French and Francophone Philosophy Today

LSU’s Department of Philosophy, Department of French Studies, and the Center for French and Francophone Studies invite submissions to “French and Francophone Philosophy Today,” a bilingual conference to be held at LSU (Baton Rouge, LA) April 18-20th 2024.

The conference will include a panel featuring Claire Colebrook (Penn State), Jeff Bell (Southeastern Louisiana University), and Dan Smith (Purdue) discussing the work of John Protevi (French/Philosophy, LSU).

Our purpose is to gather a diverse set of researchers, scholars and students to consider the past, present and future directions of French philosophy. We include under this rubric, francophone philosophy and philosophical work on various traditions associated with major French and francophone thinkers. This includes, but is not limited to: Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Genealogy, Philosophy of Technics, and Postcolonial & Diasporic Philosophy.

This conference also intends to celebrate, honor, and reflect upon the distinctive contributions of LSU philosophers to contemporary French philosophy over the past 35 years, including the work of Édouard Glissant (LSU, 1988-1993), John Protevi (LSU, 1994-2023), Marc Froment-Meurice (LSU, 1995-1996), and François Raffoul (LSU, 2000-2023). Recognizing the precious and precarious francophone connections of the state of Louisiana, and its investments in humanistic traditions tied to French thought and cultures, we seek to affirm the important contributions of our colleagues and our continued commitment to forging new connections between institutions, individuals and scholarly research networks.

What does it mean to inherit, extend, incorporate and even break with the distinct philosophical practices associated with French philosophy? We welcome, in particular, contributions that explore the work of Glissant, Protevi, and Raffoul and the papers that explore the generativity of feminist, decolonial, and critical approaches to French philosophy.

We accept papers in French or English in these broad streams:

Post/structuralism, Cybernetics, Information Theory
Francophonie, Universalism, Particularism
French Feminisms, Philosophies of Embodiment
Philosophical Anthropology, Economies of Violence, Societies of Control
French Phenomenology, Post-Phenomenological Thought, Philosophy of the Event
Creolization, Glissant, Decolonial Philosophy, Philosophies of Place

Submission Deadline: December 1st, 2023

Only Abstracts are required for submission: bit.ly/frenchphilconference

Full papers and proposals will also be considered.

Questions can be directed to Deborah Goldgaber and Hannah Bacon, [email protected] and [email protected]