Recording HERE

The International Simone de Beauvoir Society is happy to present the 4th session of the Beauvoir Webinar Series 2022! 

We are welcoming Skye C. Cleary who will present her new book: 

* How to Be Authentic. Simone de Beauvoir and The Quest for Fulfillment * 
The author will be in conversation with philosopher Manon Garcia. 

September 26, 2022
9am (NYC) / 3pm (Paris, Berlin) / 9pm (Manila)

About the participants: 

Skye C. Cleary is a philosopher and author of How to Be Authentic. Simone de Beauvoir and The Quest for Fulfillment and Existentialism and Romantic Love and co-editor of How to Live a Good Life. Cleary’s writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Aeon, The Times Literary Supplement, TED-Ed, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among other outlets. She won the 2017 New Philosopher Writers’ Award and was a 2021 MacDowell Fellow. She teaches at Columbia University, Barnard College, and the City University of New York. Skye is a member of The International Simone de Beauvoir Society. 

Manon Garcia is a philosopher and junior professor of practical philosophy at Freie Universität in Berlin. She is the author of We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women's Lives (first published in French as On ne naît pas soumise, on le devient by Flammarion in 2018) and of La Conversation des sexes: Philosophie du consentement (The Conversation of the Sexes: Philosophy of Consent) that was published in French by Flammarion in 2021, and will soon be published in English. 

About the book (from editor St. Martin's Press): 

"In an age of self-exposure, what does it mean to be authentic?

“Authenticity” has become attenuated to the point of meaninglessness; everyone says to be yourself, but what that means is anyone’s guess. For existential philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, authenticity is not the revelation of a true self, but an exhilarating quest towards fulfillment. Her view, central to existentialism, is that we exist first and then spend the rest of our lives creating―not discovering―who we are. To be authentic is to live in pursuit of self-creation and self-renewal, with many different paths towards diverse goals.

How to Be Authentic is a lively introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's philosophy of existentialism, as well as an exploration of the successes and failures that Beauvoir and other women have experienced in striving towards authenticity. Skye C. Cleary takes us through some of life’s major relationships and milestones: friendship; romantic love; marriage; children; and death, and examines how each offers an opportunity for us to stretch toward authenticity. While many people don’t get to choose their path in life―whether because of systemic oppression or the actions of other individuals―Cleary makes a compelling case that Beauvoir’s ideas can help us become more conscious of living purposefully, thoughtfully, and with vitality, and she shows us how to do so in responsible ways that invigorate every person’s right to become poets of their own lives."

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Join us! This is a free event and is open to the public. Please fill out and submit this form to complete your registration: https://forms.gle/FcQgpx44rU44rRni7 

The Zoom link will be sent to your registered email address the day before the event. 

The session will also be streamed on the Facebook page of The International Simone de Beauvoir Society: https://www.facebook.com/SdBSociety1 and then posted on our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZSTeeTu4Ez05Ori4r2DSlQ 

For inquiries about the webinar, send an email to [email protected]
To become a member of the Society and receive the journal: https://beauvoir.weebly.com/membership-and-donations.html  

Thank you.

Dr. Gina Opiniano and Marine Rouch, 
for The International Simone de Beauvoir Society

***

Our partners for this session are : 
- University of Santo Tomas Department of Philosophy
- Framespa, University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès 

What's a partnership? A partnership aims at proposing the webinars to students of the universities that require the partnership. Feel free to ask more info about it!
 

Recording here. 

The International Simone de Beauvoir Society is happy to present the 3rd session of the Beauvoir Webinar Series 2022! 

Emma McNicol (Monash University, Melbourne) will be in conversation with Jean-Louis Jeannelle (Sorbonne University, Paris), Julia Korbik (writer and journalist, Berlin), Sandrine Sanos (Texas A & M University - Corpus Christi) on this topic:

*Writing Simone de Beauvoir's life*

May 13, 2022
Austin (TX) 7am / Paris-Berlin 2pm / Manila 8pm / Melbourne 10pm

About the participants: 
Emma McNicol is a Gender Equality Research Officer and is completing her doctorate at Monash University Schools of Languages, Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics, her PhD thesis interrogates prominent Anglo-American critiques of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. She was an Editorial Assistant of the journal Simone de Beauvoir Studies. 

