Student Report on Exploring Anne Conway’s Spiritual Philosophy: A Lecture by Yining Wu
Written by Nathan Franco, Class of 2028
On Thursday, March 6, 2025, DKU faculty, staff, and students gathered for an interesting discussion on the political theorist Anne Conway, titled “Anne Conway: What Does It Mean to Be Spiritual?” by Yining Wu, a Ph.D. candidate at Temple University specializing in early modern philosophy. Present during the discussion were many upperclass students and DKU professors eager to learn more about Conway’s thought.
The discussion began with a brief introduction to Anne Conway (1631-1679). Before taking the last name Conway, her maiden name was Finch. As a noblewoman, one would assume Conway lived a life of luxury, but in contrast, Conway suffered from lifelong headaches, making pain and suffering a big theme in her work. Speaking of her work, Conway’s papers were first published in a Latin translation in 1690, followed by an English translation by Dr. Clark. Much of Conway’s work was also influenced by Thomas Hobbes, Rene Descartes, Henry More, and F.M. van Helmont.
In her presentation, Yining Wu highlighted three puzzles (which are answered at the end) and three topics that are major themes in Conway’s works.
Conway’s Principles:
God – the creator of all creatures and Middle Nature. God doesn’t directly interact with creatures. God is beyond time and space. God is a pure spirit.
Middle Nature (Jesus) – serves as the mediator between God and creatures.
Creatures – lowest beings; mutable (either move in the direction of goodness or evilness); the world of creation is one substance, being corporeal and spiritual at the same time. Creatures exist in time and space. Creatures are not a part of God, as God is indivisible.
The God referenced above has no connection to any religion but is the general, philosophical God. Creatures refer to humankind, and the Middle Nature is Jesus, as Conway commonly refers to it.
Conway’s Puzzles:
What are the differences between fallen spirits and God the Spirit if the former is still called “spirit” after all?
How is it possible that the substance of the created world is spiritual and corporeal at the same time, given that corporeality is in opposition to God the Spirit?
What does it mean when Conway uses certain adjectives to refer to spirit (e.g., light, subtle, thin, etc.)?
After laying the foundation of her discussion, Wu began to discuss Spirit, Life, Sensitivity, and Activity in Conway’s work.
Spirit simply means having life or certain life functions. In Conway’s work, “life” is the basic explanatory unit in the cosmos. Wu argues that life is a more fundamental feature, of which sensitivity and activity are signs and expressions in Conway.
When God communicates His attributes to creatures, the attribute of life always comes first, followed by the attributes of senses and intelligence (or other mental-related functions). The aspect of sensitivity within the spirituality of the created world directly corresponds to Godly spirituality, while the aspect of activity is not straightforwardly shown in God the Spirit.
“Since life is the default setting for every created being, I contend that the attribute of life at least assumes a minimal degree of spirituality in a creature or a minimal similarity to God the Spirit.” – Yining Wu
Life and Spirit tend to be the easier concepts to understand in Conway’s work, while Sensitivity and Activity take a little more brain power to fully comprehend in Conway’s cosmos. Sensitivity is used to represent the signs of Life; for example, a common reflection of life is stones.
Stones and metals are perceptive, intelligent, and capable of love, even if this is not self-evident to human eyes. A stone can further improve itself, developing thoughts of its own and loving other creatures if its inner spiritual parts continue to wear and divide, allowing the spiritual parts to participate more in exchanges with other creatures. Similarly, the activity of creaturely spirits flowing in and out implies changes to their status or condition of life, including the “death” of one individual and the generation of a new one. This means there is no real death because no body parts or spirits can truly die. If people “die” or go into a coma, they become like a stone. Or, when people “die” and are left out in nature, animals will eat the body, and the soil will use the bones and other parts for nutrients. In this way, the creature has just taken a new form.
Before ending the discussion, Wu answered Conway’s puzzles:
“Why are the fallen spirits in the created world still called ‘spirit’ after all?”
The spirits of creatures, while entailing corporeality due to the Fall of the divine spirit, are still the products of God’s creation and inherit certain attributes from God.
