The Iris Murdoch Society podcast

Miles is joined by Larry Blum (U-Mass) to discuss the life and work of Dorothy Emmet, a philosopher of the prior generation to Murdoch who work in numerous different areas of the subject. Later in her life she and Murdoch became friends ; Larry sees her work as in some ways very much in the spirit of the Quartet’s, though in other ways quite different.. Emmet and Murdoch had some significant areas...

Miles is joined by Megan Laverty (Columbia, USA) and Evgenia Mylonaki (Patraas, Greece) to discuss their joint reading of Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. You can find out substantive handout for the podcast where they highlight their reading here: Megan is an Associate Professor and Director of the Philosophy and Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She teaches graduate co...

Joining Miles to discuss Murdoch's sixth novel are Dr Frances White and Lucy Oulton, both from the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester.

In this episode Miles is joined by Justin Broackes (Brown, USA) and Meredith Trexler-Drees (Notre Dame, US) to discuss and celebrate Justin's edited collection 'Iris Murdoch, Philosopher' which was published in 2012. We range across the collection, the work it inspired including Meredith's latest monograph, and discuss Justin's latest work on Murdoch's Heidegger Manuscript and his commentary on th...

In this episode I'm joined by Professor Larry Blum (U-Mass, USA) to discuss his recent entry on Murdoch in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. We discuss his early interest in Murdoch in the 70s, her connections with his philosophical life and the construction of the article, as well as the difficulties in reading Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. You can find the article here: https://plato...

Miles is joined by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman to discuss their new book, Metaphysical Animals. https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Metaphysical-Animals-by-Clare-Mac-Cumhaill-Rachael-Wiseman/9781784743284 Clare Mac Cumhaill (pronounced Mc Cool!) is a philosopher of mind, working mostly on perception, but with interests in emotion and action, as well as aspects of the metaphysics o...

Miles is joined by Silvia Caprioglio Panizza to discuss her new book 'The Ethics of Attention: Engaging the Real with Iris Murdoch and Simone Weil'. You can find out more about the book, here: https://www.routledge.com/The-Ethics-of-Attention-Engaging-the-Real-with-Iris-Murdoch-and-Simone/Panizza/p/book/9780367756932 Silvia Caprioglio Panizza is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Ethi...

Gillian Dooley (Flinders University, Australia) is in conversation with Lucy Bolton (QMUL, UK) about her new book, 'Listening to Iris Murdoch: Music, Sounds and Silences' (Palgrave, 2022) - the first book in the 'Iris Murdoch Today' Series. As Lucy says about the Gillian's book: 'When we think of Iris Murdoch’s relationship with art forms, the visual arts come most readily to mind. However, music...

Join Anne Rowe and Miles Leeson as they guide you around London's Wallace Collection, stopping off to discuss three key paintings that feature in Murdoch's novels: Hal's Laughing Cavalier, Titian's 'Perseus and Andromeda', and Rembrandt's 'Titus, the Artist's Son'. These feature in her first novel 'Under the Net' and her Booker Prize-winning 'The Sea, The Sea', respectively. You can view them here...

In this episode I'm joined by Silvia Caprioglio Panizza (University College Dublin, and the Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value, University of Pardubice) and Mark Hopwood (Sewanne, University of the South, USA) to discuss their recently published edited collection 'The Murdochian Mind'. Silvia Caprioglio Panizza is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Ethics, University of Pardubi...

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Murdoch's 'Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals' I'm joined by Gillian Dooley (Flinders University, Australia), Nora Hämäläinen (University of Pardubice, Czech Republic), and Frances White (IMRC, Chichester) to give an introductory overview of the work. As this is Murdoch's magnum opus this is the first in a series of four podcasts being released in 2022 focus...

This lecture was given by Peter Webster, a scholar of contemporary religious history, with a particular interest in the religious arts. His most recent book was the first biography of Walter Hussey; Dean of Chichester and patron of the arts. The audio recording of a public lecture given at the University of Chichester on 19th February 2022, as part of a study day at the Iris Murdoch Research Centr...

In this episode Miles is joined by Lucy Bolton (Queen Mary, University of London), Lisa Smithstead (University of Exeter), and Melanie Williams (University of East Anglia)- three noted film scholars - to discuss the impact and legacy of the Oscar-winning film 'Iris', based on the first of John Bayley's memoirs about his wife, Iris Murdoch. You can find Lucy's book on Murdoch here: https://edinburg...

