Thomas Paul Brockelman

Department of Philosophy
Le Moyne College / Syracuse, N.Y. 13214
315-445-4755 / brocketp@lemoyne.edu

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Areas of Specialization

19th & 20th-Century Continental Philosophy, Aesthetics and Philosophies of Art, Modern and Postmodern Studies, Freudian & Lacanian Psychoanalytic Theory, Philosophy & Architecture

Areas of Competence

Modern & 19th Century European Philosophy, Frankfurt School Critical Theory

Professional Employment

Current Employment:

Since 2008 Professor, Department of Philosophy, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York

Previous Employment:

’14-’16​Interim Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs, Le Moyne College
’07-’16​Professor of Philosophy, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York
’00-’07 Associate Professor of Philosophy, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York
‘94-‘99 Lecturer in Architecture, School of Architecture, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York
‘94-‘99 Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York
‘93-‘94 Lecturer in Architectural Theory, Yale School of Architecture

Research & Publications

Books:
Žižek and Heidegger: The Question Concerning Techno-Capitalism, Continuum Press, 2009. (Paper & Kindle Editions, 2011)

The Frame and the Mirror: On Collage and the Postmodern, Northwestern University Press, 2001.

Book Translation:

Language and the Unconscious: Jacques Lacan’s Hermeneutics of Psychoanalysis (translation of Hermann Lang’s Die Sprache und das Unbewußte), with a translator’s preface by myself and an afterword by Hans-Georg Gadamer, Humanities Press, June, 1997.

Edited Volume of a Journal: (Co-edited with Dominiek Hoens)
-Jacques Lacan’s Object of Psychoanalysis, special number of Continental Philosophy Review, Vol. 46, #1. April, 2013.

Articles:

“Action versus Movement: A Rebuttal of J. M. Bernstein on Rancière” in Humanities 2014, 3, pp. 687–698, November, 2014)

-“Žižek and Heidegger” for The Žižek Dictionary, editor, Rex Butler. (Routledge, 2014)

-“The other side of the canvas: Lacan flips Foucault over Velázquez,” in Continental Philosophy Review, vol. 46, #1, April, 2013.

-“Following Atheism: on a Debate in Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory,” June, 2012 in the International Journal for Žižek Studies, volume 6, no. 1.

-“Critique’s Wake: Notes from the Inside Cover of Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation” accepted for inclusion in an edited volume, to be entitled Subjects and Simulations: Thinking the Ends of Representation, Silverman, and O’Byrne, editors, Forthcoming, Rowman & Littlefield, Series: New Frameworks for Continental Philosophy, 2011.

-“ Laughing at Finitude: Slavoj Žižek reads Being and Time,” Vol. 41, #4, December, 2008, Continental Philosophy Review.

-“Missing the Point: Reading the Lacanian Subject through Perspective,” S: Journal of the Jan van Eyck Circle for Lacanian Ideology Critique. Vol. 1, 2008, pp. 2-21.

“Polemical Ambivalence: Modernity & Utopia in Žižek’s The Puppet and the Dwarf,” Contemporary Political Theory, Volume 6, Issue 3, August 2007.

“Wechselfälle des Glaubens: Slavoj Žižek’s Die Pupπe und der Zwerg,” in Wieder Religion? Christentum im zeitgenössischen kritischen Denken, translated by Erik Vogt, edited by Marc de Kessel and Dominiek Hoens., Vienna, Austria: Verlag Turia, August, 2006.

“Stolz und Phantasma: Heidegger und Žižek Über die Technik,” in Über Žižek: Kritiken und Antworten, translated by Erik Vogt, edited by Hugh J. Silverman and Erik Vogt. Vienna, Austria: Verlag Turia, August, 2004.

“Loosening the Knot: An Interactive Gallery by Lawrence Davis,” in Architext: Arhitectura design arte, vol. 11, no. 4, April, 2004.

“Lost in Place? On the Virtues and Vices of Edward Casey’s Anti-Modernism” Humanitas. vol. 16, no. 1, December, 2003 (pp. 36-55).

