Religion, Madness, and Mimetic Theory with Joachim Duyndam, Michael Elias, and Berry Vorstenbosch
This video shows a reprise of the panel Religion, Madness, and Mimetic Theory at the annual conference of the Colloquium on Violence & Religion at the Institut Catholique de Paris, in Paris (France), June 17, 2023. It was recorded at De Balie in Amsterdam, August 24, 2023. In this extraordinary panel, various relationships between religion, madness, and mimetic theory are explored, starting from the life experiences of the two main presenters Michael Elias (1948) and Berry Vorstenbosch (1959). Both are ‘experience-experts’ in this field, having faced psychoses themselves. For Michael mimetic theory offered an opening to religion, for Berry religion offered an opening to mimetic theory. Both were able to overcome their psychoses with the help of insights from the mimetic theory.
Tribute film on René Girard by John Babak Ebrahimian playlist
This tribute project is for individuals interested in Professor Girard, his life, his thought and legacy.
The playlist is divided into three parts.
Part I. The beginning: Johns Hopkins and Buffalo University – Eric Gans, Andrew McKenna, Sandor Goodhart, Cesáreo Bandera, Jean-Michel Oughourlian, Paisley Livingston, and Pierre Saint Amand
Part II. Stanford years – Margaret Tompkins, Robert Pogue Harrison, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Pierpallo Antonello, Cynthia Haven, and E. Tyler Graham
Part III. COV&R years – James G. Williams, Michael Hardin, Gil Bailie, Martha Reineke, William A. Johnsen, Wolfgang Palaver, James Alison, Ann W. Astell, Jeremiah Alberg, Chris Fleming, Suzanne Ross, Rebecca Adams, Petra Steinmair-Pösel, and Pablo Bandera
2024 Meeting in Mexico City
This video previews the 2024 Annual Meeting which will be held in Mexico City.
2021 Annual Meeting at Purdue University Plenaries and Presentations playlist
In 2021, COV&R held the Annual meeting digitally utilizing a platform utilized by Purdue Conferences. The theme was Desiring Machines: Robots, Mimesis, and Violence in the Age of AI. This playlist includes the plenary speakers and several concurrent session presenters.
A COV&R Convo with Luke Burgis playlist
Matthew Packer interviews entrepreneur and author Luke Burgis on Luke’s latest book, Wanting: the Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. Luke wrote the book to understand what mimetic desire means in the context of vocation, in the context of faith, and to connect it to everyday life in a way that would actually help people live better lives.
Mimetic Theory 101 with Wolfgang Palaver and Adam Ericksen playlist
This four video series provides an explanation of mimetic theory by Wolfgang Palaver as interviewed by Adam Ericksen of the Raven Foundation.
2019 Annual Meeting at Univeristät Innsbruck Plenaries playlist
The 2019 theme, “Imagining the Other: Theo-Political Challenges in an Age of Migration”, examined how we imagine and how we image “the Other”, is a decisive element in the (theo-) politics of exclusion and desire that feed on these challenges. Aware that imagination is a mimetic process, the 2019 conference of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R) wants to address these challenges by trying to illumine different aspects of this complex entanglement, asking whom or what we mean by “the other”: the stranger and migrant, the brother or sister, nature that envelops or defies us, the transcendent Other to whom religions refer or the other sex or gender …?
2018 Annual Meeting at Regis University Plenaries playlist
The 2018 Conference theme, “Religion, Politics, & Violence ‘after’ Truth”, immediately suggests the supposedly “post-factual” cultural moment, having particular resonance with recent anxieties over “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and other pathologies of the contemporary political sphere. Yet “After Truth” also indicates “the pursuit of truth,” and it prompts us to think about where we are and who(se) we become both when truth is obscured and after it is disclosed. Truth, deception, and indifference to truth are foundational concerns of René Girard’s Mimetic Theory, and the moment is apt to revisit them. The 2018 meeting of The Colloquium on Violence & Religion invites scholars and practitioners to share research and experience related to this theme, engaging with Mimetic Theory across the disciplines. Our aim is a fruitful exchange of ideas exploring, developing, critiquing, and applying Girard’s Mimetic Theory in relation to this pressing contemporary matter.
The plenary speakers for the Annual Meeting covered a cross-section of Philosophy, Culture, Religion, and Literature. The plenary lectures were presented by Paul Dumouchel, Laura Kipnis, Jack Miles, and Rev. Kevin F. Burke.