Virginia Union professor Devonya Havis gives philosophy seminar "Invisible Man: A Study in Auditory Deconstruction" Feb. 21
Date: Feb. 21, 2008
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location:
North Court 202
Dr. Devonya N. Havis of Virginia Union University will give a talk, "Invisible Man: A Study in Auditory Deconstruction" on February 21 as part of the Department of Philosophy's Speakers Series.
Devonya N. Havis is an associate professor of philosophy at Virginia Union University (VUU), where she teaches philosophy courses that range from explorations of Hip-Hop theory and its political implications to discussions of classical ethics. Prior to joining the faculty at VUU, Havis taught courses in ethics, political philosophy, Critical Race Theory, and Africana philosophy at Boston College and Harvard University. An active participant in university life, Havis has served as a mentor to first generation college students and provided academic support to student athletes.
Havis’ research, which focuses on how theory and practice intersect, concentrates on explorations of alterity, ethics and theories of transgression. She is currently working on Philosophy’s Racial Failure, a manuscript that examines alternative notions of social change utilizing Black Vernacular Theory and the philosophical insights of Michel Foucault and Emmanuel Levinas.
Havis earned her Ph.D., with distinction, in philosophy at Boston College. Raised in Jackson, Mississippi, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion from Williams College. Prior to her graduate studies, Havis was employed as the press aide to Boston City Councilor Charles Yancey and was a staff reporter for the Bay State Banner, a Boston based black-owned news weekly.
Abstract
Havis questions how we might hear and speak of social change in resonance with the echo created by Michel Foucault’s work. She enlists Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Black Vernacular Phenomena and Derridian deconstructive strategies to articulate a theory of social change that invokes auditory metaphors to unsettle totalizing narratives and elude static, normative conceptions of freedom.
Reverberating in Foucault’s echo, Havis takes up his injunction to “conceive power without the king” and abandons traditional theories of oppression. Power must be addressed not simply as a set of laws, rights, or prohibitions but also as a feature in the assessment of normative value. Since power operates “not by law but by normalization, not by punishment but by control,” it is not a commodity dominated by a central authority who can be overthrown. In rethinking the nature of power, we are called to rethink the possibility of revolution. Revolution in the traditional sense is impossible. It is at this juncture that Havis summons us to hear and articulate social change in terms of transgression, moving beyond sight to sound.
Posted February 11, 2008