“The Failure of the Radical Democratic Imaginary: Žižek versus Laclau and Mouffe on Vestigial Utopia” in Philosophy and Social Criticism, vol. 29, no.2 Summer, 2003 (pp. 187-212).

On Linda Alcoff’s Real Knowing, vol. 32, November, 1999 in Continental Philosophy Review.

“Lacan,” article for Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, September, 1998.

“Getting Back into No Place: On Casey, Deconstruction and the Architecture of Modernity,” in Human Studies, Vol 19, December 7, 1996.

“Lacan & Modernism: Representation and its Vicissitudes,” in Disseminating Lacan editors, Raffoul & Pettigrew, SUNY, 1995.

“Modernism & Theatricality,” in Art Criticism, VIII/1, Spring, 1993.

Book Reviews:

Sense and Finitude: Encounters at the Limits of Language, Art, and the Political by Alejandro Vallega, Notre Dame Philosophical Review, December, 2009.

Slavoj Žižek: A Critical Introduction, by Ian Parker: Contemporary Poltical Theory, October, 2006.

The Puppet and the Dwarf: on the Perverse Core of Christianity by Slavoj Žižek: Philosophy in Review, February, 2005.

A Philosophy of Mass Art by Noël Carroll; Ethics, vol. 111, no. 3, April 2001.

Architecture and Modernity: a Critique by Hilde Heynen: Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 54, no. 2, November, 2000.

Selected Recent or Upcoming Presentations:

-“Zizek on Finitude and the Aesthetic,” American Comparative Literature Association, New York University, Annual Meeting, Cambridge, Mass., March, 2016.

-“Finitude & the Infinite: Žižek & Badiou,” International Philosophical Seminar, Castelrotto, Italy, July, 2015.

-“Cinematic Communism in Vertov and Ranciere,” American Comparative Literature Association, New York University, Annual Meeting, NYC, March, 2014

-“Giving the New its Due: A Response to Jussi Backman on Arendt and Badiou,” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), annual conference, Eugene, Oregon, November, 2013.

“Koolhaas at Cornell: Blurring the Image of the Future in the New Architecture Building,” International Association for Philosophy and Literature, Tallinn, Estonia, June, 2012.

“Aesthetics as Anti-Ethics: Ranciere versus Žižek,” American Comparative Literature Association, Brown University, Annual Meeting, Providence, RI, March, 2012

“Excessive Subjectivity and the Grace of Political Escalation,” response to Dominik Finkelde, American Philosophical Association, Eastern Meeting, December, 2011.

“Nancy and the Masked Sacrifice: A Tragic Tale of the Undead,” International Philosophical Seminar, Castelrotto, Italy, July, 2011.

“The Trouble with Ethics: Jacques Ranciere on Ethics and Aesthetics,” International Philosophical Seminar, Castelrotto, Italy, July, 2010.

“The Future of a Necessary Illusion: on Religion and Psychoanalysis,” Syracuse University Symposium on Religion in Scholarship, March, 2010.

“Sons of the Pervert: Johnston & Brockelman on Žižek,” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), annual conference, Washington, D.C., October, 2009.

“The Bare Life of the Subject: Modernity and the Bio-Political in Agamben,” International Philosophical Seminar, Castelrotto, Italy, July, 2009.

“Lacan & Foucault: Thoughts on Seminar XIII,” Maastricht, NL, July, 2009.

“The Other Side of the Canvas: Lacan flips Foucault over Velazquez,” “Double Edges,” International Association for Philosophy and Literature, West London, June, 2009.

“Thinking, Finitely: Žižek on Heidegger on Finitude,” presentation for the Circle for Lacanian Ideology Critique, Maastricht, NL, November, 2007

“Spinoza’s Dream: ‘Manderlay’, ‘Dogville’ and Capitalism,” Conference, “Slave to Freedom: on Lars von Trier’s Ma nderlay. Maastricht, NL, October, 2007.

“The Matter with Materialism,” response to “Conflicted Matter: Jacques Lacan and the Challenge of Secularizing Materialism,” by Adrian Johnston, Nijmegen, NL, September, 2007.

“Architecture and Organism: On Paolo Soleri” Invited Address, Rhode Island College, Performing and Fine Arts Series. October, 2006.