Jean-Louis Jeannelle is a Professor of French Literature at Sorbonne University. His research focuses on writers' autobiographical writings and Memoirs. He is the author of *Ecrire ses mémoires au XXe siècle : déclin et renouveau (NRF, 2008)*. He is a specialist of Simone de Beauvoir and he participated in the edition of Beauvoir's Memoirs in the collection of the Pléiade. He has published and edited several articles and special issues on Beauvoir.

Julia Korbik is a German feminist writer and journalist passionate about philosophy and French literature, especially the life and work of Beauvoir. She has published a biography of Beauvoir for the young general public. *Oh, Simone !* (2017), a dynamic and vivid entry into Beauvoir's life, has met a large audience and was translated from German into French. 

Sandrine Sanos is an Associate Professor of Modern European History at Texas A & M University- Corpus Christi and a cultural and intellectual historian of 20th c. France, focused especially on questions of gender & sexuality, representation & discourse, violence and its aftermath, and feminist theory. She is the author of a historical biography of Beauvoir, Simone de Beauvoir: Creating a Feminist Existence (Oxford University Press, 2016). 

***

Join us in this interesting discourse on twriting Beauvoir's life! This is a free event and is open to the public. Please fill out and submit this form to complete your registration. 
https://forms.gle/z3FYQM5G2mgH6HXo7

The Zoom link will be sent to your registered email address the day before the event. 

The session will also be streamed on the Facebook page of The International Simone de Beauvoir Society: https://www.facebook.com/SdBSociety1 and then posted on our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZSTeeTu4Ez05Ori4r2DSlQ 

For inquiries about the webinar, send an email to [email protected]
To become a member of the Society and receive the journal: https://beauvoir.weebly.com/membership-and-donations.html  

Thank you.

Dr. Gina Opiniano and Marine Rouch, 
for The International Simone de Beauvoir Society

***

Our partners for this session are : 
- University of Santo Tomas Department of Philosophy
- Framespa, University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès 

What's a partnership? A partnership aims at proposing the webinars to students of the universities that require the partnership. Feel free to ask more info about it!.

RECORDING HERE

The International Simone de Beauvoir Society is happy to present the 2nd session the Beauvoir Webinar Series 2022! 
​
February 21, 2022
1:30pm (LA) / 4:30pm (NYC) / 10:30pm (Paris) / 5:30am+1 (Manila)

We are delighted to welcome Manon Garcia (Yale University). She will discuss her book, *We are not born Submissive. How Patriarchy Shapes Women's Lives* (2021) with Ellie Anderson (Pomona College, CA, USA) and Filipa Melo Lopes (University of Edinburgh, UK). 

About the book (from Princeton University Press):

"What role do women play in the perpetuation of patriarchy? On the one hand, popular media urges women to be independent, outspoken, and career-minded. Yet, this same media glorifies a specific, sometimes voluntary, female submissiveness as a source of satisfaction. In philosophy, even less has been said on why women submit to men and the discussion has been equally contradictory—submission has traditionally been considered a vice or pathology, but female submission has been valorized as innate to women’s nature. Is there a way to explore female submission in all of its complexity—not denying its appeal in certain instances, and not buying into an antifeminist, sexist, or misogynistic perspective?
We Are Not Born Submissive offers the first in-depth philosophical exploration of female submission, focusing on the thinking of Simone de Beauvoir, and more recent work in feminist philosophy, epistemology, and political theory. Manon Garcia argues that to comprehend female submission, we must invert how we examine power and see it from the woman’s point of view. Historically, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and even some radical feminists have conflated femininity and submission. Garcia demonstrates that only through the lens of women’s lived experiences—their economic, social, and political situations—and how women adapt their preferences to maintain their own well-being, can we understand the ways in which gender hierarchies in society shape women’s experiences. Ultimately, she asserts that women do not actively choose submission. Rather, they consent to—and sometimes take pleasure in—what is prescribed to them through social norms within a patriarchy.
Moving beyond the simplistic binary of natural destiny or moral vice, We Are Not Born Submissive takes a sophisticated look at how female submissiveness can be explained."

***

Join us in this interesting discourse on Beauvoir and female submission! This is a free event and is open to the public. Please fill out and submit this form to complete your registration. https://forms.gle/pMzDg3NdopqT3eqt8
The Zoom link will be sent to your registered email address the day before the event. 
The session will also be streamed on the Facebook page of The International Simone de Beauvoir Society: https://www.facebook.com/SdBSociety1 and then posted on our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZSTeeTu4Ez05Ori4r2DSlQ
For inquiries about the webinar, send an email to [email protected]
To become a member of the Society and receive the journal: https://beauvoir.weebly.com/membership-and-donations.html
Thank you.

