Addressing Levinas

Acknowledgments

The essays gathered in this anthology were originally presented at the “Addressing Levinas: Ethics, Phenomenology, and the Judaic Tradition” conference, held on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, October 15–17, 1999. It is a testimony to the interdisciplinary and international relevance of Levinas’s thought that this conference, inspired by discussions with Antje Kapust and originally conceived as a small panel discussion featuring a few Levinas scholars, went on to feature speakers from no less than ten different disciplines and five different countries. We deeply regret that only a small number of the many excellent and important papers presented at the conference could be included in this volume. The assistance received from Robert Bernasconi and David Michael Kleinberg-Levin has been beyond measure. We are especially appreciative of their early commitment to participate in the conference, their recommendations of young scholars doing significant work on Levinas’s thought, and their continued support and encouragement with the volume. Special mention must be made of Cynthia Willett of the Department of Philosophy at Emory University. Her generous sponsorship of the “Addressing Levinas” conference made that conference and this anthology possible. We are very grateful for the assistance provided by the faculty and staff of Emory University. Rudolf A. Makkreel, chair of the Department of Philosophy, was especially helpful, not only with regard to the conference, but also throughout the publication process. We are especially grateful for all of his efforts. In addition, we would like to thank Dalia Judovitz, chair of the Department of French and Italian at the time of the conference. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the programs in Comparative Literature and Jewish Studies, and the Graduate Department of Religion also provided generous support. And the staff of the Department of Philosophy —namely, Pat Redford, Brenda Costner, and Minal Singh—provided much-needed assistance. It should be noted that the “Addressing Levinas” conference was organized and run by a group of immensely gifted young scholars who were graduate students in various departments and programs at that Acknowledgments xv time—including Chris Anadale, Michael Buckley, Elizabeth Butterfield, Amy Coplan, Firmin Debrabander, Aaron Fichtelberg, Mark Fischer, Alex Hall, Courtney Hammond, Angela Hunter, Richard Oxenberg, Petra Schweitzer, Saul Tobias, Jennifer Vanderpool, Chad Wilson, Eric Wilson, and Coleen Zoller, among many others. Matt Dance and Henry Dyson graciously took on several especially heavy burdens. Karreem Khalifa was immensely helpful and deserves special recognition, as does Ian Oakes. In addition, the conference would not have been possible were it not for William Edelglass and Tam Parker, whose support, especially in the early stages, was crucial and cannot be emphasized enough. In a testament to their generosity and friendship, Kaiya Ansorge and Eric Jepsen provided assistance time and again, before any request was made. And it will come as no surprise to anyone who knows her that, throughout the organization of the conference and the preparation of this anthology, Alice A. Frye has always been, and remains, a pillar of support to one and all. Special acknowledgments are also owed to Julie Piering and Apostolos Vasilakis, both of whom took on task after task with such grace that they made their supererogatory efforts seem utterly effortless. We are also grateful to Jeanne Marie Kusina, a graduate student at the University of Toledo, for proofreading the manuscript. Finally, we wish to express our gratitude to Anthony Steinbock for his steady guidance and the editors and staff at Northwestern University Press for their hard work and constant support in publishing this volume. xvi A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S ...