“The Witness as Educator” (Book Symposium)

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This author-meets-critics session will pivot around a book by David T. Hansen entitled: The Witness as Educator: Reading W. G. Sebald, Aimé Césaire, and Walt Whitman (SUNY, 2025). The book features an in-depth account of the idea of bearing witness; three fine-grained studies of several exemplary moral witnesses (Sebald, Césaire, and Whitman); and an examination of the educational and ethical ramifications of studying witnesses as part of coming to grips with a complicated, polarized world. The session will feature an introduction by the author and commentary from three colleagues in philosophy of education interested in questions of ethics and education. The author will respond to the commentators’ remarks, after which we will open things up for discussion with the audience.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Philosophical Studies in Education

Chair

• Ginger Mayhew, Teachers College, Columbia University

Papers

• Participant - David T. Hansen, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Participant2 - Samantha Deane, University of Notre Dame

• Participant3 - Alexandros Charalampos Nikolaidis, University of Central Florida

• Participant4 - Susan Verducci, San José State University

Session Organizer

• David T. Hansen, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussants

• Samantha Deane, University of Notre Dame

• Alexandros Charalampos Nikolaidis, University of Central Florida

• Susan Verducci, San José State University