Associate Professor Michelle Boulous Walker
Associate Professor

Michelle Boulous Walker

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+61 7 336 52616

Background

Dr. Michelle BOULOUS WALKER's research interests span the fields of European philosophy, aesthetics, ethics, and feminist philosophy. Her teaching interests in philosophy include intersections with politics, film, and literature. Her recent research in Slow Philosophy engages with the work of Emmanuel Levinas, Theodore W. Adorno, Luce Irigraray, Michèle Le Doeuff, and others. A new project focuses on questions of philosophy and the politics of laughter.

Her other activities include:

  • Head: European Philosophy Research Group (EPRG) affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH).

"Both my teaching and research focus on the practice of philosophy – its historical, disciplinary, and institutional dimensions. I have published two monographs . The first, Philosophy and the Maternal Body: Reading Silence (Routledge: London & New York, 1998), explores the complex exclusions that keep women’s voices silent within the history of Western philosophy. The second, Slow Philosophy: Reading Against the Institution (London & New York: Bloomsbury Academic: 2017), explores the challenge of time pressure on learning, pedagogy, and research in philosophy, and more broadly in the humanities. In these works, I explore the internal threats to philosophy (its blind spots, exclusions, and silences) and it external threats (the demands of the digital age). I am interested to work within the institution of philosophy to engage these challenges. In a series of book chapters and international journal articles I have pursued this ethical examination of philosophy. I inquire into the effect of philosophy’s exclusions in order to make it a more inclusive intellectual domain, and I explore strategies that help philosophers respond more creatively to the pressures of the modern academy. I combine an engagement with the traditional questions and methods of philosophy with an investigation of the implications of these for contemporary issues of human agency and human knowledge."

Availability

Associate Professor Michelle Boulous Walker is:
Not available for supervision
Media expert

Fields of research

Ethical theory Feminist theory Phenomenology Philosophy Philosophy and Religious Studies Psychoanalytic philosophy

Qualifications

  • Bachelor (Honours) of Arts, University of New England Australia
  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland

Research interests

  • Philosophy and Laughter: Ethical, Political, & Pedagogical Dimensions

Research impacts

In response to the publication of Slow Philosophy: Reading Against the Institution (London and New York: Bloomsbury 2017), I have accepted the following invitations to write in public forums for a non-specialist audience:

The Times Higher Education (UK),

The Forum for European Philosophy: Thinking in Public (UK),

The Philosopher’s Magazine (UK), and

RHYSTRANTER.COM – Literature, Philosophy, and the Arts (UK).

Slow Philosophy has been very positively reviewed in review articles in: The LA Review of Books (US), Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy (Australia), and Svenska Dagladet (Sweden). I have been interviewed on public radio in the following programmes: ABC Radio National – The Philosopher’s Zone (Australia), Public Radio KZYX – Consider This (US), and Patterson in Pursuit: Philosophy, Politics, Religion (US). Additionally, my book has been the focus of a podcast devoted to applied research at the Bedrosian Center, The University of Southern California School of Policy Development and Public Practice (US).

Search Professor Michelle Boulous Walker’s works on UQ eSpace

57 works between 1986 and 2024
All (57) Journal Article (37) Book Chapter (11) Book (4) Other Outputs (4) Edited Outputs (1)

21 - 40 of 57 works

2019

Book Chapter

Slow movement

Boulous Walker, Michelle (2019). Slow movement. Pluriverse: a post-development dictionary. (pp. 305-308) edited by Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria and Alberto Acosta. New Delhi, India: Tulika Books.

Slow movement

2018

Book Chapter

'Situating the essay: between philosophy and literature?'

Boulous Walker, Michelle (2018). 'Situating the essay: between philosophy and literature?'. The Palgrave handbook of philosophy and literature. (pp. 61-79) edited by Barry Stocker and Michael Mack. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-54794-1_3

'Situating the essay: between philosophy and literature?'

2018

Journal Article

1968 and The Paradox of Freedom

Boulous Walker, Michelle (2018). 1968 and The Paradox of Freedom. Counterculture Studies, 64-73. doi: 10.14453/ccs.v1.i1.6

1968 and The Paradox of Freedom

2017

Other Outputs

Could 'Slow Philosophy' Offer an Antidote to Modern Academia?

Boulous Walker, Michelle (2017, 10 11). Could 'Slow Philosophy' Offer an Antidote to Modern Academia? RHYSTRANTER.COM: Literature, Philosophy, and the Arts

Could 'Slow Philosophy' Offer an Antidote to Modern Academia?

2017

Other Outputs

Philosophy at the Speed of Art

Boulous Walker, Michelle (2017, 07 10). Philosophy at the Speed of Art FORUM for European Philosophy (FEP)

Philosophy at the Speed of Art

2017

Journal Article

Fast Politics - Slow Philosophy Michelle Boulous Walker argues that unhurried thinking might be the antidote we need

Walker, Michelle Boulous (2017). Fast Politics - Slow Philosophy Michelle Boulous Walker argues that unhurried thinking might be the antidote we need. The Philosophers' Magazine (79), 38-43.

