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Refereed Conference Papers

18. “Erotic Suspension: The Expansion of Intimacy in Isolation.” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. College Station, TX. October 13-15, 2022.  

17. “Grasping Oneself by the Nothing: The Comedy of Negative Self-Reference and Resistance.” Historical Materialism. London, UK. November 7-10, 2019. 

16. “Counting to Four with Hegel and the Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis.” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. Pittsburgh, PA USA. October 31-November 2, 2019.

15. “Dramatic Resistance: Benjamin on Satire and Partisan Frontline Theater.” Historical Materialism. Panteion University. Athens, Greece. May 2-5, 2019.

14. “Fantasies of Forgetting our Mother Tongue.” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. State College, PA. USA. Oct 19, 2018. Best Submission by a Junior Scholar.

13. “The Laughter of the Damned.” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. Memphis, TN. USA. Oct. 20, 2017.

12. “Benjamin’s Comic Temporality of Hell.” Historical Materialism. BICAR and the American   University of Beirut. Beirut, Lebanon. March 11, 2017. 

11. “Spinoza on the Passions Belonging to Time.” The American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division. Baltimore, MD. USA. January 8, 2017.  

10. “The Repetition of Nothing in Tetradic Dialectics.” Repetition/s Conference. Ljubljana, Slovenia. September 23, 2016. 

9. “Censoring Emotional Discourse,” Beyond the Crisis in the Humanities. Belgrade, Serbia. April 25, 2015.

8. “The Censorship of Affect,” Collegium Phaenomenologicum. Città di Castello, Italy. July 7, 2014.

7. “Dasein’s Shadow and the Moment of its Disappearance in Being and Time.” The Heidegger Circle. Tampa, FL. USA. May 11, 2014.

6. “Marx on the Censorship of Laughter.” The Philosophy and Literature Conference on Humor and Philosophical Practice. Purdue University. Purdue, IN. USA. March 28, 2014.

5. “Spinoza on the Temporal Passions.” Duquesne Graduate Philosophy Conference. Pittsburgh, PA. USA. February 22, 2014.              

4. “The (Narrative) Space of Conversion: Queer Spatial and Sexual Reorientation.” The International Association of Philosophy and Literature Conference. Tallinn, Estonia. May 30, 2012.

3. “Comic Anguish: Marx and Hegel on the Historical Stage of Comedy.” Marx and the Aesthetic Conference. University of Amsterdam. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. May 12, 2012.

2. “The Trace of the Animal in the Confessions of Man in Derrida’s Circumfession. animal.machine.sovereign Conference. The State University of New York at Buffalo. Buffalo, NY. USA. April 15, 2011.

1. “The Comedy of Religion: Left Hegelian Comedy as Political Action.” The Spirit of Capital Conference. The New School for Social Research. New York City, NY. USA. April 29, 2011.

Invited Lectures

17. Book Presentation on A Laughing Matter of Spirit (Northwestern University). Humor as a Human Right: AHSN Humor Studies Conference. The University of Sydney. February 2023. 

16. “Intimacy Beyond the Reach of the Caress.” Thinking of the Body – The Body as Unthinkable. Ruhr Universität. Bochum. July 27, 2022. 

 15. “Earthings and Spacemen: The Masses of the New Elites.” Radical Philosophy Talks. Spider Festival. Ljubljana. June 16, 2022. 

14. “Radical Ecology and Ethics: Introducing Merchant’s Eco-Feminism to Ecologists.” Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde. April 6, 2022. 

13. “An Ethics of Self-Care for Our Collective Existence.” Environmental Responsibility. Beyond Borders. Hamburg. August 29, 2021.

12. “Teaching Hegel into the Future: pedagogy, technology, and sensation. ” Aufhebung: International Association for Hegelian Studies. Goethe-Institut. Ljubljana. August 27, 2021.  

11. “Testifying to Contradiction: Reassessing Accounts of Trauma.” Preventing Secondary Victimization of Children through Statement Analysis. University of Ljubljana. August 25, 2021

10. “Between Isolation and Immersion: the ethics of caressing in the dark.” Touched: Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Meeting of Touch, Arts, Affects. Sorbonne University. Paris. June 30, 2021 

9. “Erotic Suspension: The Transformation of Desire in Isolation.” Virtual Enjoyment Lecture Series. The Dormant Office. Amsterdam. February 27, 2021 

 8. “Postwar Slovenian Memorialization as Performative Epoché.” Political Seminar Series for Max Weber Fellows on Art of Indignation in the age of (D)anger. Ljubljana, Slovenia. August 23, 2018.

