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Seeing beyond the human: attending with iris murdoch and mary midgley – symposium
PROGRAM: 24th SeptemberTHB G01110.00am coffee 10.30-11 Chrysa Sachpazi“The Sublime Reconsidered: Murdoch’s Critique of Kant” 11-11.30 Ian Kidd‘Moral vanity and the admiration of animals’ Keynote 1: 12-1pm Ellie Robson‘The biologist amongst philosophers’: Mary Midgley’s Zoological Approach to Aristotle’s Ethics1-2pm lunch 2.30-3pm Priyansha Malik“Being Seen: Iris Murdoch’s Ethics of Attention and Its Moral Significance in Contemporary Loneliness” 3-3.30pm Férdia Stone Davis ‘Attending to the whole: worlds of meaning and disciplinary knowledge’ discussion 3.30-4pm Keynote 2: 4-5pm Lucy Oulton ‘The details of our…
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more birds singing – exhibition
You are warmly invited to visit More Birds Singing, an exhibition that emerges from the Galway team’s contribution to Philosophy in the Wild an international public philosophy project focused on Mary Midgley’s idea of ‘mixed communities’. Activities in Galway took place between the Autumn of 2025 and Spring of 2026, engaging with communities on and off campus to reflect on the relationship between attention and non-charismatic species. The exhibition includes multi-species poetry, community photography, philosophical materials and interactive elements. Opening Hours: Thursdays to…
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Call for Papers: Seeing Beyond the Human: Attending with Iris Murdoch and Mary Midgley
The AIRE Research Collective is delighted to announce the Call for Papers for our upcoming one-day symposium, Seeing Beyond the Human: Attending with Iris Murdoch and Mary Midgley, which will take place on 24 September 2026 at the University of Galway. The symposium marks the concluding event of our Philosophy in the Wild exhibition and invites scholars to reflect on the enduring significance of two remarkable philosophers and friends, Iris Murdoch and Mary Midgley. Their work on attention, ethics, aesthetics,…
AIRE
Attentive Inquiry Reclaiming Environment
We are AIRE.
We work as a collective. We think, write, and do our practice together.
In response to contemporary neo-liberal universities, we challenge the assumption that meaningful scholarship must centre on individual authorship, competition, and institutional prestige.
We think, instead, that there is another way of inhabiting academia, one that values dialogue, collaboration, and care over isolation, productivity, and status.
Our aim is not only to demonstrate that research can emerge through a caring and creative dialogue done together, but to actively embody and promote this alternative model of academic work.
AIRE means attention and care in Irish. It also stands for Attentive Inquiry Reclaiming Environment, a reminder of our commitment to engaged, ethical, and environmentally aware forms of thought and practice. Our work explores how practices of attention can reshape the way we think, learn, and live, in relation to the environment, to others, and to ourselves.