***
Our partners for this session are : 
- University of Santo Tomas Department of Philosophy
- Framespa, University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès 
What's a partnership? A partnership aims at proposing the webinars to students of the universities that require the partnership. Feel free to ask more info about it!

RECORDING HERE
​
The International Simone de Beauvoir Society is happy to present the 1st session the Beauvoir Webinar Series 2022! 
We are delighted to welcome Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir to talk about The Inseparables with Claudia Bouliane (University of Ottawa, Simone de Beauvoir Studies). Their conversation will be followed by a talk, "Zaza and Truth-Telling", by Francis Walsh (Sorbonne University, Simone de Beauvoir Studies).

THE INSEPARABLES (from Editor):
"The Inseparables (or Inseparables) is a new short novel by Simone de Beauvoir that evokes her great love of youth for her friend Zaza, whose tragic death caused by the prejudices and diktats of the society of the time, haunted her all her life. But beyond that, the novel depicts the sexual and intellectual education of two young girls who are « orderly » (rangées) and rebellious in a world that pretends to forbid them to become free and thinking women and instead confines them to the role of wife and mother at the service of society. This autobiographical text evokes with emotion and lucidity the founding experiences of the revolt and the work of the great feminist philosopher: her turbulent emancipation and the fundamental antagonism between intellectuals and the self-righteous, which will form the basis of the Memoirs of Dutiful Daughter."

French edition: https://www.editionsdelherne.com/public.../les-inseparables/ 
English edition (trans. Lauren Elkin): https://www.penguin.co.uk/.../the.../9781784877002.html 
American edition (trans. Sandra Smith): https://www.harpercollins.com/.../inseparable-simone-de...

ZAZA AND TRUTH-TELLING, by Francis Walsh
In Inseparables and, more generally in Beauvoir's life and work, Zaza is intimately linked to truth and selfhood. Fictional or real, Zaza, in addition to having "personality", an authentic vitality, is the "true friend", the one with whom it is possible to have "true conversations", and the one to whom it is possible to tell the truth about oneself. However, truth and truth-telling are also what is at stake in this friendship; it is what unites the young girls, and what ultimately separates them. This is, at least, the intuition that will be guiding my initial reading of Inseparables. Moreover, as Éliane Lecarme-Tabone showed, Inseparables, Beauvoir's final attempt to translate Zaza's story into fiction, is a pivotal moment in Beauvoir's transition from novel to autobiography, that is, from a truth discourse to another. Why does the coming to autobiography have to pass through the fictionalized account of the death of the "true friend", if not because true friendship is intimately linked not only to the truth about oneself, but also to the general problem of truth and writing, that is to say, written enunciation of truth? The Diary of a Philosophy Student and Beauvoir's epistolary exchanges with Zaza will allow me, in a second step, to shed light on this point, to grasp how truth-telling, selfhood and friendship got entangled. This analysis will not aim to re-establish, in the light of the notebooks and letters, a truth that fiction (or autobiographical writing) would have betrayed; rather, my goal is to understand a recurrence - the entanglement in Beauvoir’s oeuvre between truth-telling, selfhood and Zaza -, and to re-read self-writing and fictional narrative as a set of discursive operations that model in different ways a common enunciation scene: existence, and absence.

***

Join us in this interesting discourse on Beauvoir and Zaza! This is a free event and is open to the public. Please fill out and submit this form to complete your registration: https://forms.gle/Kkj5vM5qQLKZjo8JA
The Zoom link will be sent to your registered email address the day before the event. 
The session will also be streamed on the Facebook page of The International Simone de Beauvoir Society: https://www.facebook.com/SdBSociety1 and then posted on our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZSTeeTu4Ez05Ori4r2DSlQ
For inquiries about the webinar, send an email to [email protected]
To become a member of the Society and receive the journal: https://beauvoir.weebly.com/membership-and-donations.html

​Thank you.
Dr. Gina Opiniano and Marine Rouch, 
for The International Simone de Beauvoir Society
***
Our partners for this session are : 
- University of Santo Tomas Department of Philosophy
- Framespa, University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès 
What's a partnership? A partnership aims at proposing the webinars to students of the universities that require the partnership. Feel free to ask more info about it!