1971
When founded, the Center first directed its energies toward collecting and preserving the writings, published and unpublished, of phenomenologists–especially phenomenologists who had taught in the United States and Canada. It has acquired the originals or copies of writings by Hannah Arendt, Winthrop Bell, Franz Brentano, Dorion Cairns, Johannes Daubert, Aron Gurwitsch, Felix Kaufmann, Alfred Schutz, Erwin Straus, and Helmut Wagner.
Long held at Wilfred Laurier University under the supervision of José Huertas-Jourda, the materials are now held at The University of Memphis under the supervision of Tom Nenon. The Center currently enjoys working relationships with the Archiv der Sozialwissenschaften at the Universität Konstanz, the Prague Center for Phenomenological Research and the Association pour la Fédération Internationale des Centres de Recherche en Sémiotique, Paris.
1975
The Center founded the Collegium Phaenomenologicum in Perugia, Italy, for the purpose of bringing together philosophers, scientists, and students for study and research in phenomenology. In 1977 the Center was joined in this sponsorship by the Husserl Archives located at Leuven and at Freiburg. The “Collegium” is now an independent entity.
1978
The Center began sponsoring a series of monographs in philosophy and the human sciences at Ohio University Press (“Series in Continental Thought”). Twenty-nine volumes have appeared by 2005. The current director of this series is Steven Crowell of Rice University.
1979
The Center was incorporated in the United States as a not-for-profit, tax exempt, “509(a)(1),” educational corporation. Also in that year it became the sponsor of the Touring Scholar in Continental Thought program that for four years helped bring speakers to North America.
Furthermore, it became the sponsor of the Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture that is held annually in conjunction with the meetings of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy and the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences.
Finally, in that same year it founded the “Current Continental Research” series copublished with University Press of America and devoted to specialized works of current use and interest, including volumes of selected essays from conferences, festschriften, translations, revised dissertations, textbooks, and reprints. By 1995 fifty-six books had been published.
1981
The Center joined with the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in the Humanities and the Department of Philosophy of The Pennsylvania State University to sponsor a bicentennial commemoration of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason entitled “Kant and Phenomenology.”
The Center also cosponsored a conference entitled “Husserl’s Ideas I in Historical Context” with the American Philosophical Association.
This same year it began cosponsoring an annual “Summer Program in Phenomenology” at Penn State and did so until 1988.
The Center inaugurated the Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture with “Edmund Husserl on Possible Worlds,” by Thomas M. Seebohm
1982
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Intentionality, Causality, and Holism,” was given by J.N. Mohanty.
1983
The Center sponsored a conference entitled “Dilthey and Phenomenology” in the Summer Program in Phenomenology at The Pennsylvania State University with grants from The Franklin J. Matchette Foundation and The Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Illusion and Irreality,” was given by Maurice Natanson.
1984
The Center received support from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities and the Department of Philosophy of The Pennsylvania State University, Bellarmine College, The Saybrook Institute, and The Pennsylvania Humanities Council in order to sponsor two conferences in the Summer Program: “The Practice of Research in the Human Sciences” and “American Pragmatism in relation to Continental Phenomenology.” A volume based on the latter conference was published in the CCR series and entitled Pragmatism Considers Phenomenology.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Moral Categoriality,” was given by Robert Sokolowski.
1985
The Center held a conference entitled “Phenomenology and the Formal Sciences” that was cosponsored by the Center for Philosophy of Science of the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University and supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. A volume of the same name based on this conference was published in Contributions to Phenomenology.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Phenomenology and the Philosophy of Nature,” was delivered by John Compton.
1986
A conference entitled “Worldly Phenomenology: The Continuing Influence of Alfred Schutz on North American Human Science” was held by the Center at the Institute for the Human Sciences at Ohio University and published in Current Continental Research.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Husserl’s Noema: Interpretation, Philosophical Issues, and Recent Controversy,” was presented by Dagfinn Follesdall.
1987
The Center began to sponsor a third book series, “Contributions to Phenomenology,” with Kluwer Academic Publishers (now Springer) in The Netherlands. John Drummond directs this series. By 2004, fifty-three volumes have been published.
In 1987 it also sponsored a conference on “Lifeworld and Technology” with support from Duquesne University, the Philosophy and Technology Center of Polytechnic University, and The Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “On the Unity and Multiplicity of the Sciences,” was presented by Joseph J. Kockelmans.
