history. The history of this type of speculative criticism stemming from Porphyry reading of Homer is then traced forward through Latin allegorical readings of epic revolving around Virgil. This itinerary highlights the perennial and inevitable tensions between philological and philosophical approaches to interpreting literature as a revelation of truth, even of theological truth.
Porphyry’s Hermeneutics of Revelation and the Philosophical Interpretation of Literature
International Conference on The Force of Imagination, University of Macao
Download the Conference Program
Symposium on 2013 book: ‘Dante and the Sense of Transgression’, ICU, Tokyo, Japan
“Transgression and Transcendence: What Makes Religion Radical?”
ICU conference poster.in Word-5Program
Symposium on Dante and the Sense of Transgression: ‘The Trespass of the Sign’
Seminar at ICU Institute for Christian and Culture
International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan, October 10-11, 2013
International Speakers Series on “The Future of the Humanities,” ICU, Tokyo, Japan
“The Humanities and the Ideal of Wholeness—Epic Pasts, Partisan Presents, Plural Futures”
International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2013
The 5th Lecture of the 50th Anniversary series
CERISY Colloquium on François Jullien, Cerisy-la-Salle (France)
Des Possibles de la pensée: Autour des travaux de François JullienSeptember 14-21, 2013
Prospectus
ProgrammeReportage by Daniel Bougnoux, La Croix
Debating with François Jullien (left), Fabian Heubel (right):
23rd World Congress of Philosophy: Philosophy as Inquiry and as Way of LifeSchool of Philosophy, University of Athens, Greece, August 2-11, 2013
Video of session + YouTube Video (but with poor sound quality)
+ Athens lecture sound track (minutes 33-55 in tape)
“Thinking in the Gap between the Cultures of Greece and China: Apophatic Universalism”
(minutes 33-55 in tape)
International Agamben Conference, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei (Taiwan)
“Except Asia: Agamben’s Work in Transcultural Perspective”
Taipei, June 25-27, 2013
“Agamben’s Logic of Exception: Its Apophatic Roots and Offshoots”
International Summer Seminar on Theological Dimensions of Dante’s Work, Tantur Ecumenical Institute (Israel)
Tantur Institute, Jerusalem: Program
June 17-28, 2013
Humboldt Colloquium: Nature, Time, Responsibility, University of Macao (China)
Humboldt Colloquium: Nature, Time, Responsibility
April 12-14, 2013
University of Toronto Italian Studies: Conference on Literature and Religion (Canada)
Toronto Italian Literature & Religion University of Toronto 2012 Booklet
International Forum for Advanced Research in English Studies, University of Macao (China)
Program: Suffering in Literature
Ende oder Umbau einer Erlösungsreligion? at University of Bochum (Germany)
Interogating Cosmopolitan Conviviality: New Dimensions of the European in Literature, University of Bamberg (Germany)
International Conference: Universität Bamberg, May 24-35, 2012 Program
“Deconstruction, Negative Theology, and Open Togetherness in the European Tradition”
Keynote Speech for Interdisciplinary Conference on Memory at UNISA (University of South Africa)
“Memory: Impressions, Expressions, Reflections: An Interdisciplinary Conference”
Round Table on “Secularization andLiterature,” MLA (Modern Language Association) National Convention,
Seattle, January 6, 2012
‘Several of the most provocative, insightful scholars at the intersection of religion and literature will be participating on a panel entitled “Literature and Secularization” (Friday, 3:30-4:45, WSCC 617). Facilitated by Susannah Brietz Monta (Notre Dame, and editor of Religion and Literature), this roundtable will feature Lori Branch (Iowa, author of Rituals of Spontaneity); John Cox (Hope College,Seeming Knowledge: Shakespeare and Skeptical Faith); Tracy Fessenden (Arizona State, Culture and Redemption); William Franke (Vanderbilt, Poetry and Apocalypse); Colin Lovell Jager (Rutgers, New Brunswick, The Book of God); and Michael W. Kaufmann (Temple, coordinator of recent Religion and Literature forum, “Locating the Postsecular”).’