7. “The Comic Slapstick of Revelation and Resistance: Walter Benjamin & WWII Comedy” Public Lecture Series in Jewish Philosophy. The University of Hamburg. Hamburg, Germany. June 25, 2018.

6. “Aborted Concepts: the merging of ancient comedy and skepticism.” Concept(s): Hegel’s Aesthetics. Ljubljana, Slovenia. January 13, 2018. 

5. “Walking in Circles: the repetition of historical suspension (Antigone in postwar Yugoslavia).” Aufhebung: International Hegelian Association. Ljubljana, Slovenia. September 7, 2017.

4. “The Young Hegelians on Comic Critique and Religious Affect.” The May Day School: Capitalism and Religion. Ljubljana, Slovenia. April 28, 2016. 

3. “Repeating Comedy Comically (or) Why Four is Funnier than Two.” History as Tragedy, Comedy and Farce: Benjamin, Marx, Hegel, and Lacan.  The American University of Beirut. Beirut, Lebanon. March 31, 2016. 

2. “Finding Antigone amongst Slovenia’s Undead.” Socialist Monuments and Modernism International Symposium.Funded by Creative Europe Program of the European Union Project: Heroes We Love. MaMa. Zagreb, Croatia. November 6, 2015.

1. “Sturges Stuttered: The Stammering Truth of Comedy.” To Die Laughing: A Retrospective of Preston Sturges. Hosted by Slovenian Cinematheque. Ljubljana, Slovenia. October 20, 2015. 

Responses, Workshop, and Symposium Talks 

15. Book Interview On A Touch of Doubt: On Haptic Scepticism. Interview by Ari Barbalat for New Books Network podcast. Recorded on October 9, 2022.

14. “A Hesitant Caress: An Ethics of Intimacy with Irigaray.” Naming Touch. ICI Berlin. June 28, 2022.

13. “Dwelling in Reduction: a skeptic’s guide for times of disruption.” A Case for Reduction. Public Workshop. ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry. November 22-23, 2021.

12. “Reduction as Movement-in-Suspension.” ‘Reduction as…’ Colloquium. ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry. June 21-22, 2021.

 11. “Practices of Self-Reduction and Expansion through Musser’s Surface Play.” Reductive Experience Colloquium. ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry. March 9, 2021.

10. “Reductions of Touch and Sensual Excess.” Internal Colloquium. ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry. November 11, 2020

9. Response to Meryl Lumba. “Women and Comic Heroines: A Look at Hegel on Aristophanian Comedy” The American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division. Philadelphia January 8-11, 2020. 

8. “The Body of Belief: Augustine’s Confessions and Derrida’s Circumfession.” The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies Internal Event. Hamburg, Germany. September 25, 2018.

7. “The Emergence of Religious Subjectivity in the Consummation of Ancient Comedy and Scepticism.” The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies Internal Workshop. Hamburg, Germany. April 12, 2018.

6. “Translating Touch into Concepts and Concepts into Art.” (Opening Remarks.) On the Making of Haptic Cinema: artists and philosophers reflect on a collaborative international film project. Villanova University, PA USA: May 9, 2018. New School for Social Research. NYC, USA: May 10, 2018. May 11, 2018. Lael Studios in Brooklyn, NYC, USA May 12, 2018.

5. “Framing the Skeptic as the Compulsive Toucher.” Workshop on Touch and Doubt. The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies. Hamburg, Germany. March 27, 2018.

4. “Epoché as the Erotic Conversion of One into Two.” The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies Internal Workshop. Hamburg, Germany. July 26, 2017.

3. “Queering Conversion.” Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Colloquium. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA. USA. April 2012.

2. “De-conversions.” Faith and Philosophy Symposium. Villanova University. Villanova, PA, USA. April 2012.

1. “Beauty, Necessity and the Material World: A Response to Iris Murdoch’s The Sovereignty of Good.” Villanova Philosophy and Theology Colloquium. Philadelphia, PA. USA. October 2009.