CFP: Society for Ricoeur Studies Conference

Papers

The Society for Ricoeur Studies welcomes submissions that address any aspects of Ricoeur’s work. Please submit an abstract of approximately roughly 300-500 words and attach a separate title page that includes the paper's title, the author's name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and email address. Abstracts and papers may be in English, French or Spanish. 

Although it is not required, we especially invite proposals on the conference’s special theme this year. That theme is “Paul Ricoeur and the Age of Hermeneutical Reason.” In Oneself as Another, Ricoeur claims that philosophical hermeneutics marks this age inasmuch as it resists the lure of setting itself up as the heir to the philosophies of the cogito, as exemplified by Descartes and Nietzsche, and resists also continuing their self-foundational claim. Throughout his work, Ricoeur highlights tensions between the capable human being’s power to act and a variety of experiences of being-affected, ranging from the experience of one’s own body to that of the violence exercised by one will over another. Ricoeur's hermeneutics responds both to modernist confidences and postmodernist suspicions in this respect. Possible topics include:

• Politics
• History and the Hermeneutics of Historical Consciousness 
• Violence
• Suffering and the Capable Human Being 
• Post-Secular Society 
• Imagination and Truth

This theme has also been proposed to Lexington Press as the possible topic for a collected volume of essays in our continuing series of books on Ricoeur.

Panels

Proposals for a panel discussion of a theme, a book, or an author are also welcome. The proposal should include a brief description (300-500 words) of the topic and its rationale along with the names of the panel members (for a time period of 1:15 minutes). Please also attach a separate title page that includes the panel's title along with the panel members’ names, institutional affiliations, mailing addresses, and email addresses.

New Scholars and Graduate Students Roundtable New scholars and graduate students are encouraged to participate in organizing this year’s roundtable. They are invited to propose themes, topics or issues for discussion. Proposals may also include suggestions of junior or senior presenters (3 to 4) who could be invited to give discussion papers on the suggested theme or topic. We would like to pair each paper with a respondent. We will therefore also be calling on graduate students and new scholars to act as respondents. Proposals should be sent to Molly Mann ([email protected]) by June 15, 2012. If you would like to act as a respondent, Molly will be issuing a separate call asking you to submit a 100-word abstract outlining your approach to the chosen theme or topic. Respondents may also give a paper in another session at the conference.

Submissions deadline:  May 15, 2012.

Send submissions to: Roger Savage at [email protected].

Abstracts and panel proposals will be reviewed blind by a committee.  Notification of acceptance will be given via email.