“How is it possible that the substance of the created world is spiritual and corporeal at the same time, given that corporeality is in opposition to God the Spirit?”
The connotations of creaturely spirituality mainly refer to the sensitivity and activity of creatures. The aspect of activity implies the necessary existence of corporeality in the created world.
“What does it mean when Conway uses certain adjectives to refer to spirit (e.g., light, subtle, thin, etc.)?”
The spiritual parts of a creature are more fine-grained in the physical dimension, lighter in weight, and more capable of moving freely.
Q&A Session
Finally, the audience asked some insightful questions during the Q&A session.
Q: Is the “God” connected to a religion?
A: In this research, God is the philosophical God or the general God.
Q: How does God affect creatures?
A: Imagine if I draw myself on the whiteboard, but instead of physically writing it myself, I use my mind to wave at an AI robot to draw me on the whiteboard. In this case, I am not actually making physical contact with the robot, whiteboard, or marker.
Q: How does Conway justify that stones have sensitivity?
A: This is justified by the belief that everything has a soul. Conway believes that a stone can be broken down and made into something more advanced in the hierarchy of creation. And if it can be made into something more advanced, then it has a soul and hence sensitivity.
Overall, the event was an eye-opener into Conway’s mind and a great way to study women in philosophy.
Citizenship Lab Research Project: “Urban Green Space and Migrant Integration”
The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Maggio Laquidara’s research project.
Student: Maggio Laquidara
Mentor: Professor Renee Richer
The role of urban green space in moderating or exacerbating the integration of migrants into the local community is an issue of recent research interest. Urban green spaces can bring communities together in joint activities with shared resources or they can serve as a barrier acting to separate and isolate communities.
Select countries in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region are the ideal system in which to study this question because the countries often have a large percentage of foreign-born residents, sometimes up to 85%. The communities are often divided into an unofficial hierarchical framework based on nationality, race, and religion. Furthermore, the unique accommodation style (such as a compound or gated community) often serves as another integration barrier.
Unprecedented development has taken place within the MENA region over the last 15 years, as fossil fuel-derived resources were funneled into infrastructural development to promote sustainability and knowledge-based economies. This infrastructure development saw the urban environment being re-shaped, which resulted in the loss of many open green spaces in migrant communities. These open green spaces often formed the center of community activities.
This project will ground truth satellite imagery and conduct focus group interviews in order to research green spaces in relationship with migrant community integration. Checking remotely sensed imagery accuracy via field observations is often referred to as ground truthing.
Citizenship Lab Research Project: “Lawmaking in China: Motivations and Strategies Behind Legislative Proposals”
The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Annemieke van den Dool’s research project.
Student: This project will be advertised in spring 2024
Mentor: Professor Annemieke van den Dool
This project deepens our understanding of policy and legislative processes in China through a combination of desk research and interviews aimed at unpacking the motivation and strategies of delegates to the National People’s Congress (NPC) to develop legislative proposals, especially in the areas of health and environment. This project aims to address the following research questions: (1) How often do delegates to the National People’s Congress put forward legislative proposals? (2) What motivates delegates to the National People’s Congress to put forward a proposal to draft or amend a law? (3) What strategies do delegates use to prepare proposals? To answer these questions, the project builds on desk research and qualitative content analysis aimed at collecting relevant information about legislative behavior by delegates through collection of news articles, social media posts, blog posts, books, memoirs, and legislative records. The second stage of the project aims to complement this desk research with interviews.
Citizenship Lab Research Project: “Youth-Led Climate Action: An In-Depth Analysis of Youth Engagement in UNFCCC Processes – COP as an Example”
The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Manal Bidar’s Signature Work project.
Student: Manal Bidar
Mentor: Professor Coraline Goron, Ph.D.
In the face of a rapidly changing climate landscape, the role of youth-led climate action within global governance frameworks is more crucial than ever. This research project, titled “Youth-Led Climate Action: An In-Depth Analysis of Youth Engagement in UNFCCC Processes – COP as an Example,” endeavours to comprehensively explore the dynamics, challenges, and potentials of youth engagement in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) processes, with a primary focus on the Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings. With the principal aim of understanding the pivotal role of youth in shaping climate policy at the global level, this research embarks on a multifaceted journey. It delves into the lived experiences of young climate activists, investigating the hurdles they face and the innovative strategies they employ to influence and drive change.