“It’s Cyber-Capitalism Stupid! Slavoj Žižek, Modernity and Pauline Christianity” Invited address at colloquium, Ending up with Religion Again? at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, The Netherlands, May, 2004.

“Technology & Fantasy: Slavoj Žižek’s Critique of Cyber-Capitalism,” Paper delivered at the 2003 annual conference of The International Association for Philosophy and Literature in Leeds, England, May, 2003.

“On Collage and the Postmodern,” invited public lecture, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY. November, 2002.

“Žižek’s The Ticklish Subject and the Radical Democratic Imaginary,” International Philosophical Seminar, Castelrotto, Italy, July, 2002.

“Elegy and Advocacy: 3 Meditations on Salgado’s Workers,” International Association for Philosophy and Literature, 2001 Conference, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, May, 2002.

Research in Art & Architecture:

“Loosening the Knot: An Interactive Gallery by Lawrence Davis,” (article) in Architext: Arhitectura design arte, vol. 11, no. 4, April, 2004.

“On Yoko Kanayama,” (review article) Contact Sheet, 22, Light Work Annual, 2003.

Participant in Architectural Design Team: Competition for Martin Luther King Memorial, Washington, D.C. March, 2000.

Participant in Architectural Design Team: Competition for Channahon, Illinois. (Theoretical text for competition entry) March, 1998.

Theoretical Consultant, Design Competition on “The Theory of the Tectonic” Kenneth Frampton, Critic, November, 1998.

Other Scholarly Activities:

Annual Book Awards Jurist, Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), 2012-2014.

Organizer (with Dr. Gail Hamner, Syracuse University), 1-day Symposium, “Encountering Religion After the Death of God (again): Lacan, Hegel, and Emergent Materialisms.” (speakers included Joan Copjec, Adrian Johnston & Marc de Kesel), April, 2012.

Organizer and Co-Director (with Dr. Gregg Lambert, Syracuse University), annual meeting of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature, “Virtual Materialities,” May, 2004.

Recent Recognition & Honors:

Recipient: Research & Development Grant for 2009-2010, for work on Jacques Lacan’s Object of Psychoanalysis, Le Moyne College.

Invited Researcher, Fall 2007, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Invited Speaker at colloquium, Ending up with Religion Again? at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, The Netherlands, May, 2004.

Joint Conference Coordinator, Virtual Materialities, annual conference of The International Association for Philosophy and Literature, May 19-25, 2004. I arranged for the invitation of the IAPL to Syracuse for its 2004 conference and co-hosted (with Gregg Lambert of Syracuse University) this week-long conference for over 300 people.

Recipient (for Le Moyne College) of a grant from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation in conjunction with the 2004 conference of The International Association for Philosophy and Literature.

The Frame and the Mirror was selected for a “Current Research” session by The Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), October, 2002.

College and Professional Service

-Interim Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs, Le Moyne College (2014-16): Chaired, coordinated, and helped to pass college-wide strategic plan, Sempre Avanti; Coordinated development of the Upstate New York Language Consortium (sharing language courses amongst 5 upstate private Colleges) and was instrumental in procuring a startup grant from the Teagle Foundation.; Was instrumental in founding The Manresa Program at Le Moyne College, a 4-year program in personal and professional development aimed at better guiding students in their vocational search.
-Director of Core Curriculum, Spring, 2012-Fall, 2014: Charged with Implementation of new Core Curriculum.
-Curriculum Committee (2009-2011/ Chair, 2009-2010)
-Provost’s Task Force for Renewal of the Core Curriculum (Core IV) (2009-2010)
-Task Force for Programmatic Evaluation (2008-9)
-Search Committee, Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences (2008)
-Philosophy Department Reading Group (Organizer): (2005-6), (2008-10)
-Chair, Department of Philosophy (2001- 2005)
-Joint Coordinator, Virtual Materialities, annual conference of The International Association for Philosophy and Literature (May, 2004)
-Academic Vice President’s Task Force for Renewal of the Core Curriculum (2004-7)
-Departmental Search Committees (1995, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006)
-College Committees:
-Rank & Tenure (2002-2003)
-Lectures (1996-1999)
-Cultural Performances (1996-2002)
-Curriculum Committee (1997-2000/ Chair, 1998)
-Faculty Advisor: Philosophy Symposium (Student Philosophy Club) 1994-1998, 2004

