The Problem of the Inner Self

November 7th, 2026 at 2:30PM
Future Event

Is there an “inner self”? This roundtable approaches human interiority as a problem—not an obstacle, but a complex of questions at the limits of religion, philosophy, literature, and technology.

Is there an “inner self”? To what extent have the realms of religion, philosophy, and literature tended to presume the reality of a soulful interiority at the heart of human experience? At a time when the idea of the self is increasingly entangled with external forces and encroachments, this roundtable conversation seeks to reframe the assumptions we bring to the notion of human interiority. In an effort to rethink assumptions about essential identity or static subjectivity, this roundtable will approach the inner self as a problem—not so much an obstacle or dilemma, but rather a problematique: the term Fredric Jameson has used to refer to a “complex set of problems that are intertwined and touch on certain limits.” How have our technologies, spiritualities, and historical and political assumptions clarified or complicated our ideas about the inner self? What alternatives to the doctrines of innermost selfhood might we conceive? And to what end? Can there be an inner self without an outer self and its participation in otherness?

Convened by R. John Williams and Beverley Zabriskie.

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All Helix Center events are free and open to the public, including this one!

This is an upcoming event that will happen on November 7th, 2026 at 2:30PM.

Location:
The Helix Center for Interdisciplinary Investigation
The Marianne & Nicholas Young Auditorium
247 East 82nd Street
New York, NY 10028
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Participants

Branka Arsić

Professor of English, Columbia University

Branka Arsić was born in Serbia and received her PhD from the University of Belgrade. She taught at Central European University in Budapest and the State University of New York at Albany before joining the Columbia University faculty in 2012. She has also taught at the Center for Women’s Studies in Belgrade. Her scholarship specializes... read more! »

Marie Howe

Poet; Poet-in-Residence, Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Marie Howe is the author of five volumes of poetry, New and Selected Poems, which won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; Magdalene: Poems; The Kingdom of Ordinary Time; The Good Thief; and What the Living Do, and she is the co-editor of a book of essays, In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing... read more! »

Lawrence Kramer

Distinguished Professor of English and Music, Fordham University

Lawrence Kramer grew up in Philadelphia and New York and was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale. His teaching career has been spent primarily at Fordham University, where he is Distinguished Professor of English and Music. He works at the crossroads of words and music, both as an author and as a composer.... read more! »

Morgan Stebbins

Certified Jungian Analyst, Jungian Psychoanalytic Association

Morgan Stebbins, MDiv, LMSW, DMin, LP Morgan’s interest in the inner life began with a repeating series of dreams when he was 10 years old. In these dreams he was chased by a giant dinosaur and then died. This brought up a number of unsettling questions. Before he could answer them, he happened upon Carl... read more! »

R. John Williams

Professor of English and Film and Media Studies, Yale University

R. John Williams is Professor of English and Film and Media Studies at Yale University. He is the author of The Buddha in the Machine: Art, Technology, and the Meeting of East and West and has published on a range of topics, including religion, futurology, systems theory, psychoanalysis, and film and television. His recently published... read more! »