Fast Politics - Slow Philosophy Michelle Boulous Walker argues that unhurried thinking might be the antidote we need

2015

Journal Article

Desire, vulnerability, approach: the work of Judith Wright

Boulous Walker, Michelle (2015). Desire, vulnerability, approach: the work of Judith Wright. Eyeline, 84, 62-65.

Desire, vulnerability, approach: the work of Judith Wright

2014

Journal Article

Slow reading

Boulous Walker, Michelle (2014). Slow reading. Island, 137, 40-41.

Slow reading

2010

Journal Article

Gender, Class, and Freedom in Modern Political Theory. By Nancy J. Hirschmann

Boulous Walker, Michelle (2010). Gender, Class, and Freedom in Modern Political Theory. By Nancy J. Hirschmann. Hypatia, 25 (2), 472-476. doi: 10.1111/j.1527-2001.2009.01072a.x

Gender, Class, and Freedom in Modern Political Theory. By Nancy J. Hirschmann

2010

Journal Article

We're not the only ones

Walker, Michelle Boulous and Trakakis, Nick (2010). We're not the only ones. Slow, 2 (4), 118-119.

We're not the only ones

2009

Journal Article

Responsibility, giving and maternal work

Walker, Michelle Boulous (2009). Responsibility, giving and maternal work. Australian Feminist Studies, 24 (61), 373-375. doi: 10.1080/08164640903108569

Responsibility, giving and maternal work

2009

Journal Article

Writing couples: reading Deutscher on Sartre and Beauvoir

Walker, Michelle Boulous (2009). Writing couples: reading Deutscher on Sartre and Beauvoir. Crossroads: an interdisciplinary journal for the study of history, philosophy, religion and classics , IV (I), 45-52.

Writing couples: reading Deutscher on Sartre and Beauvoir

2009

Journal Article

The gift of the other: Levinas and the politics of reproduction

Walker, Michelle Boulous (2009). The gift of the other: Levinas and the politics of reproduction. Australian Feminist Studies, 24 (61), 373-375. doi: 10.1080/08164640903108569

The gift of the other: Levinas and the politics of reproduction

2009

Journal Article

Responsibility, giving and maternal work

Walker, Michelle Boulous (2009). Responsibility, giving and maternal work. Australian Feminist Studies, 24 (61), 373-375. doi: 10.1080/08164640903108569

Responsibility, giving and maternal work

2005

Book

Adriane Little: Call home mothers dead

Walker, Michelle Boulous and Little, Adriane (2005). Adriane Little: Call home mothers dead. Buffalo, NY, U.S.A.: Big Orbit Gallery.

Adriane Little: Call home mothers dead

2004

Journal Article

Review of 'Environmental culture: The ecological crisis of reason'

Walker, M. B. (2004). Review of 'Environmental culture: The ecological crisis of reason'. Australian Feminist Studies, 19 (44), 255-257.

Review of 'Environmental culture: The ecological crisis of reason'

2003

Journal Article

Review of Contemporary French Philosophy: Modernity and the persistence of the subject by Caroline Williams

Walker, M. A. (2003). Review of Contemporary French Philosophy: Modernity and the persistence of the subject by Caroline Williams. Political Studies Review, 1 (3), 370-371.

Review of Contemporary French Philosophy: Modernity and the persistence of the subject by Caroline Williams

2003

Journal Article

Review Article: Ajzenstat, O., 'Driven Back to the Text: The Premodern Sources of Levinas's Postmodernism'

Walker, M. B. (2003). Review Article: Ajzenstat, O., 'Driven Back to the Text: The Premodern Sources of Levinas's Postmodernism'. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 77 (1), 133-137. doi: 10.5840/acpq20037717

Review Article: Ajzenstat, O., 'Driven Back to the Text: The Premodern Sources of Levinas's Postmodernism'

2002

Journal Article

Eating ethically: Emmanuel Levinas and Simone Weil

Walker M.B. (2002). Eating ethically: Emmanuel Levinas and Simone Weil. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 76 (2), 295-320. doi: 10.5840/acpq200276245

Eating ethically: Emmanuel Levinas and Simone Weil

2000

Book Chapter

Bringing Le Doeuff home

Walker, M. A. (2000). Bringing Le Doeuff home. Michele Le Doeuff: Operative Philosophy and Imaginary Practice. (pp. 163-186) edited by Max Deutscher. Amherst, New York: Humanity Books.

Bringing Le Doeuff home

Availability

Associate Professor Michelle Boulous Walker is:
Not available for supervision

Supervision history

Current supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

    The Thread of Deconstruction: Coming to Monique Wittig through Derrida and Cixous

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Marguerite La Caze

  • Doctor Philosophy

    A Philosophical Exploration into the Ambiguity of Girlhood Friendship and the Role of Intellectual Exchange

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Marguerite La Caze

  • Doctor Philosophy

    The Thread of Deconstruction: Coming to Monique Wittig through Derrida and Cixous

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Marguerite La Caze

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Forest Lovers, Live Forever: Bringing Val Plumwood and Luce Irigaray into dialogue on topics of life, love and death in the age of ecological crisis

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Laura Roberts, Dr Simone Thornton, Associate Professor Joel Katzav

Completed supervision

Enquiries

Contact Associate Professor Michelle Boulous Walker directly for media enquiries about:

  • Ethics
  • Feminism
  • Philosophy

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