EFSNA Inaugural Conference Program

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Erich Fromm Society of North America’s Inaugural Conference 2024

Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA, USA

ALL sessions will be held in Wolff Auditorium in Jepson Center, except Panel 3 on Day 1, which will be held in Jepson 122.

Friday September 13, 2024 (Day 1)

8:30-9:30 AM - Registration

9:30-9:50 AM - Opening Remarks

10:00-11:30 AM - Panel 1 - Critical Pedagogy Through a Frommian Lens

Marie Hélène Masse-Lamarche, Université du Québec à Montréal (virtually)

“Conquer Snakes, Climb Ladders Within Socially Patterned Defects: A Study on Teacher Alienation in a Neoliberal School Context”

Shelly Johnson, Georgetown College (virtually)

“Towards a Biophilic Pedagogy”

Rory Varrato, Columbia University (in-person)

“Empathetic Introjection: Coetzee, Fromm, and a Learning Theory for Aesthetic Education through Narrative Art”

11:30-11:40 AM - Break

11:40 AM-1:10 PM - Panel 2 - Challenging Patriarchy

Hoang Minh Uyen Ly, American Polytechnic College (virtually)

“Fromm on Mother’s Nature, Sacrifice, and Social Reproduction”

Kalyani Singh (virtually)

“P. Sivakami’s Book the Grip of Change: Analyses the Sociological Perspective of Erich Fromm’s View”

Amparo Espinosa Rugarcía (in-person)

“Searching Mothers”

1:10-2:10 PM - Lunch

2:10-3:10 PM - Sandra Buechler’s Book Presentation

3:10-3:20 - Break

3:20-4:50 PM - Panel 3 - The Relevance of Fromm to Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory

Session chair: Lauren Langman, Loyola University

Sandra Buechler, William Alanson White Institute (in-person)

“Clinical Implications of Fromm’s View of Health: Legacies of My Training”

Ilene Philipson, Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (in-person)

“From Determined Objects to Fellow Subjects: The Relevance of Fromm for Contemporary Psychoanalysis”

Michael Thompson, William Paterson University (in-person)

“Fromm on the Concept of Psychic Health”

3:20-5:20 PM - Panel 4 - Dialogues with Fromm

Ayumi Osagawa (in-person)

“The Contemporary Significance of Erich Fromm’s Psychoanalysis: A Study in Relation to D. T. Suzuki, Zen Scholar”

Amjad Hussain, National University of Modern Languages (in-person)

“Thinking Contemporary Muslim Political Philosophy with Erich Fromm and Muhammad Iqbal”

Nick Braune, South Texas College (in-person)

“Ruth Nanda Anshen, a Philosopher, Includes Fromm in World Perspectives Series”

Rebeca Aramoni, Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis (virtually)

“The Emptiness of Isolation”

6:00-8:00 PM - Reception

Saturday September 14, 2024 (Day 2)

9:00-10:30 AM - Panel 5 - Frommian Perspectives on Digitalization and Social Media

Jeremiah Morelock, Boston College (in-person) “Erich Fromm, Social Media, and Authoritarian Populism”

Bernice García Tapia, Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis (in-person) “The Thumb and Social Media”

Rainer Funk, Erich Fromm Institute Tuebingen (virtually) “Is There a New Social Character?”

10:30-10:40 AM - Break

10:40 AM-12:10 PM - Panel 6 - Fromm and Human Nature

Session chair: Michael Thompson, William Paterson University

Lauren Langman, Loyola University (in-person)

“Nature-Nurture: Optimism in Dark Times”

Charles Thorpe, University of California, San Diego (in-person)

“Species Becoming: Human Self-Creation and the Moral Meaning of Globalization”

Mauricio Cortina (in-person)

“Rethinking Fromm’s View of Existential Dichotomies and Basic Human Needs”

12:10-1:10 PM - Lunch

1:10-2:40 PM - Panel 7 - Exploring Social Transformation with Erich Fromm

Kieran Durkin, University of York (virtually)

“Erich Fromm and Marxism: A Re-appraisal”

Tyler Jimenez, University of Washington (in- person)

