John Protevi is a Louisiana State University professor whose research focuses on the intersections of contemporary French philosophy, dynamical systems theory, and the cognitive, life and earth sciences.

Protevi, who teaches courses primarily in contemporary French philosophy, will discuss Human Nature: Between Philosophy and Anthropology on April 4 at Elmhurst College as this year’s Niebuhr lecturer.

Protevi received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Loyola University Chicago in 1990. A longtime member of French studies faculty at LSU, he recently was named Phyllis M. Taylor Professor of French Studies. In 2012, he became professor of philosophy with teaching duties in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

He is the author of Life, War, Earth: Deleuze and the Sciences (Minnesota, 2013); Political Affect: Connecting the Social and the Somatic (Minnesota, 2009); Political Physics: Deleuze, Derrida, and the Body Politic (Athlone, 2001); Time and Exteriority: Aristotle, Heidegger, Derrida (Bucknell, 1994); and co-author with Mark Bonta of Deleuze and Geophilosophy (Edinburgh, 2004). He also is the editor of A Dictionary of Continental Philosophy (Yale, 2006).

Protevi’s talk will begin at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, April 4, in the Schaible Science Center’s Illinois Hall. Admission is $10 for the general public and free for Elmhurst College students, faculty, staff and alumni. Tickets are available online or at the door, depending on availability. For more information, call (630) 617-3390.