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Michael D. Barber, S.J.

Emeritus Faculty
Philosophy

Education

Ph.D., Yale University, 1985
MDiv., Loyola University, 1979
B.A., Saint Louis University, 1971

Research Interests

Phenomenology, Social Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy and Race

Professor Barber's Research Site

Publications and Media Placements

  • "Alfred Schutz and the Second-Person Experience,” The Anthem Companion to Alfred Schutz, ed. Michael Barber. London, New York, Delhi: Anthem Press, 2022.
  • “Pragmatic Encroachment, Phenomenology, and Religious Experience,” Religions  13(7) (2022), special edition: Religious Experience and Metaphysics 
  • 2022 “Nietzsche and Levinas against Innocence,” Religions 13 (4) (2022) , special edition: In the  Shadows of Religious Experience: Hostility, Violence, Revenge
  • “On the Epoché in Phenomenological Psychology: A Schutzian Response to  Zahavi,” The Journal of Phenomenological Psychology 52 (2021): 137–156. 
  • “African-American Humor and Trust,” Human Studies 44 (2021): 151-169. 
  • “Noetic and Noematic Dimensions of Religious Experience.” Phenomenology of  Religious Experience IV: Religious Experience and Description. Open Theology 6 (2020): 1-18. 
  • “Honneth on Recognition: From Mead to Schutz to the Moral Lifeworld,” in  Phänomenologie und Kritische Theorie, ed. Jochen Dreher, Alexis Gros, Harmut Rosa.  Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, forthcoming.
  • “Institutions, Imposed Relevances, and Creativity,” in Macrophenomenology: The Entanglement between Experience and Large-Scale Social Phenomena, ed. Carlos  Belevedere and Alexis Gros. New York: Palgrave Macmillan or Routledge, forthcoming. 

Honors and Awards

He has authored seven books and more than 100 articles in the general area of phenomenology and the social world. His seventh book, Religion and Humor as Emancipating Provinces of Meaning, was published in 2017 by Springer Press. He is also editor of Schutzian Research, an annual interdisciplinary journal.

Professional Organizations and Associations

  • President of the Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists 
  • Member of the executive council of the International Alfred Schutz Circle for Phenomenology and Interpretive Social Science
  • Member, Executive Committee of SOPHERE (Society for Phenomenology of Religious Experience)
  • Member, Board for Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences