CFP: Envisioning Futures: Decolonial and World Philosophical Approaches

Submission Guidelines
Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words along with a short biography (150 words) by April 1, 2025, to [email protected]

Important Dates
Abstract submission deadline: April 1, 2025
Notification of acceptance: May 5, 2025
Conference paper submission: November 3, 2025
Conference date: November 21-22, 2025
Paper submission for the special issue: January 30, 2026

The Department of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong is pleased to announce the international conference Envisioning Futures: Decolonial and World Philosophical Approaches, scheduled for November 21-22, 2025. The university will provide accommodation for all participants for three days. The conference organisers are negotiating the possibility of publishing a selection of the accepted papers in a high-profile philosophy journal.

Conference Theme
This conference aims to explore the intersections of decolonial and world philosophies. It will reflect on existing scholarship while proposing innovative approaches that connect decolonial studies with world philosophies as well as theory of race, gender, sexuality, and ability.

Although philosophers of comparative, intercultural, and world philosophies share many core concerns with decolonial philosophers, as of yet, sustained and engaged philosophical discussions between them have been few and far between. This conference seeks to examine the mutually beneficial conversations that can arise between them, conversations that have the potential to open new academic avenues.  

In 2015, Amy Donahue and Rohan Kalyan edited a special issue of Comparative and Continental Philosophy entitled Decolonizing Comparative Methodologies. That issue was one of the first attempts to bring together “allied fields of academic inquiry that have traditionally been kept apart—namely, comparative philosophy, on the one hand, and postcolonial and decolonial studies, on the other.” (Donahue and Kalyan 2015, 122) Since then, The Southern Journal of Philosophy and Philosophical Papers have dedicated special issues to the theme of decolonisation in philosophy—respectively the Spindel Supplement: Decolonizing Philosophy, Volume 57, Issue S1, 2019 and Epistemic Decolonisation, Volume 49, Issue 2, 2020. Additionally, the Journal of World Philosophies has emerged as an important platform for exploring the intersections of decolonial theories and world philosophies. Despite the increasing interest in these areas of philosophy, they remain largely marginalised within the broader landscape of mainstream philosophical discourse.

The conference aims to tackle critical questions such as:
•    What methodological tools can facilitate meaningful dialogue between decolonial studies and various philosophical traditions?
•    How can we critically interrogate ethnocentric tendencies within mainstream philosophy?
•    How can the formation of eco chambers be prevented when addressing marginalised philosophical issues and traditions?
•    In what ways does the study of diverse philosophical traditions contribute to envisioning more equitable futures?
•    How can decolonial frameworks reshape our understanding of world philosophies?
•    What kind of collaborations are necessary to promote a more sustained discussion and adoption of decolonial and world philosophies approaches within philosophy departments?
•    What challenges arise in teaching decoloniality and world philosophies?

Keynote Speakers
Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach, Professor of Philosophy and Chair of ‘Diversifying Philosophy’, The Vrije Universiteit
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Professor of Philosophy, Co-Chair of the Frantz Fanon Foundation and President Emeritus of the Caribbean Philosophical Association, University of Connecticut
Mariana Ortega, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, The Pennsylvania State University

Invited Speakers
Amy Donahue, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Kennesaw State University
Iracema Dulley, Research Fellow at Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon
Hayden Kee, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Gregory Moss, Associate Professor of Philosophy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Alena Rettová, Professor of African and Afrophone Philosophies, University of Bayreuth
Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee 李麗香, Professor of Philosophy, University of Hawaiʻi—West Oʻahu
Alejandro A. Vallega, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oregon; Faculty Research Fellow, Center for Gender and Africa Studies, University of the Free State, South Africa.
Shuchen Xiang 項舒晨, Mount Hua Professor of Philosophy, Xidian University