Teresa Brennan (January 5, 1952 – February 3, 2003) was an Australian feminist philosopher and psychoanalytic theorist best known for her posthumous book, The Transmission of Affect (2004).[1] Before her death, Brennan was Schmidt Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Florida Atlantic University, where she founded a PhD program for Public Intellectuals.[2]
Education and career
editBrennan graduated with a BA from the University of Sydney and an MA in political theory from the University of Melbourne. Before her PhD at King's College, Cambridge, Brennan trained as a psychoanalyst at the Tavistock Clinic in London. She taught at The New School, Brandeis University, and Harvard University, and finally as Schmidt Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Florida Atlantic University.
While at Florida Atlantic University from 1998 to 2002, Brennan designed a PhD for Public Intellectuals, intended for training not only scholars but curators and archivists, organizers, and environmentalists.[3][4]
Publications
editBrennan's first two books, Interpretations of the Flesh: Freud and Femininity[5] and History After Lacan,[6] are works of psychoanalytic social theory, while Exhausting Modernity: Grounds for a New Economy[7] and Globalization and Its Terrors[8] draw on Marxist and ecofeminist theories to consider large-scale energetic draining. Her posthumous The Transmission of Affect[9] engages physiological and psychosocial research that challenges the causal framework of sociobiology, with examples such as stress, psychological projection, the introjection of aggression, and the energizing and draining of social interactions.
In addition to these five books, Brennan edited two volumes: Between Feminism and Psychoanalysis[10] and, with co-editor Martin Jay, Vision in Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Sight.[11] She was General Editor with Susan James of the Oxford Readings in Feminism series,[12] an extension of Oxford Readings in Philosophy, and also General Editor for the Routledge series Opening Out: Feminism for Today.[13]
Brennan's colleagues contributed to a posthumous volume on her work Living Attention: On Teresa Brennan.[14] Her papers are housed in the John Hay Library at Brown University, part of the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women's Feminist Theory Archive. In 2017, the philoSOPHIA annual conference[15] honored Brennan at Florida Atlantic University, with a keynote by Sara Ahmed.
Death
editShe died of injuries from a hit and run car crash in 2003.[16] Marcus Einfeld, an Australian judge, appealed a speeding ticket in 2006 by claiming that he lent his car to her. The discrepancy eventually led to his conviction and imprisonment.[17]
References
edit- ^ [1]|Teresa Brennan, The Transmission of Affect, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.
- ^ [2]|"In Memoriam: Teresa Brennan, co-founder of the Comparative Studies PhD program," Florida Atlantic University.
- ^ [3]|Blackboard: Punditry; Have Doctorate, Will Comment, NYT, 08/01/1999.
- ^ [4]|Boca Raton Journal; Cultivating Scholars, Even in the Sun, NYT, 02/08/2000.
- ^ [5]|Teresa Brennan, Interpretations of the Flesh: Freud and Femininity, London: Routledge, 1992.
- ^ [6]|Teresa Brennan, History After Lacan, London: Routledge, 1993.
- ^ [7]|Teresa Brennan, Exhausting Modernity: Grounds for a New Economy, London: Routledge, 2000.
- ^ [8]|Teresa Brennan, Globalization and Its Terrors: Daily Life in the West, London: Routledge, 2002.
- ^ [9]|Teresa Brennan, The Transmission of Affect, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.
- ^ [10]|Teresa Brennan, ed., Between Feminism and Psychoanalysis, London: Routledge, 1989.
- ^ [11]|Teresa Brennan and Martin Jay, eds., Vision in Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Sight, London: Routledge, 1996.
- ^ [12]|Teresa Brennan and Susan James, eds., Oxford Readings in Feminism
- ^ [13]|Teresa Brennan, General Editor for Opening Out: Feminism for Today
- ^ [14]|Alice Jardine, Shannon Lundeen, and Kelly Oliver, eds., Living Attention: On Teresa Brennan, Albany: SUNY Press, 2007.
- ^ [15]|philoSOPHIA: society for continental feminism, 2017 annual meeting
- ^ Peltz, Jennifer (5 February 2003). "TERESA BRENNAN, FOUNDED FAU'S DOCTORAL PROGRAM". South Florida Sun sentinel. South Florida Sun sentinel. Staff Writer SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
- ^ Knox, Malcolm (20 March 2009). "Former judge Einfeld gets at least two years jail ... all for lying about a $77 traffic fine". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 July 2023.