–Everett Hamner, http://usreligion.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html
European Studies Lecture, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong
School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong
Lecture Announcement
Distinguished Lecture Series, English Department, University of Macao
UMAC English Dept. Newsletter11.pdf
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Univeristy of Macau
Seminar on Emily Dickinson, Department of English, University of Macao
“Reading Emily Dickinson: Three Approaches to One of her Poems,”
with linguist Martin Montgomery and translator Zhang Meifang,
University of Macao, Department of English Seminar Series, October 21, 2011
University of Hong Kong Lecture:The Holistic Ideal of the Humanities and Religious Revelation: Linguistic-Cultural Diaspora or a New Universality? November 7, 2011
Philosophy Colloquium, CERISY, Centre Culturel International (France)
William Franke, “Le commencement et la fin de la philosophie dans le mysticisme apophatique : de Platon au postmodernisme” [The Beginning and the End of Philosophy in Apophatic Mysticism : From Plato to Postmodernism]. August 27, 2011
CERISY-la-Salle (France) Colloque: « Philosophie et Mystique: Autour de Stanislas Breton », August 25-September 1, 2011
Colloquium organized by Jean Greisch, Jérôme Du Gramont, Marie-Odile Métra
Programme Argument Resumes.docx
CERISY–Le chateau depuis l’Orangerie
Communication à CERISY,
Philosophie et Mystique
Public Lecture, Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose, University of Urbino (Italy)
”Dante e la teologia negativa” [Dante and Negative Theology]
Seminari d’estate,
August 18, 2011 Press release
With Professor Andrea Aguti (left) and Professor Piergiorgio Grassi (right)
With Andrea Aguti (left) and Piergiorgio Grassi (right)
Keynote Speech, Ancient and Medieval Colloquium, University of Bamberg (Germany)
Erfahren, Erzählen, Erinnern: Narrative Konstruktionen von Gedächtnis und Generation in Antike und Mittelalter
[Record, Relate, Remember: Narrative Constructions of Memory and Generation in Antiquity and the Middle Ages]
4. Internationale Nachwuchstagung des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs [4th International Postgraduate Colloquium–DFG (German Research Foundation)]
Otto-Friedrich Universität Bamberg, An der Universität, Raum U2/025, 2-4 März 2011
Keynote14.00-15.30
”Letargo and the Argo”: Total Forgetting as the Moment of Truth at the Climax
of Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Christian Epic Tradition
William Franke (Nashville, TN)
Review Article from Interview by Monika Beer, Fränkischer Tag, March 11, 2011:
„Wahrheit ist immer auch unwahr” (“Truth is always also untrue“)
Bamberg Conference complete program
Audio Interview on Classical Epic and Humanities Education
Interview with Vanderbilt Divnity librarian Chris Benda on The Revelation of Imagination
Plenary Address for the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI), Turkey
12th International Conference of the ISSEI (International Society for the Study of European Ideas):
“Thought in Science and Fiction”
Cankaya University, Ankara, Turkey
August 2-4, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010, afternoon sessions, 1:30 – 5:00:
Plenary Session – William Franke, The Scientific Paradigm and the Poetic Epistemology of the Humanities — Blue Hall, 1:30 pm.
Keynote Address, Nordic Dante Network, Finland
Philosophy and Literature Forthcoming Events
Abstracts of lectures for Nordic Dante Network
Salzburg Critical Theory and Theology Lecture – Zentrum Theologie Interkulturell
University of Salzburg Classics Lecture
Vorträge klassische Philologie Porphyry and the Philosophical Criticism of Literature - -
“Scripture as Theophany in Dante’s Paradiso,” Annual Religion and Literature Lecture, University of Notre Dame
“Primordial Sacrifice, Typology, and the Theological Vocation of Literature in Finnegans Wake,” University of Hong Kong Comparative Literature Lecture Series (2006)
Picture Extras
Miscellaneous News Releases
Collegium Phenomenlogicum, Perugia, Italy, Summer 1993
©2024 Vanderbilt University ·
Site Development: University Web Communications