Martin (Mike) Dillon (1938-2005) was the founding General Secretary of the Merleau-Ponty Circle and Distinguished Teaching Professor at Binghamton University.  His book Merleau-Ponty‘s Ontology is a lasting contribution to Merleau-Ponty scholarship and rendered him a leading voice in contemporary phenomenology.

The annual conference of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle features the M. C. Dillon Memorial Lecture, an honor and monetary award of $500 for the best graduate student submission. Recipients of the M.C. Dillon Memorial Lecture award will have their papers published in Chiasmi International: Trilingual Studies concerning the Thought of Merleau-Ponty.

The Lecture award is supported by the M. C. Dillon Memorial Fund. You can donate to the fund online here, via PayPal.

Graduate students who wish to be considered for the Dillon prize should indicate this in their cover letter when submitting their paper for consideration for the fall conference program.