The Department of Anthropology presents

“Latitudes of Loss: On Empathy, Mourning, and the Dynamics of Anthropological Understanding”
with Jason Throop, UCLA, Department of Anthropology

Thursday, October 21, 2010
3:30-5:00 p.m.
Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 3323

Throop’s talk will examine the topic of loss, the vicissitudes of empathy, and the existential complexity of our subjective lives in relation to the lived experiences of others. He will focus specifically on his observations about the dynamics of empathy and experience of grief during a recent trip back to the island of Yap (Waqab), Federated States of Micronesia. He argues for the significance of recognizing that empathy is rarely an all or nothing affair. Nor is it necessary that it be based on some shared set of homologous experiences between individuals.  It is instead a process that is temporally arrayed, intersubjectively constituted, and culturally patterned. Even in the face of mutual misunderstanding there are still possibilities for moments of empathetic insight to arise.

This event is free and open to the public.  For further information, please contact Theresa Collica, tcollica@uci.edu.