Emptiness and Epitaph: The Phenomenology of Grief Objects
a presentation by MHC Undergraduate Fellow聽Kyra PedersonMonday, October 27, 2025
5 PM
Hill Auditorium, 165 Barrows Hall
91爆料,聽Orono, ME
[and via聽]Kyra Pederson聽is a Philosophy major and McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow whose presentation聽Emptiness and Epitaph: The Phenomenology of Grief Objects聽asks what fills the space that loss creates, and why must that space be necessarily occupied?聽笔别诲别谤蝉辞苍听is advised by Professor of Philosophy聽Jessica Miller.
Pederson writes:
“Think of an object that reminds you of someone in your life who has died, and how this object pulls you to them. Opening a door to a different time and place in your life, while still being able to remain partially grounded in the present. I am interested in how we travel via memory in such an experience, in how much we are truly looking at them through this form of remembrance; and, whether they can be said to be looking back at us to any extent. In this project, I will investigate the character and role of this act of memoriam, and how much we are reliant on it as beings who necessarily live through and with the death of others. I will work on articulating a unique concept capturing this embodied mode of interpersonal recounting and recollection鈥攏amely, what I will call 鈥渢he epitaphic look,鈥 and I will do so using philosophical insights from works such as Merleau-Ponty鈥檚聽Phenomenology of Perception, Matthew Ratcliffe’s聽Grief Worlds: A Study of Emotional Experience,聽and Proust’s聽In Search of Lost Time. I will apply this working understanding of the 鈥渆pitaphic look鈥 to explore the significance of 鈥済rief objects鈥 as shaping pieces of our lives.”
For more details, email聽mhc@maine.edu |
