January 13 – February 17, 2027

Wednesdays, 6:30–8:30 PM

In Praise of Melancholia is a six-week philosophy intensive exploring melancholy not simply as a feeling to overcome, but as a philosophical, psychoanalytic, literary, and cultural tradition for thinking about loss, longing, desire, creativity, and our relationship to the world.

Drawing from thinkers including Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva, and contemporary critics of productivity and compulsory happiness, the course combines focused lectures with close readings of selected texts, art and cultural examples, guided discussion, and thought experiments.
Prior academic experience in philosophy is not required, but participants should come prepared to engage seriously with challenging ideas and texts. The aim is not to simplify philosophy into self-help, but to create an intellectually rigorous space in which people outside the academy can encounter difficult ideas together.

Kellye McBride holds an MA in Contemporary European Philosophy from Kingston University London, completed through a joint program with Université Paris 8, and a BA in Philosophy with departmental honors from the University of Oregon. She has taught philosophy in university and public-humanities settings, including Chemeketa Community College and Portland's People's Colloquium. Her teaching emphasizes critical engagement with primary texts, lively discussion, and making complex theoretical ideas comprehensible without sacrificing their intellectual depth. Kellye is also a professional editor and writer and the creator of Melancholia, a podcast exploring philosophical, psychoanalytic, literary, and cultural approaches to melancholy. Her interests include Continental philosophy, critical theory, psychoanalysis, death, desire, and the relationship between intellectual inquiry and everyday life.

Maximum 20 participants.