1988
The Indian Council for Philosophical Research and CARP cosponsored the conference “Phenomenology and the Indian Philosophy” in New Delhi. This has been published: Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy, ed. D.P. Chattopadhyaya, Lester Embree, and Jitendranath Mohanty (New Delhi: Indian Council of Philosophical Research in association with Motilal Banarsisass Publishers, 1992). It also sponsored “Phenomenology of Natural Science” with the Summer Program in Phenomenology at The Pennsylvania State University and “Husserl in his Contemporary Radiance” at Wilfrid Laurier University.
It also sponsored two conferences, “Husserl in his Contemporary Radiance” at Wilfred Laurier University and “Phenomenology and Natural Science” was developed and published in the Contributions to Phenomenology series.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Husserl vs. Derrida,” was delivered by James M. Edie.
1989
The Center sponsored two conferences: “Phenomenology and Deconstruction” at the invitation of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association and “Japanese and Western Phenomenology” in Sanda-City with the Phenomenological Association of Japan. Link to volume. From the conferences were developed Derrida and Phenomenology and Japanese and Western Phenomenology.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Toward a Phenomenology of Ethical Experience,” was presented by Hubert Dreyfus.
1990
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Phenomenology of Representation,” was given by Lester Embree.
With support from Kluwer Academic Publishers, the Center began to organize symposia at the meetings of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) on recently published Husserliana volumes, many of the essays being published in Husserl Studies. The inaugural symposium was on Husserl’s Kaizo articles on Cultural Renewal (Husserliana XXVII).
1991
The Center began to co-sponsor “research symposia” with the William F. Dietrich Eminent Scholar Chair in Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University at the Seagate Hotel and Beach Club in Delray Beach, Florida. The first of these was on the “Phenomenology of the Noema” and a volume of the same name was developed for Contributions to Phenomenology.
This same year is co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy of the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research “Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Symposium” from which a volume was developed for Contributions to Phenomenology entitled To Work at the Foundations: Essays in Memory of Aron Gurwitsch
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “On the Margins of the World,” was presented by Donn Welton.
1992
The Directors of the Center began to work together on The Encyclopedia of Phenomenology, which appeared in Contributions to Phenomenology in 1997. This work is 778 pages long and has 166 entries 3,000 words long written by 146 researchers from twenty-two countries and in twenty-one disciplines.
The Aron Gurwitsch memorial Lecture, “Phenomenology and Art,” was delivered by Walter Biemel.
The same year, it organized “Husserl and Fink in Dialogue: Fink’s ‘Sixth Meditation’ and Husserl’s Notations” (Husserliana Dokumente II). Link to book.
And the center also organized “Phenomenology of the Cultural Disciplines” in Delray Beach from which a volume of the same title was developed for Contributions to Phenomenology. Picture of the conference.
1993
The syposium organized at the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) was on the Krisis Materials (Husserliana Dokumente XXIX).
This same year, “Issues in Husserl’s Ideas II” was organized in Delray Beach and a volume of the same title was developed for Contributions to Phenomenology. Program. Picture of attendees. Link to book.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “The Question of the Subject: Heidegger and the Transcendental Tradition,” was presented by David Carr.
1994
The research symposium on “Feminist Phenomenology” was organized in Delray Beach and a volume was developed from it for Contributions to Phenomenology. Program. Picture of attendees. Link to book.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Understanding the Representational Mind: A Phenomenological Perspective,” was presented by Eduard Marbach.
1995
The Center began cosponsoring the Alfred Schutz Memorial Lectureship with the American Philosophical Association and the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences. The first lecture, “Alfred Schutz: Philosopher and Social Scientist,” was by Maurice Natanson. Program.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Science and Lifeworld: A Problem of Culture Change,” was presented by Elizabeth Stroeker.
That same year, the research symposium, “More Phenomenology of Time,” was organized in Delray Beach and a volume was developed from it for Contributions to Phenomenology. Program. Link to book.
Also, a research symposium entitled “Alfred Schutz’s ‘Sociological Aspects of Literature’: Construction and Complementary Essays” was held at the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science of the New School for Social Research and a volume was developed from it. Program. Picture of Attendees. Link to book.
1996
The research symposium, “Phenomenology of the Political” was organized in Delray Beach and a volume was developed from it for Contributions to Phenomenology. Program. Picture of Attendees. Link to book.
The Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture, “Phenomenological Analysis and its Contemporary Significance,” was given by Ilja Srubar.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Stuffed Cabbage in the Old New School Cafeteria,” was given by Fred Kersten.
1997
The Center began sponsoring the Edward Goodwin Ballard Prize in Phenomenology. The first award was to S. Kay Toombs for The Meaning of Illness: A Phenomenological Account of the Different Perspectives of Physician and Patient. Link to Book.
The Center started the present website. By the end of 2004 it had been visited over 135,000 times.
This same year, a session on Husserl’s “Logic and the General Theory of the Science” (Logik und allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie: Vorlesungen 1917/1918 – Husserliana XXX) was organized by the center. Link to book.
The center organized two research symposia and developed volumes from them: The first is “Alfred Schutz’s Theory of Social Science.” Program. Picture of Attendees. Link to volume. The second is “The Existential Phenomenology of Simone de Beauvoir.” Program. Picture of Attendees. Link to volume.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Responsibility and Self-Realization: A Husserlian Reflection on Jonas and Naess,” was given by Ullrich Melle.
The Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture, “Making Music Together While we Grow Older: Further Reflections on Intersubjectivity,” was given by Richard Zaner.
1998
The Ballard Prize was awarded to Maurice Natanson for The Erotic Bird. Link to book.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “The Other as Alter Ego: A Genetic Approach,” was given by Gail Soffer.
The Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture, “Moral Communication in Modern Societies,” was given by Thomas Luckmann.
1999
The Center co-organized with the Department of Philosophy of the Chinese University of Hong Kong an international conference on phenomenology entitled, “Time, Space, and Culture.” A volume was developed for Contributions to Phenomenology. Program. Picture of attendees. Link to volume.
The research symposium in Delray Beach was entitled “Merleau-Ponty’s Reading of Husserl” and a volume for Contributions to Phenomenology was developed from it. Program. Picture of attendees. Link to volume.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Practical Intentionality and Transcendental Phenomenology as Practical Philosophy,” was given by LEE, Nam-In.
The Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture, “A Stroll with Alfred Schutz,” was given by Fred Kersten.
The winner of the Edward Goodwin Ballard Prize was Olav Wigand for Interpretation der Modallogik: Ein Beitrag zur phaenomenologischen Wissenschaftstheorie (1998). Link to book.
2000
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Forms of Social Unity: Partnership, Membership, Citizenship,” was delivered by John Drummond.
The Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture, “Alfred Schutz’s Influence on American Sociology,” was given by George Psathas.
The same year, the Ballard Prize was awarded to Dan Zahavi for Self-Awareness and Alterity. Link to book.
2001
A double research symposium was held in Delray Beach on “The Reach of Reflection: Issues for Phenomenology’s Second Century” and the three-volume work developed from it was published electronically. Program. Picture of attendees. Link to Electron Press.
With CARP support, a conference entitled, “Husserl’s Logische Untersuchungen – Centenary Conference,” was held in Copenhagen in May entitled and on that occasion The Society for Nordic Phenomenology was founded.
With CARP support, the Summer Program in Phenomenology in India was inaugurated at Pondicherry University. (1) (2)
With CARP support, the first international conference on phenomenology was held in China. Program: 1 2 3 4 5 6. Picture of attendees.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “On the Manifold Senses of Horizondness: The Theories of E. Husserl and A. Gurwitsch,” was delivered by Roberto Walton.
The Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture, “Some Schutzian Theory of History Illustrated from the Women’s Movement,” was given by Lester Embree.
The Edward Goodwin Ballard Prize was awarded to Dermot Moran for Introduction to Phenomenology. Link to book.
2002
The Center joined with the Center for Phenomenological Research, Prague, to organize “Issues Confronting the Post-European World,” at which the Organization for Phenomenological Organizations was founded. Fifty-six essays were contributed to the “Celebration of the Founding of the Organization of Phenomenological Organizations.” Program.
The research symposium in Delray Beach was entitled “Phenomenology as Bridge between Asia and the West.” The “Phenomenology in East Asia CirclE” (P.E.A.C.E.) was founded. Program. Picture of attendees: 1 2
With CARP support, the second meeting of the Summer Program in Phenomenology was held in Madras. At this meeting the All India Society for Phenomenological Studies was founded. Link to the society’s website.