Education

Ph.D.
(1992) Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook
(1987) Philosophy, Eberhardt-Karls Universität, Tübingen, Germany
M.A.
(1989) Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook
(1984) Architecture, Yale School of Architecture
B.A.
(1982) Philosophy, Yale University, magna cum laude; with Honors in Philosophy
Phi Beta Kappa, Yale College, 1982

Other Presentations

”Critique’s Wake: Notes from the Inside Cover of Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation,” Tenth Annual International Philosophical Seminar, Castelrotto, Italy, July 1, 2000.
”MLK: Notes on a Complex Collaboration” (with Theodore Brown, AIA: based upon competition entry for the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, DC) International Association for Philosophy and Literature, Stony Brook, NY, May, 2000.
-Respondent to Andrew Benjamin & Fred Rush, American Society for Aesthetics, Washington, D.C., October, 1999.
-“The Fate of Public Place: on Lefort, Casey and the question of Publicness,” International Association for Philosophy and Literature, Hartford, CT, May, 1999.
-“The Postmodern and the Sublime: Lyotard, Kant & the Question Reconsidered,” Southern Illinois University, February, 1999.
-“Delirious Politics: Rem Koolhaas and the Community of the Event,” International Association for Philosophy and Literature, Irvine, CA, May, 1998.
-”The Ghosts of Utopia: on Derrida’s Specters of Marx”, Seventh Annual Philosophical Seminar, Castelrotto, Italy, July 2, 1997.
-”The Truth in Collage,” Macalaster College, Department of Philosophy, April 29, 1997
-”Collage/City,” (With Andrew Benjamin) State University of New York at Stony Brook, Humanities Institute, October 31, 1996.
-”The Architecture of the Split Subject,” International Association for Philosophy and Literature, Fairfax, Virginia, May, 1996.
-”Thickening the Eye: Two Philosophical Theaters,” Macalaster College, Program in the Humanities.
-Invited Participant, 4th Annual Philosophical Seminar in Alto Adige: “Reading Strangers to Ourselves,” “Identity and the Avant-Gardes: Julia Kristeva on Aesthetic Economy,” June, 1995.
-Invited Speaker “Utopia and the Contemporary City,” Syracuse University, School of Architecture, March, 1995.
-Invited Respondent to Edward S. Casey, Getting Back into Place, Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Seattle, WA, October, 1994.
-Invited Participant, 4th Annual Philosophical Seminar in Alto Adice: “Reading The Subject of Philosophy,” “The Theater of the Subject” June, 1994.
-Respondent to François Raffoul’s “The Subject of the Signifier in Lacan,” Society for Phenomenology and Psychiatry, New Haven, Connecticut, December, 1993.
-“The Spaces of Theater: Theatricality and Spatialization in the Post-Modern,” International Association for Philosophy and Literature, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1993.
-Invited Speaker, (with Mark C. Taylor, Karsten Harries & Denise Scott-Brown) Symposium on “The (Un) natural Language of Architecture,” Williams College, Center for the Humanities, October 1, 1992.
-Invited Participant, 2nd Annual Philosophical Seminar in Alto Adige: “Reading The End of Modernity,” “The End of the End of Utopia” June, 1992.
-“Avant-Gardism and the (No)-Place of the Jews: Moses, Lyotard, Schoenberg and the War Against Representation,” (Presentation) Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, October, 1992.
-Invited Speaker, “The Myth of Modernism as Aesthetic Progress: Habermas & Klimt” The University of Rhode Island, February, 1992.