As an experienced climate activist with a seven-year journey spanning grassroots mobilization to influential roles within UN environmental processes, I was driven to undertake this research due to a conspicuous gap in comprehensive documentation and analysis of youth involvement in these critical forums. My advocacy and communication work as the official youth constituency of the UNFCCC has provided me unique insights, culminating in my attendance at COP27 in Egypt in 2022. Witnessing the intricate dynamics and challenges young climate activists face in engaging with UNFCCC processes has fueled my commitment to this research. The absence of comprehensive resources and research papers documenting the participation of non-state actors, specifically youth, within the intricate machinery of UN climate governance adds further urgency to this endeavor. This research seeks to address this critical gap by providing a nuanced understanding of youth engagement within UNFCCC processes, empowering young activists, and contributing to the global response to the climate crisis.
Citizenship Lab Research Project: “A Queer Metamorphosis: Animal Narratives and Lesbian Love in Chinese Cultures”
The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Ruohan Wang’s Signature Work project.
Student: Ruohan Wang
Mentor: Professor Zairong Xiang
This project bridges animal studies and queer theory in the context of Chinese cultures, taking animality as a heuristic lens to examine the queer undercurrents in Chinese stories of animal-human metamorphosis. It primarily focuses on two works from contemporary Hong Kong: Tsu Hark’s 1993 film Green Snake and Dung Kai-Cheung’s 1996 novella Androgyny: The Evolutionary History of a Non-exist Species. These works, featuring imaginary metamorphoses between animals and women, appropriate traditional Chinese cosmologies or modern biological taxonomies to understand the female protagonists’ same-sex intimate relationships. This practice serves as a subversive tool to articulate ineffable queer desires from an animal-centric perspective, and to envision a queer reproduction beyond heteronormative procreation.
This project aims to culminate in an analytical paper. In addition, it includes three public screenings of Green Snake (1993), The Legend of the White Snake, Beijing Opera (1980), and The White Snake Enchantress (1958) in Spring 2023. Each screening will be accompanied by discussions led by Ruohan and Professor Xiang.
Citizenship Lab Research Project: “Gender, Health, and Catastrophe – Studying the Impact of the 2022 Superfloods on Women’s Health in Pakistan’s Most Affected Areas”
The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Arabela Urpi Iggesen Valenzuela’s Signature Work project.
Student: Arabela Urpi Iggesen Valenzuela
Mentor: Professor Umair Sajid
During the summer of 2022, Pakistan experienced monsoon rains 3-5 times as heavy as the national average, and subsequently the worst-ever recorded floods in their history. This caused unprecedented damage across the country. Combined with pre-existing gender health inequalities, this catastrophe amplified the disease burden faced by women in the most affected areas. This project aims to study the impact of the 2022 “superfloods” on women’s health compared to men and identify patterns driving gender health inequality in times of disaster, through cross-sectional surveys and interviews conducted in the rural communities of southwestern Punjab province, Pakistan. The outcomes of this study will provide valuable insight into the nexus between natural disaster, public health, marginalization, and gender relations in Pakistani tribal communities, which can help future relief efforts address the needs of affected populations more efficiently.
Citizenship Lab Research Project: “Unfinished Homes: Stalled Lives amid China’s Real Estate Crisis”
The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Yutong Shi’s Signature Work project.
