Associate Professor Michelle Boulous Walker
Associate Professor

Michelle Boulous Walker

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Phone: 
+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)

41 - 57 of 57 works

1998

Book Chapter

Wonder: Coupling Art with Sexual Difference

Boulous Walker, Michelle (1998). Wonder: Coupling Art with Sexual Difference. Veil : installations, books and video walks : Judith Wright. (pp. 44-47) edited by Judith Wright. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

Wonder: Coupling Art with Sexual Difference

1998

Journal Article

Imaginary bodies: Ethics, power and corporeality

Walker, M. B. (1998). Imaginary bodies: Ethics, power and corporeality. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 76 (2), 335-337.

Imaginary bodies: Ethics, power and corporeality

1998

Journal Article

Feminist amnesia: the wake of women's liberation

Walker, M. B. (1998). Feminist amnesia: the wake of women's liberation. Australian Feminist Studies, 13 (28), 366-367.

Feminist amnesia: the wake of women's liberation

1998

Journal Article

In Memory of Lyotard: the differend

Boulous Walker, Michelle (1998). In Memory of Lyotard: the differend. Virtuosity

In Memory of Lyotard: the differend

1997

Book Chapter

Reflections on the Pre-Reflected: The Blue Room of Humanity

Boulous Walker, Michelle (1997). Reflections on the Pre-Reflected: The Blue Room of Humanity. The Blue Room of Humanity. (pp. 28-36) edited by Franz Ehmann. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

Reflections on the Pre-Reflected: The Blue Room of Humanity

1996

Other Outputs

Philosophy and silence : reading the maternal body

Walker, Michelle Boulous (1996). Philosophy and silence : reading the maternal body. PhD Thesis, School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/312117

Philosophy and silence : reading the maternal body

1996

Other Outputs

Finding fault

Boulous Walker, Michelle (1996). Finding fault. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

Finding fault

1995

Journal Article

HISTORY AFTER LACAN - BRENNAN,T

WALKER, MB (1995). HISTORY AFTER LACAN - BRENNAN,T. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 73 (4), 632-635.

HISTORY AFTER LACAN - BRENNAN,T

1995

Journal Article

Brennan, T., History After Lacan

Boulous Walker, Michelle (1995). Brennan, T., History After Lacan. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 73 (4), 632-635. doi: 10.1080/00048409512346991

Brennan, T., History After Lacan

1994

Book Chapter

Performing Desire: Duras in Silence

Walker, Michelle (1994). Performing Desire: Duras in Silence. Performing Sexualities. (pp. 11-22) edited by Michelle Boulous Walker. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

Performing Desire: Duras in Silence

1994

Book

Performing Sexualities

Michelle Boulous Walker ed. (1994). Performing Sexualities. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

Performing Sexualities

1994

Book Chapter

Introduction

Walker, Michelle (1994). Introduction. Performing Sexualities. (pp. iv-v) edited by Michelle Boulous Walker. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

Introduction

1993

Journal Article

Silence and reason: woman's voice in philosophy

Walker, Michelle (1993). Silence and reason: woman's voice in philosophy. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 71 (4), 400-424. doi: 10.1080/00048409312345412

Silence and reason: woman's voice in philosophy

1993

Book Chapter

Reason, identity and the body: reading Adorno with Irigaray

Walker, Michelle (1993). Reason, identity and the body: reading Adorno with Irigaray. Reason and its other : rationalty in modern German philosophy and culture. (pp. 199-216) edited by Dieter Freundlieb and Wayne Hudson. Providence, RI United States: Berg.

Reason, identity and the body: reading Adorno with Irigaray

1993

Book Chapter

The Aesthetics of Detail

Walker, Michelle (1993). The Aesthetics of Detail. Aesthetics after Historicism. (pp. 79-91) edited by Wayne Hudson. Fortitude Valley, Qld Australia: Institute of Modern Art.

The Aesthetics of Detail

1986

Journal Article

Reproduction: Feminist footnote to Marxist text?

Walker, Michelle (1986). Reproduction: Feminist footnote to Marxist text?. Arena: a Marxist Journal of Criticism and Discussion, 1 (77), 155-166.

Reproduction: Feminist footnote to Marxist text?

1986

Journal Article

Feminism and the humanities: Enrichment, expansion or challenge? Speaking from where, to whom?

Walker, Michelle (1986). Feminism and the humanities: Enrichment, expansion or challenge? Speaking from where, to whom?. Australian Feminist Studies, 1 (3), 106-109. doi: 10.1080/08164649.1986.9961521

Feminism and the humanities: Enrichment, expansion or challenge? Speaking from where, to whom?

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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