In this podcast Miles is joined by Paul Fiddes, Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Oxford, to discuss his latest book, Iris Murdoch and the Others: A Writer in Dialogue with Theology. Paul is the author or editor of over twenty five books, including recent publications on Lewis and Williams, and a forthcoming monograph on Shakespeare later in 2022. Find the book here: https://bl...

In this episode I'm joined by Justin Broackes (Brown, USA), Gary Browning (Oxford Brookes), and Alison Scott-Baumann (SOAS)to discuss Murdoch's lifelong engagement with the fiction and philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. From her first meeting with him in Brussels in 1945, right the way through to 'Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals'. Have your copy of Sartre: Romantic Rationalist to hand! Justin is the...

In this podcast Miles is joined by Paul Hullah, Associate Professor of English Literature at Meiji Gakuin, and President of the Iris Murdoch Society of Japan. Paul discusses his early life, literature, music and his meeting and subsequent friendship with Iris Murdoch. He and Yozo Muroya edited the only collection of Murdoch's poetry to date, as well as a volume of her essays. We talk about her poe...

Joining me today is Prof. Benjamin Lipscomb (Houghton College, NY, USA) to discuss his new book 'The Women are up to Something' which considers the four women who changed philosophy in the mid-Twentieth Century: Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch. You can buy it here! https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Women-Are-Up-to-Something-by-Benjamin-J-Bruxvoort-Lips...

The new season of the podcast starts with a special on the author, essayist, critic, spy, journalist and much else besides, Elizabeth Bowen. She was a friend of Iris Murdoch (whom she influenced) 'I was very fond of her...she should have been Queen', Virginia Woolf, and many more. She's now seen as a major figure of Twentieth Century culture. Joining me to discuss her life and work are Nicola Darw...

*The handout for this lecture is available on the IMS Facebook Page (link in Bio) or by emailing ims@chi.ac.uk Cora Diamond is a leading American philosopher who is well known for her contributions to the interpretation of Wittgenstein and Frege, for her contributions to the philosophy of logic, mind, language, as well as to ethics, the philosophy of literature, and the philosophical inquiry into...

This 'In Conversation' talk was given as part of the first online Iris Murdoch Conference on the 15th July, 2021. Sarah and Avril discuss the importance of Iris’ use of the gothic, and the impact it had on Sarah's own fiction. Avril Horner (Emeritus Professor, Kingston University) is a world-leading expert in the Gothic. She has co-edited collection on Murdoch’s work, as well as ‘Living on Paper:...

Joining me to discuss Iris' love of Peter Pan, and her use of Barrie's story in her own fiction, are Anne Rowe and Frances White, both from the Research Centre at Chichester. Peter Pan is referenced in nine of her novels, from An Unofficial Rose (1962) through to The Green Knight (1993) although we focus on A Word Child (1975)which the strongest imbued with him. You can find more material in Anne...

Joining me to discuss Murdoch's childhood reading, and its impact on her fiction, are Jan Skinner (formerly a tutor at Oxford's Continuing Education Department) and Anne Rowe (Chichester/Kingston). The main books discussed are Treasure Island, the Alice Books, and Kipling's Kim. A taster of Jan's essay can be found here: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9780230348288 and if you'd like the full tex...

Joining me to discuss Murdoch and Religion are Christopher Gowans (Fordham, USA), Scott H. Moore (Baylor, USA) and Frances White (IMRC, Chichester). We cover her life, tensions in her beliefs, her desire for a demythologised Christianity, and her later interest in Buddhism. Chris' website can be found here: http://christophergowans.com Scott's new book, 'How to Burn a Goat: Farming with the Philos...

Joining me for this podcast are two Murdoch fans who consider themselves to be 'common readers' (a term taken from Virginia Woolf).Kent Wennman is an artist, musician, and much more; Liz Dexter is a blogger, proof reader, and author of 'Iris Murdoch and the Common Reader'. We discuss what makes Murdoch appeal to all types of reader, and how she might be relevant to new readers in the Twenty-First...

In this podcast I'm joined by Gillian Dooley (Flinders University, Australia) and Elin Svenneby to discuss Murdoch, music and singing. Along the way we cover most of the novels, consider how the philosophy of Plato, Schopenhauer and Weil might be connected to her thoughts about this artform, and discuss natural sounds and silence. Gillian's latest book: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/97830301896...