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Associate Professor Michelle Boulous Walker

Associate Professor

School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
mbw@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52616

Overview

Dr. Michelle BOULOUS WALKER's research interests span the fields of European philosophy, aesthetics, ethics, and feminist philosophy. Her teaching interests in philosophy include intersections with politics, film, and literature. Her recent research in Slow Philosophy engages with the work of Emmanuel Levinas, Theodore W. Adorno, Luce Irigraray, Michèle Le Doeuff, and others. A new project focuses on questions of philosophy and the politics of laughter.

Her other activities include:

  • Head: European Philosophy Research Group (EPRG) affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH).

"Both my teaching and research focus on the practice of philosophy – its historical, disciplinary, and institutional dimensions. I have published two monographs . The first, Philosophy and the Maternal Body: Reading Silence (Routledge: London & New York, 1998), explores the complex exclusions that keep women’s voices silent within the history of Western philosophy. The second, Slow Philosophy: Reading Against the Institution (London & New York: Bloomsbury Academic: 2017), explores the challenge of time pressure on learning, pedagogy, and research in philosophy, and more broadly in the humanities. In these works, I explore the internal threats to philosophy (its blind spots, exclusions, and silences) and it external threats (the demands of the digital age). I am interested to work within the institution of philosophy to engage these challenges. In a series of book chapters and international journal articles I have pursued this ethical examination of philosophy. I inquire into the effect of philosophy’s exclusions in order to make it a more inclusive intellectual domain, and I explore strategies that help philosophers respond more creatively to the pressures of the modern academy. I combine an engagement with the traditional questions and methods of philosophy with an investigation of the implications of these for contemporary issues of human agency and human knowledge."

Research Interests

  • Philosophy and Laughter: Ethical, Political, & Pedagogical Dimensions

Research Impacts

In response to the publication of Slow Philosophy: Reading Against the Institution (London and New York: Bloomsbury 2017), I have accepted the following invitations to write in public forums for a non-specialist audience:

The Times Higher Education (UK),

The Forum for European Philosophy: Thinking in Public (UK),

The Philosopher’s Magazine (UK), and

RHYSTRANTER.COM – Literature, Philosophy, and the Arts (UK).

Slow Philosophy has been very positively reviewed in review articles in: The LA Review of Books (US), Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy (Australia), and Svenska Dagladet (Sweden). I have been interviewed on public radio in the following programmes: ABC Radio National – The Philosopher’s Zone (Australia), Public Radio KZYX – Consider This (US), and Patterson in Pursuit: Philosophy, Politics, Religion (US). Additionally, my book has been the focus of a podcast devoted to applied research at the Bedrosian Center, The University of Southern California School of Policy Development and Public Practice (US).

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Arts, University of New England Australia

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • The Thread of Deconstruction: Coming to Monique Wittig through Derrida and Cixous

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Forest Lovers, Live Forever: Bringing Val Plumwood and Luce Irigaray into dialogue on topics of life, love and death in the age of ecological crisis

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Luce Irigaray and the Salvic Potential of the Horizontal

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Affect and porosity: ethics and literature between Teresa Brennan and Hélène Cixous

    Boulous Walker, Michelle (2020). Affect and porosity: ethics and literature between Teresa Brennan and Hélène Cixous. Ethics and literary practice. (pp. 171-187) edited by Adam Zachary Newton. Basel, Switzerland: MDPI. doi: 10.3390/books978-3-03928-505-1

  • Slow movement

    Boulous Walker, Michelle (2019). Slow movement. Pluriverse: a post-development dictionary. (pp. 305-308) edited by Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria and Alberto Acosta. New Delhi, India: Tulika Books.

  • 'Situating the essay: between philosophy and literature?'

    Boulous Walker, Michelle (2018). 'Situating the essay: between philosophy and literature?'. The Palgrave handbook of philosophy and literature. (pp. 61-79) edited by Barry Stocker and Michael Mack. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-54794-1_3

  • Becoming slow: Philosophy, reading and the essay

    Walker, Michelle Boulous (2011). Becoming slow: Philosophy, reading and the essay. The Antipodean philosopher: public lectures on philosophy in Australia and New Zealand. (pp. 268-278) edited by Graham Oppy and N. N. Trakakis. Lanham, MD, U.S.A.: Lexington Books.

  • Bringing Le Doeuff home

    Walker, M. A. (2000). Bringing Le Doeuff home. Michele Le Doeuff: Operative Philosophy and Imaginary Practice. (pp. 163-186) edited by Max Deutscher. Amherst, New York: Humanity Books.

  • Wonder: Coupling Art with Sexual Difference

    Boulous Walker, Michelle (1998). Wonder: Coupling Art with Sexual Difference. Veil : installations, books and video walks : Judith Wright. (pp. 44-47) edited by Judith Wright. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

  • Reflections on the Pre-Reflected: The Blue Room of Humanity

    Boulous Walker, Michelle (1997). Reflections on the Pre-Reflected: The Blue Room of Humanity. The Blue Room of Humanity. (pp. 28-36) edited by Franz Ehmann. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

  • Introduction

    Walker, Michelle (1994). Introduction. Performing Sexualities. (pp. iv-v) edited by Michelle Boulous Walker. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

  • Performing Desire: Duras in Silence

    Walker, Michelle (1994). Performing Desire: Duras in Silence. Performing Sexualities. (pp. 11-22) edited by Michelle Boulous Walker. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

  • Reason, identity and the body: reading Adorno with Irigaray

    Walker, Michelle (1993). Reason, identity and the body: reading Adorno with Irigaray. Reason and its other : rationalty in modern German philosophy and culture. (pp. 199-216) edited by Dieter Freundlieb and Wayne Hudson. Providence, RI United States: Berg.

  • The Aesthetics of Detail

    Walker, Michelle (1993). The Aesthetics of Detail. Aesthetics after Historicism. (pp. 79-91) edited by Wayne Hudson. Fortitude Valley, Qld Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

Journal Article

Edited Outputs

Other Outputs

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Note for students: Associate Professor Michelle Boulous Walker is not currently available to take on new students.

Current Supervision

  • The Thread of Deconstruction: Coming to Monique Wittig through Derrida and Cixous

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Forest Lovers, Live Forever: Bringing Val Plumwood and Luce Irigaray into dialogue on topics of life, love and death in the age of ecological crisis

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Luce Irigaray and the Salvic Potential of the Horizontal

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • A Philosophical Exploration into the Ambiguity of Girlhood Friendship and the Role of Intellectual Exchange

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Philosophy, Ethics, Feminism

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: F-1882-2018

ORCID: 0000-0002-9083-6594

Scopus ID: 38162891700

Personal Profile: Link

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