“Applying Fromm’s Criminological Insights”

Jeffrey Nall, University of Central Florida (virtually)

“Change Agents, Martyrs, and Mental Illness: How Erich Fromm’s Conception of Healthy Humanity Upturns Conventional Ideas about Who’s Sick”

2:40-2:50 PM - Break

2:50-3:50 PM - Roger Frie’s Book Presentation (“Edge of Catastrophe: Erich Fromm, Fascism and the Holocaust”)

3:50-4:00 - Break

4:00-6:00 PM - Panel 8 - The Fromm Revival

Lynn Chancer, CUNY (virtually)

“Why Fromm Now: Why Sociologists Should be Particularly Interested in Rediscovering Fromm”

Dean Ray, York University

“Between Ritual and Atomization: How Indigenous Peoples are using traditional cultural practices to resist fascism and strengthen democracy?”

Ilene Philipson, Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (in-person)

“A Fromm Revival in Psychoanalysis?”

Neil McLaughlin, McMaster University (virtually)

“Fascism, Cultural Crisis and Left-Liberal Authoritarianism: Historical Factors That Are Creating Interest in Fromm”

4:00-6:00 PM - Panel 9 - Religious Perspectives on Fromm

Zeinab Shariatnia, University of Imam Khomeini (in-person)

“The Influence of ‘Personality’ on Forms of Religiosity Based on Erich Fromm’s Theory of Personality”

Maor Levitin, York University (in-person)

“Erich Fromm and Contemporary Prophets”

Nuzhat Khurshid, York University

“Religious Humanism as Love and Reason”

Ido Ben Harush, Yale University (virtually)

“The Messianic Politics of Erich Fromm”

Sunday September 15, 2024 (Day 3)

9:00-10:30 AM Panel 10 - Psychoanalytic Explorations in Play, Aesthetics, and Utopia

Rudy Leal McCormack, Sam Houston State University (in-person)

“Mending the Separation”

Ayesha Hussain, Ambedkar University Delhi (virtually)

“The Art of Psychotherapy: Personal and Social Healing in the Psychoanalytic aesthetics of Eric Fromm’s Therapeutic Vision”

Nils Bischof, International Erich Fromm Society (virtually)

“‘Productiveness’ as ‘Play’: A New Approach to Fromm’s Humanistic Ideals?”

10:30-10:40 AM - Break

10:40 AM-12:40 PM - Panel 11 - Psychoanalysis and Social Character

Session chair: Mauricio Cortina

Sandra Paredes Angeles, Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis (in-person)

“The Search for Mental Health in a Social Network Context”

Pablo Javier Varela Fregoso, Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis (virtually) “Authoritarianism, Democracy and Social Character in Mexico”

Matheus Romanetto, University of Kansas

“Some Methodological Difficulties in Listening Outside the Clinic”

Jorge J. Caraveo-Anduaga, Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis (virtually)

“The Epidemiological Approach to the Research of Fromm’s Ideas in the Present”

12:40 PM-1:40 PM - Lunch

1:40-3:10 PM - Panel 12 - Erich Fromm’s Response to Fascism and Racism Today

Joan Braune, Gonzaga University (in-person)

“I Can’t Believe I Have to Say This: Erich Fromm Was Not an Anti-‘Woke’ Free Speech Warrior”

Lynne Layton, Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis (virtually)

“Who Speaks for Fromm in this Political Moment? Psychoanalytic Institutions and the Authoritarian Center”

Roger Frie, CUNY

“Erich Fromm’s Fight Against Fascism and Racism”

3:10-3:20 - Break

3:20-4:50 PM - Panel 13 - The Relationship of Psychoanalysis to Activism and the Left

Daniel Burston, Duquesne University (virtually)

“Psychoanalysis and the Call to Activism”

Dustin J. Byrd, The University of Olivet (virtually)

"Erich Fromm and the Problem of Oikophobia: A Dialectical Approach to the Legacy of the West”

Dr. Lucina Montes Nieto (virtually)

“Erich Fromm and Relational Psychoanalysis: Their Coincidence”