Student: Yutong Shi
Mentor: Professor Mengqi Wang
In China’s ongoing real estate crisis, a significant number of contractors have abandoned construction, leaving apartment buildings unfinished. On social media, images of unfinished homes, known as lanwei lou/烂尾楼, proliferate. Many apartments in these buildings were already sold to families who are making mortgage payments to this day. Developed from my previous research, this project will explore how these families visit, decorate, and/or move into these unfinished apartments to make a home out of the bare concrete. The project explores how these families’ inflexible pursuit of a home has left them suspended in between being housed and homelessness. It aims to conduct a multi-sited ethnography on unfinished homes, using research methods including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, digital mapping, and visual documentation. To date, the researchers have located unfinished homes in Nanjing, Zhenzhou, Kunshan, Shanghai, and Wuhu. The next step is to visit these unfinished homes and conduct long-term and semi-structured interviews with owners/occupants of these homes, as well as other personnel involved (developers, government officials, lawyers, etc.) in these projects.
Citizenship Lab Research Project: “Navigating the Shadows: Examining the Impact of Censorship and Counter-Censorship”
The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Yueqi Dou’s Signature Work project.
Student: Yueqi Dou
Mentor: Professor Robin Rodd
Censorship, the suppression or control of information and communication, is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon that has been an enduring aspect of current societies and the media landscape. It takes various forms, ranging from government-imposed restrictions on media content to self-censorship driven by societal norms and values. However, people have continually grappled with the challenges of censorship, coming up with tactics to avoid being censored. The censorship guidelines often are inexplicit and blurry, leaving people space to interpret and test the boundaries. To deliver messages and prevent content from being banned, people tend to internalize the censorship and regulate their own behaviors. Under the shadow of censorship, content and art work manage to thrive in the grey area. This research aims to examine activist movements and artistic practices under censorship in online and public spaces. Starting with a review of these practices and related literatures, I will explore and categorize the strategies people have used to escape censorship. Drawing on anthropological, sociological, and media theories and methods, I intend to go deep into these practices and their social impact. I will primarily focus on the landscape in China. Then I will make comparisons with cases in other cultures and countries, such as Korea and Russia.
Citizenship Lab Research Project: “Observing Degrowth and Biocultural Activism in Colombia”
The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Lucas Chacko and Cody Schmidt’s Signature Work project
Students: Lucas Chacko and Cody Schmidt
Mentor: Professor Robin Rodd
From a broad perspective, our project will focus on degrowth and biocultural movements in Colombia. We have a shared interest in such alternative forms of sustainable economics, particularly in the Global South with the region’s history of colonialism, extractivism, and exploitation by the Global North. Degrowth specifically focuses on challenging traditional conceptions of a country’s wealth and success, posing critical questions regarding the environmental degradation and social stratification that traditional economic relations create.
Related to this is the idea of bioculturalism, focusing specifically on the intersection between the environment and society, and their subsequent coexistence. Colombia in particular has been a home to a number of social and political movements led by citizens advocating for environmental justice. Moreover, recent political developments in Colombia have placed such arguments and initiatives at the center of political conversation. We will spend one month in Colombia observing the ways in which this conversation takes place, with Chacko focusing on citizen mobilization and coordination, and Schmidt focusing on how current environmental policies are experienced.
Citizenship Lab Research Project: “Women’s Political Empowerment in East Asia: Challenges Faced by Female Policymakers in South Korea”
The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Enkhkhuslen Bat-Erdene’s Signature Work project
Student: Enkhkhuslen Bat-Erdene, Class of 2025, Institutions and Governance / Public Policy
Mentor: Professor Annemieke van den Dool, Ph.D. (Public Policy)
In East Asia, economic powerhouses like China, Japan, and South Korea are experiencing a decline in fertility rates due to historical gender discrimination. Despite the growing presence of feminist movements within these nations, gender disparity remains a deeply rooted issue. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Gender Gap Index, South Korea, China, and Japan rank 105th, 107th, and 125th, respectively, out of 146 countries, making them the East Asian countries with the most significant gender disparities.
South Korea’s recent feminist movement, known as #MeToo, has brought about significant changes but also faced fierce opposition. The movement appears to have unintentionally exacerbated, rather than bridged, the gender gap in South Korean society. Consequently, this project seeks to explore the obstacles female leaders and policymakers face in South Korean politics and to uncover the underlying reasons for their exclusion from critical gender policy decisions. By shedding light on the persistence of gender disparities within the government, I aim to provide valuable insights into potential solutions to increase women’s involvement in policymaking.
