SPEP 63

The 63rd Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy

October 17–18 and 24–25, 2025

This year’s conference will be held online.

Tom Nenon, In Memoriam

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of our colleague Thomas Joseph Nenon (1951 – 2025), Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, University of Memphis, who died after a short illness, bravely borne, on April 4 2025, aged 73 years. Tom was very active in SPEP, attending the annual meetings regularly from 1989 to 2023. He served as a member of the SPEP Executive Committee from 1995 to 1998, and his Departmentwas three times local host for SPEP meetings in Memphis in 1991, 2004, and 2017. Appreciated for his knowledge of Chairperson’s rules, he was regularly appointed Parliamentarian at the SPEP Business meetings. Read more…

John Sallis, In Memoriam

It is with a deep sense of loss that I share the news of the death of John Sallis on February 18, 2025.  John was a long-standing member of SPEP and served the society in many ways. He was deeply loved by so many of his students who appreciated the clarity and depth of insight that was the hallmark of his teaching. For the past 20 years John held the Frederick J. Adelmann Chair at Boston College. He previously held research chairs at Pennsylvania State University, Vanderbilt University, and Loyola University, Chicago. He was professor and former chair at Duquesne University where he established himself as a teacher and scholar of note, becoming one of the most prominent thinkers in contemporary continental philosophy. He lectured both here and abroad with several visiting appointments, and in 2007 he received a doctorate honoris causa from the Universität Freiburg, Germany. Read more…

Thomas Flynn, In Memoriam

by David Carr, Emory University

With sadness we learned of the death on Feb. 29, 2024, of Thomas R. Flynn, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Emory University. He was 87. Tom joined the Emory department in 1978, after study at the Gregorian University in Rome and at Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D in 1970. Tom was an esteemed scholar and a beloved and gifted teacher. Known  for his work on Sartre, on Existentialism and Marxism and on Michel Foucault, he contributed much to our understanding of French philosophy. Read more…

Calvin Schrag, In Memoriam

by William McBride, Purdue University

The recent death of Calvin O. Schrag at an advanced age is an unhappy milestone in the history of SPEP. The offspring of a Dakota Mennonite family with impressive intellectual credentials, Cal earned a Master’s degree at Yale Divinity before graduating with a Doctorate in philosophy from Harvard, where he famously served as teaching assistant to University Professor Paul Tillich (the source of many of Cal’s stories). Read more…

Johanna Meehan, In Memoriam

It is with shock and profound sadness that we share with SPEP the news that Johanna Meehan died unexpectedly on January 8, 2024 from complications of a bacterial infection.  Johanna was McCay-Casady Professor of Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at Grinnell College, where she had taught since 1990 and had just begun a phased retirement plan. Johanna was a scholar of the highest rank. Her primary focus was on the Critical Theory tradition, and she published articles in leading journals, including Philosophy and Social Criticism, Constellations, and Human Studies. Read more…