Select Teaching

2016-7​-Introduction to Philosophy, Le Moyne College
​-Meaningful Lives (First Year Seminar Course), Le Moyne ​College
​-Early Modern Philosophy, Le Moyne College.
2014​-Philosophical Perspectives (Hybrid, “Flipped” version, Le Moyne College)
2013 -Philosophical Perspectives (Hybrid, “Flipped” version, Summer Session, Le Moyne College
2009 – Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College (Modern and Contemporary Survey)
-The Birth of the Modern World, Le Moyne College, Honors Program
-Freud and Philosophy: Le Moyne College
-Foundations of Philosophy: Le Moyne College (Ancient and Medieval Survey)
2008 -The Birth of the Modern World, Le Moyne College, Honors Program
— Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College (Modern and Contemporary Survey)
2007 -Freud and Philosophy: Le Moyne College
– Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College (Modern and Contemporary Survey)
2006 -The Ancient & Medieval Worlds, Le Moyne College, Honors Program
-The Renaissance and the Birth of Modernity: Le Moyne College, Honors Program
-Foundations of Philosophy: Le Moyne College (Ancient and Medieval Survey)
-Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College (Modern and Contemporary Survey)
2005 -Freud and Philosophy: Le Moyne College
– Technology and Critical Theory: Le Moyne College
-Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College (Modern and Contemporary Survey)
2004 -Foundations of Philosophy: Le Moyne College (Ancient and Medieval Survey)
-Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College
-The Renaissance and the Birth of Modernity: Le Moyne College, Honors Program
2003 -Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College
-Technology and Critical Theory: Le Moyne College
-Introduction to Urban Studies: Le Moyne College Program in Urban Studies
2002 -Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College
-The Renaissance and the Birth of Modernity: Le Moyne College, Honors Program
2001 -Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College
-The Renaissance and the Birth of Modernity: Le Moyne College, Honors Program
2000 -Social & Political Philosophy: Le Moyne College
-Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College
1999 -Aesthetics: Le Moyne College
-Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College
-Honors Seminar: The Worlds of the Middle Ages & the Renaissance: Le Moyne College, Honors Program
1998 -Modern Philosophy: Le Moyne College
-Honors Seminar: The Worlds of the Middle Ages & the Renaissance: Le Moyne College, Honors Program
-Problems in Perspective & Modernity: Graduate Seminar, Syracuse University, School of Architecture. (With Theodore Brown, AIA)
-Philosophy & Architecture: Syracuse University & Le Moyne College
1997 -Foundations of Philosophy: Le Moyne College (Ancient/Medieval Survey)
-Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College (Modern and Contemporary Survey)
-Contemporary Continental Philosophy: Le Moyne College
-Re-envisioning the Modern: GraduateSeminar, Syracuse University, School of Architecture
1996 -Modern Philosophy, Le Moyne College
-Honors Seminar: The Worlds of the Middle Ages & the Renaissance: Le Moyne College, Honors Program
-Freud & Philosophy: Le Moyne College
-Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College
-Utopia, Modernity and the City: Graduate Seminar, Syracuse University, School of Architecture.
-History of Western Architectural Theory: Macalaster College
1995 -Honors Seminar: The Worlds of the Middle Ages & the Renaissance: Le Moyne College, Honors Program
-Contemporary Continental Philosophy: Le Moyne College
-Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College
-Utopia, Modernity and the City: Graduate Seminar, Syracuse University, School of Architecture.
1994 -Foundations of Philosophy: Le Moyne College
-Philosophical Perspectives: Le Moyne College
-Utopia and the City: Yale School of Architecture. (Graduate Seminar)
-History of Architectural Criticism & Theory Yale College, (Undergraduate Survey)
1993 -Advanced Architectural Theory: Yale School of Architecture. (Graduate Seminar)
1992 -Introduction to Philosophy: St. Cloud State University
-Introduction to Logic: Suffolk Community College
1991 -Contemporary Architectural Theory: Yale University (College Seminar Program)
-Concepts of the Person: SUNY at Stony Brook
-Logical and Critical Reasoning: SUNY at Stony Brook
1990 -Philosophical Aesthetics: (Graduate Course): SUNY at Stony Brook
-Utopias, and Dystopias: SUNY at Stony Brook
1989 -Philosophy & Literature: SUNY at Stony Brook
-Philosophical Problems: SUNY at Stony Brook
1988 -Logical & Critical Reasoning: SUNY at Stony Brook
1986 -The Western Tradition in Art, Music, Literature & Philosophy: SUNY at Stony Brook

Languages

German, French, Italian (reading)

References On Request