Stanley Cavell's Transcendental Etudes Conference

Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions
42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Thu., Oct. 22, 2026, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.



Registration is required.
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Organized to commemorate the centenary of philosopher Stanley Cavell's (1926–2018) birth, Stanley Cavell's Transcendental Etudes brings together leading scholars to explore the enduring significance of his thought for contemporary conversations in religion, ethics, and politics. While Cavell is widely recognized for his contributions to ordinary language philosophy, aesthetics, literary criticism, and political theory, the religious dimensions of his work have received comparatively less attention.

Presented as part of the Center for the Study of World Religions' Transcendentalism Initiative, the conference explores the dimensions of Cavell's thought that emerge through his sustained engagement with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and the broader Transcendentalist tradition.

The conference will feature four keynote addresses and a concluding panel discussion examining the continued relevance of Cavell's work for questions of selfhood, community, skepticism, moral perfectionism, democracy, and spiritual life. Rather than offering a retrospective assessment of Cavell's legacy, participants will consider how his writings continue to illuminate contemporary intellectual, ethical, religious, and cultural concerns. By foregrounding the significance of Cavell's thought for religion and the philosophy of religion, the conference also deepens our understanding of his place within the Transcendentalist inheritance and highlights the enduring capacity of his work to inspire new forms of philosophical, ethical, and religious reflection.

Keynote Speakers:
Branka Arsić
Professor Branka Arsić specializes in 19th-century American literature and its scientific, philosophical, and religious contexts. She is the author of Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau (Harvard University Press, 2016), which received the Modern Language Association's James Russell Lowell Prize for the outstanding book of 2016. She is also the author of On Leaving: A Reading in Emerson (Harvard University Press, 2010) and Passive Constitutions or 7½ Times Bartleby (Stanford University Press, 2007), and has co-edited volumes on Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herman Melville. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals and examines the work of major American writers, including Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and Henry David Thoreau. Arsić is currently completing two book projects: Ambient Life, on materialism and transformation in Melville's work, and Butterfly Tropics, which explores Emily Dickinson's poetry, archives, and theories of transmutation.

Mark Cladis
Mark S. Cladis is the Brooke Russell Astor Professor of the Humanities at Brown University. His work explores the intersections of modern Western religious, political, and environmental thought, moving among poetry, literature, philosophy, and critical theory. At the heart of his scholarship is an enduring concern for environmental justice and Indigenous ecology. Cladis is a founding member of Environmental Humanities at Brown and an active faculty member in Native American and Indigenous Studies. His home department is Religious Studies. His recent books include Radical Romanticism: Democracy, Religion, and the Environmental Imagination and In Search of a Course. His current book project is titled Just Home: Place, Belonging, and Justice.

John Lysaker
John Lysaker is the William R. Kenan University Professor at Emory University and a faculty member of the Center for Ethics. His scholarship explores the nature of the good life and the conditions that enable or hinder human flourishing, with particular attention to character, friendship, serious mental illness, ethics, and the arts. Lysaker is the author of six books, co-author of another, and co-editor of an essay collection. His work has appeared in journals including JAMA Psychiatry, The Georgia Review, and The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. His current research examines friendship as a source of moral growth, moral perfectionism in ethical life, the virtues of honesty, integrity, and generosity, and collaborative approaches to treatment for people experiencing psychosis. Committed to public engagement, Lysaker regularly speaks with audiences ranging from students and religious communities to museums and civic organizations, fostering conversations about ethics across diverse settings.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Gazette Classification: Conferences
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: [email protected]