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Dr Michelle Boulous Walker

Senior Lecturer

School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry
Faculty of Humanities 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

  • Graduate Diploma in Educational Studies, University of New England
  • PhD, The University of Queensland
  • BA Hons, University of New England

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

View all Supervision

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Becoming slow: Philosophy, reading and the essay

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

  • Bringing Le Doeuff home

    Walker, M. A. (2000). Bringing Le Doeuff home. In Max Deutscher (Ed.), Michele Le Doeuff: Operative Philosophy and Imaginary Practice 1st ed. (pp. 163-186) Amherst, New York: Humanity Books.

  • Wonder: Coupling Art with Sexual Difference

    Boulous Walker, Michelle (1998). Wonder: Coupling Art with Sexual Difference. In Judith Wright (Ed.), Veil : installations, books and video walks : Judith Wright (pp. 44-47) 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. In Franz Ehmann (Ed.), The Blue Room of Humanity (pp. 28-36) Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

  • Introduction

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

  • Performing Desire: Duras in Silence

    Walker, Michelle (1994). Performing Desire: Duras in Silence. In Michelle Boulous Walker (Ed.), Performing Sexualities (pp. 11-22) 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. In Dieter Freundlieb and Wayne Hudson (Ed.), Reason and its other : rationalty in modern German philosophy and culture (pp. 199-216) Providence, RI United States: Berg.

  • The Aesthetics of Detail

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

Journal Article

Other Outputs

  • Finding fault

    Boulous Walker, Michelle (1996) Finding fault. Brisbane, QLD, Australia, Institute of Modern Art.

  • Philosophy and silence : reading the maternal body

    Walker, Michelle Boulous (1996). Philosophy and silence : reading the maternal body PhD Thesis, School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, The University of Queensland.

PhD and MPhil Supervision

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

Current Supervision

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: G-1063-2010

Personal Profile: Link

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