With support from CARP, The First Central and European Conference on Phenomenology (CEECOP) was founded at a conference entitled “Person, Community, and Identity.” Program. Pictures 1, 2, 3.
The Newsletter of Phenomenology was also founded by the Center; it is now sponsored by the Organization of Phenomenological Organizations.
A symposium was held at Delray Beach entitled “Gurwitsch’s Relevancy for Cognitive Science.” (1) (2) A volume was developed for Contributions to Phenomenology.
The First Korean-American Conference on Phenomenology co-sponsored by the Center was held Seoul.
And also that year, the symposium at the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy was on Die ‘Bernauer Manuskripte’ ueber das Zeitbewusstsein (1917/18) (Husserliana XXXIII) was organized by CARP.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Coming to an Understanding between Cultures: A Phenomenological Approach,” was given by Klaus Held.
The Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture, “A Moment of Unconditional Validity? Schutz and the Habermas/ Rorty Debate,” was delivered by Michael Barber.
Finally, the Ballard Prize was awarded to Steven Galt Crowell for Husserl, Heidegger, and the Space of Meaning. Link to book.
2003
The Ballard Prize was awarded to Donn Welton for The Other Husserl. Link to book.
The third Summer Program in India was supported, this time in Bangalore.
The Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture of Kurt Wolff, “This, Yes!” was delivered posthumously by George Psathas and Gary Backhaus.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Phenomenological Contributions to a Theory of Social Cognition” was given by Shaun Gallagher.
2004
With support of the Center, the first meeting of the Phenomenology in East Asia CirclE was held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Pictures 1 and 2.
The Center organized a conference with the Korean Society for Phenomenology entitled “Person, Culture, and the Social” in Memphis, Tennessee. Photo of participants.
The Ballard Prize was awarded to William S. Hamrick for Kindness and the Good Society.
The Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, “Human Differences as Constituting Different Worlds,” was given by William McKenna.
2005
Russia and the Phenomenological Tradition Conference, St. Petersburg, Russia, September
OPO II, Lima, Peru, August
http://www.o-p-o.net/opo2report.html
2006
1st Pacific East Asian Conference, Tokyo, Japan, September
Political Phenomenology Conference, Memphis USA, May
2007
The Golden Age of the New School Conference, New York, USA, March
Phenomenology as a Bridge between East and West (2): The Future of Applied Phenomenology, Seoul, Korea, February
2008
OPO III: Nature, Culture, and Existence, Hong Kong, China, December
2009
Gurwitsch Lecture by Nicolas de Warren (Wellesley), “The Truth of Solipsism”
Schutz Lecture by Thomas Eberle (St. Gallen, Switzerland)
3rd Pacific East Asia Conference (PEACE): The Applied Phenomenology, Seoul, Korea, September
International Conference on Alfred Schutz, Konstanz, Germany, May
International Conference on Phenomenology with the Indian Council for Philosophical Research, New Delhi, India, January
2010
Directors’ Memorial Prize: Andreaa Aldea (Emory), “Phantasie in Husserl’s Phenomenological Inquiry”
4th Pacific East Asia Conference (PEACE): Border-Crossing, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, December
Conference on “Husserl’s Ideen” in New Orleans
OPO “Reason and Life: The Responsibility of Philosophy” in Segovia, Spain
2011
Ballard Prize: Burt Hopkins, The Philosophy of Edmund Husserl (Acumen Press)
Directors’ Memorial Prize: Witold Plotka (Gdansk, Poland), “The Transcendental Reduction as Questioning: Husserl’s Phenomenology and the Problem of the Question,”
OPO IV: Reason and Life, Segovia, Spain, September
Phenomenology as a Bridge between Asia and the West (3): Phenomenology and Other Discipline, St. Louis, USA, May
2013
International Conference “Life and Desire” in New Orleans in partnership with the Hong Kong Society for Phenomenology
2014
OPO V “Phenomenology and the Problem of Meaning in Human Life and History” hosted by Murdoch University in Perth, Australia
“Ethics, Reason, and Culture” International Conference on Phenomenology as a Bridge between Asia and the West at the National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2015
“Phenomenology in North America and Italy” with a special emphasis on the Philosophy of Religion at the Sapienza University in Rome
2016
Conference on Thomas Seebohm’s History as a Science and the System of the Sciences in Memphis