Reading Group
The LCE Reading Group meets regularly to discuss recent contributions to cognitive literary study, new developments in psychology and philosophy, and their relationship to the theory and practice of literary study.

We welcome new participants. If you are a researcher at postdoctoral level or working towards a doctorate, please contact Stijn Vervaet to join the reading group.
2021 Sessions
Probability Designs
Time: 15 April, 13:00 PM
The reading group will discuss the introductory chapters of Karin Kukkonen's book Probability Designs (2020). Access the book in Oria.
Writing as Thinking
Time: 10 March, 12:15 PM
The reading group will discuss how cognition and writing are interrelated. We will read two pieces with the same title, "Writing as Thinking", by Richard Menary (2007) and Keith Oatley and Maja Djikic (2008).
The Mind - Extended or Scaffolded?
Time: 17 February, 12:15 PM
The reading group will continue its discussion on the joint evolution of human cognition and culture. We will look into the debate on the extended mind: Clark and Chalmers' 1998 article "The Extended Mind" and Kim Sterelny's "The Scaffolded mind."
The Co-Evolution of Culture and Human Cognition
Time: 27 January, 1:00 PM–2:30 PM
We start the new year with discussing Andrea Bender's "The Role of Culture and Evolution for Human Cognition" and Michael Muthukrishna and Joseph Henrich's short article "A Problem in Theory".
2020 Sessions
Phenomenology and Speculative Realism
Time: 16 December, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM
We end our autumn sessions on phenomenology with a chapter from Tom Sparrow's The End of Phenomenology and sections from Peter Gratton's book Speculative Realism.
Reading Group with Karina van Dalen-Oskam
4 November, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM
Karina van Dalen-Oskam visits the Reading Group to discuss texts about literary novels and reader roles.
Edmund Husserl
Time: 14 October, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM
The reading group will discuss sections from Edmund Husserl's Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (1913), and a chapter from Olivia Fialho's Transformative Reading.
Simone de Beauvoir with Gunnhild Øyehaug
Time: 15 September, 1:15 PM–3:00 PM
Author Gunnhild Øyehaug will visit the Reading Group the day before her talk with LCE at Forskningsdagene. Together, we will read and discuss Simone de Beauvoir's "Literature and Metaphysics", where de Beauvoir reflects on her practice as a writer from a philosophical, and perhaps phenomenological point of view.
Heidegger on Encountering the World
Time: 2 September, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM
Professor Michael Wheeler from University of Stirling will join the Reading Group to discuss why Heidegger is important for embodied, embedded, extended and enactive perspectives on cognition. We will look at sections from Heidegger's Being and Time, along with Wheeler's "Martin Heidegger" from Stanford Encycploedia of Philosophy.
Reading Group on Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception and Cézanne’s Doubt
Time: August 19, 2020, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM
The Reading Group returns for the autumn semester to discuss the preface to Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception and his article Cézanne’s Doubt.
Reading Group on the book manuscript With Bodies
Time: June 17, 2020 3:00 PM
LCE will discuss embodied cognition and narratology through a chapter from Marco Caracciolo and Karin Kukkonen's book "With Bodies: Narrative Theory and Embodied Cognition".
Reading Group on Lev Vygotsky’s Psychology of Art
Time: May 20, 2020 3:00 PM–4:00 PM
The reading group continues its discussion of Lev Vygotsky’s criticism of the ground-breaking article “Art as Technique” by the Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsky.
Reading Group with Alan Fiske
Time: May 12, 2020 3:00 PM–5:00 PM
Alan Fiske, Professor of Anthropology at the UCLA, visits the LCE reading group.
Alan Fiske is interested in how humans coordinate often cooperative, complex, culturally and historically varying systems of social relations. His current research focuses on the feeling of being moved or touched (what is referred to as Kama Muta)
Reading Group on Lev Vygotsky’s Psychology of Art
Time: May 6, 2020 3:15 PM–4:00 PM
On 6 May, the LCE reading group had a second meeting on Lev Vygotsky to discuss a chapter from Psychology of Art.
CANCELLED: Reading Group with Stefan Collini
Time: May 6, 2020
On 5 May, the reading group is visited by the speaker of the LCE Annual Lecture; Stefan Collini..
Reading Group on Lev Vygotsky’s Thought and Language
Time: Apr. 22, 2020 3:15 PM–4:00 PM
On 22 April, the LCE reading group discuss a chapter from Lev Vygotsky’s Thought and Language.
Reading Group with Angelos Chaniotis
Time: Feb. 14, 2020 2:15 PM–4:00 PM
The LCE reading group discuss an article by Angelos Chaniotis entitled “Rituals between Norms and Emotions: Rituals as Shared Experience and Memory”.
Reading Group with Stephan Guth
Time: Jan. 24, 2020 2:15 PM–4:00 PM
2019 Sessions
Reading Group with the Affective Sciences Group on Lisa Feldman Barrett's How Emotions are Made
Time: Dec. 10, 2019 2:15 PM–4:00 PM
Reading Group with Tone Selboe
Time: Nov. 19, 2019 2:15 PM–4:00 PM
Reading Group on Lisa Feldman Barrett's How Emotions are Made
Time: Oct. 30, 2019 12:15 PM–2:00 PM
Reading Group with Barbara Dancygier
Time: Oct. 16, 2019 2:15 PM–4:00 PM
LCE will discuss simile as a figurative tool with Barbara Dancygier.
Reading Group with Jens Brockmeier
Time: Oct. 2, 2019 12:00 PM–1:00 PM
Reading Group with Sue Lovell
Time: Sep. 20, 2019 12:15 PM–2:00 PM
Reading Group with Sibylle Baumbach
Time: Sep. 19, 2019 1:15 PM–3:00 PM
Reading group with Johanna Kaakinen
Time: Sep. 11, 2019 1:15 PM–3:00 PM
Reading group with Winfried Menninghaus
Time: Sep. 5, 2019 1:00 PM–3:00 PM
Reading group with Merja Polvinen
Time: Aug. 23, 2019 2:15 PM–4:00 PM
Reading Group with Nicolas Bullot
Time: June 14, 2019 2:00 PM–4:00 PM
Reading Group with Paul Harris
Time: June 7, 2019 2:00 PM–4:00 PM
Reading Group on Vera Tobin's Elements of Surprise
Time: Feb. 15, 2019 2:15 PM–4:00 PM
Reading Group on Vera Tobin's Elements of Surprise
Time: Feb. 1, 2019 12:15 PM–2:00 PM