Category Archives: Uncategorized

Back to the Things Themselves! (BTTTT!) is an annual attempt to put aside the more conventional scholarly practice of textual exegesis and critique, and return to the lived world to divine the essential structures of experience through careful phenomenological description.

In short, BTTTT!‘s main aim is to “do phenomenology”—that is, to generate original descriptions of phenomena in the lifeworld. 

BTTTT! is part of the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture (EPTC), which will meet next year at the University of Victoria between June 1-4, 2026. Current call for papers →

I have been formally notified that the dates for EPTC 2025 at George Brown College in Toronto will be June 2-4. This means that if we are able to put together a BTTTT! panel, it will be scheduled for one of these dates. Please recall that the deadline to submit a paper for BTTTT! is January 7, 2025. DRK

Back to the Things Themselves! (BTTTT!) is an annual attempt to put aside the more conventional scholarly practice of textual exegesis and critique, and return to the lived world to divine the essential structures of experience through careful phenomenological description.

In short, BTTTT!‘s main aim is to “do phenomenology”—that is, to generate original descriptions of phenomena in the lifeworld. 

BTTTT! is part of the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture (EPTC), which meets annually and concurrently with the Canadian Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in late May or early June. Current call for papers →

I have just been informally notified that the dates for EPTC 2024 at McGill University in Montreal will be June 15-18. This means that if we are able to put together a BTTTT! panel, it will be scheduled for one of these dates. Please recall that the deadline to submit a paper for BTTTT! is January 7, 2024. DRK

BTTTT! is solely interested in the phenomenological practice of carefully and attentively describing the appearances of things in their concrete, lived givenness, without drawing on metaphysical, scientific, or other explanatory preconceptions. We ascribe to no single “orthodox” phenomenological method. Indeed, we embrace diverse approaches to “the things themselves,” so long as these approaches are focused on encounters with experience untainted by conceptual impositions. The goal should be to live behind one’s own eyes, to heed the call of things, and to attempt to give things their own voice as purely as possible, so as to reveal their sense and significance within their larger matrices of lived meaning. What we want →

The theme for our 2023 panel is CRISIS. In his own time Husserl wrote of the crisis of the European sciences; our present historical moment finds us surrounded by a multitude of crises worthy of careful phenomenological analysis. In the teeth of a once-in-a-century pandemic that has decimated the global population, we are confronted with crises of social antagonism, political polarization, and looming environmental catastrophe, as well as crises of information, evidence, epistemology, and truth. BTTTT! 2023 invites those engaged in phenomenological practice to delve into these and other instances of crisis that have unsettled the intersubjective, disrupted the horizontal structure of experience, and undermined our shared sense of world. We seek original descriptions of various dimensions of the life-world in crisis. What we want →

The theme for our 2022 panel is CRISIS. In his own time Husserl wrote of the crisis of the European sciences; our present historical moment finds us surrounded by a multitude of crises worthy of careful phenomenological analysis. In the teeth of a once-in-a-century pandemic that has decimated the global population, we are confronted with crises of social antagonism, political polarization, and looming environmental catastrophe, as well as crises of information, evidence, epistemology, and truth. BTTTT! 2022 invites those engaged in phenomenological practice to delve into these and other instances of crisis that have unsettled the intersubjective, disrupted the horizonal structure of experience, and undermined our shared sense of the world. We seek original descriptions of various dimensions of the life-world in crisis. What we want →

Saturday, May 1, 2021 11am-1pm EST

Back to The Things Themselves! Panel (Moderator: David Koukal, University of Detroit Mercy)

“Toward a Phenomenology of Phobia” Benjamin Graham (Metanoia Institute, University of Middlesex) and Matthew Graham (Independent Scholar)

“Deer Icon; or how a run became a dog, a deer, a stanchion, and a fetish” Adam van Sertima (Champlain College of Vermont)

Sunday, May 2, 2021 11am-1pm EST

Back to The Things Themselves! Workshop/Roundtable (Facilitator: David Koukal, University of Detroit Mercy)

All are welcome.

Zoom link for both panel and workshop.

As you know, BTTTT! is part of the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture (EPTC), which traditionally meets annually and concurrently with the Canadian Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. The 2021 meeting of the Congress was to take place at University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

Unfortunately, the Congress has opted to make its meeting entirely virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the EPTC executive board has opted not to participate. However, EPTC is planning to host its own series of panels and workshops in 2021, and will be sending updates on those developments as they become available.

BTTTT! 2021 plans on participating in these EPTC events, and so will continue to accept submissions via Word file until January 7, 2021. Papers should take no longer than 30 minutes to read (generally less than 4000 words), should be prepared for anonymous review (identifiable by paper title only), and include a separate abstract not exceeding 100 words. The cover sheet should also list the paper’s title, the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and email address. Please note that papers will be initially reviewed by the panel organizers, and suitable papers will then be sent for anonymous review. Submissions and inquiries should be sent to backtothethingsthemselves@gmail.com.