MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies will host Megan Craig, an artist and associate professor of philosophy at Stony Brook University in New York, as guest speaker for the fall Applied Philosophy Lyceum.

Set for 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, Craig will examine how philosophy and art can deepen an understanding of end-of-life care and the relationships that surround it. The event will take place in Room 164 at the College of Education, 1756 MTSU Blvd., and is free and open to the public.

Mary Magada-Ward, professor of philosophy at MTSU, organized the event and has known Craig since 2008, when the two began participating in a yearly symposium together.

“Her work always makes me think differently,” Magada-Ward said. “She always has a really interesting take, and that’s true with what she’s doing here when she speaks on this often overlooked topic. Decisions about end-of-life care are situations most of us have to face, and I think it will be interesting to a wide variety of people.”

Magada-Ward said the lecture reflects philosophy at its best, helping us grapple with universal human experiences.

“All of us, as we get older, and as our parents get older, will have to deal with this,” Magada-Ward said. “It’s important for reflection and careful thought. And Megan is such a good writer that you don’t necessarily need to be well-versed in philosophy to understand the point she’s making or how she uses these thinkers’ insights.”

Craig’s talk considers three forms of relation — being-there-alongside, waiting, and staying — that come into focus at or after the end of life. Drawing on the work of philosophers Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, Henri Bergson, and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, Craig calls for more generous, open-ended, and nuanced practices of attending to those who are dying and those who remain.

An interest in palliative care is deeply personal for Craig.

“Some of the work I’ve done on palliative care emerged from my own experience of watching my four grandparents die in relatively quick succession in radically different ways,” Craig told MTSU philosophy professor Phil Oliver, who will interview the guest speaker before the lyceum. “I became curious about what first-year medical students in the U.S. were learning about death and dying, and I spent a year attending their lectures to find out.”

Craig discovered most medical schools only offered one session of a given course devoted to death and dying, with most centered on case studies instead of any existential discussion of the topic.

Craig argues that philosophy offers powerful alternatives to the medicalized ways death is often treated in the United States.

“The fact that dying enlists a whole community (even if one dies alone) and takes time (even when death is sudden) suggests serious problems with the modern ways we talk about and treat not only death but also illness and grief,” Craig told Oliver.

Craig is the author of “Levinas and James: Towards a Pragmatic Phenomenology” and is currently completing a book on Levinas, Derrida, and palliative care in America. Her research spans subjects such as color, synesthesia, autism, psychoanalysis, and embodiment, while her artwork —from paintings and installations to performances and public projects — has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

Following Craig’s talk, the floor will open for a Q&A session. There will also be a post-event reception.

A searchable campus parking map is available at https://bit.ly/ParkingMapMTSU2025.

For more information, contact the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at 615-898-2907.

— Nancy DeGennaro (Nancy.DeGennaro@mtsu.edu)