[SydPhil] MIRC Seminar Series: Regina Fabry

[Hoda Mostafavi]

Dear all,

The Macquarie Minds and Intelligences Research Centre warmly invites you to our next speaker series presentation.

Speaker: Dr Regina Fabry (Macquarie University).
Title: Uptake Deficits in Conversational Self-Narration: An Attentional Phenomenon
Self-narration is an important practice for knowledge and meaning-making and can make important contributions to well-being. Most people frequently engage in self-narration in their everyday conversations with friends, family members, and peers. In recent years, empirically informed philosophical research on situated cognition and affectivity has made substantial contributions to our understanding of the possibilities and limitations of conversational self-narration. Yet, this research has left an important question unanswered: how can we understand cases in which self-narrators do not receive appropriate uptake for their self-narrative contributions to conversational exchanges? The aim of this talk is to start answering this question. Bringing together research on situated self-narration, attention, and epistemic injustice, I will propose that uptake deficits are, at least to a substantial degree, an attentional phenomenon. Under certain conditions, these attentional uptake deficits can contribute to the perpetuation of structural oppression. I will end this talk with a brief discussion of the implications of this account for research on the relationship between self-narration and well-being.

When: Wednesday, 8th April, 12pm
Where: Australian Hearing Hub Lecture Theatre - Macquarie University, Wallumattagal Campus (in-person event only)
Regina Fabry is a philosopher of mind and cognition and works as a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Philosophy, School of Humanities at Macquarie University. From 2021 to 2024, she held an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award, funded by the Australian Research Council. Regina’s research currently focusses on self-narration, grief, human-technology interactions, and their intersections. In working on these topics, she integrates philosophical theorising on situated cognition and affectivity with feminist scholarship and research in the mind sciences, literary and cultural studies, and Artificial Intelligence.