CFP: National Doctoral Colloquium “Inter homines esse” (“To Be Among Men”): Reflections on Living Together in the Age of Plurality

CALL FOR PAPERS for PhD candidates

National Doctoral Colloquium “Inter homines esse” (“To Be Among Men”): Reflections on Living Together in the Age of Plurality
Organized by the Doctoral School of Philosophy, University of Bucharest
March 13–14, 2026 – Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest

The Doctoral School of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, is pleased to announce the organization of the National Doctoral Colloquium “Inter homines esse” (“To Be Among Men”): Reflections on Living Together in the Age of Plurality, to be held on March 13–14, 2026. Language for the presentations: Romanian.

This event invites doctoral candidates from the University of Bucharest as well as from other doctoral schools across the country to present and discuss their ongoing research in an open, interdisciplinary dialogue inspired by the colloquium’s general theme. Through this initiative, the Doctoral School of Philosophy continues its longstanding tradition of fostering academic debate and encouraging collaboration among doctoral students from various disciplines, under the aegis of an interdisciplinary event whose philosophical core opens itself to contributions from all areas of the humanities, social sciences, and even the natural and exact sciences.

The issue of living together — the “human condition of plurality”, as Hannah Arendt called it in The Human Condition, referring to that “inter homines esse” (“to be among men”) which constitutes “not only the conditio sine qua non, but the conditio per quam of all political life” — acquires today new meanings and resonances. In the current age of expanding pluralities, this issue calls for careful and multifaceted reflection.

Raising questions across ethical, political, ontological, social, and metaphysical registers, the inquiry into “living together” and “being with others” opens discussions about community, alterity, responsibility, conflict, and cohabitation with both the human and the non-human, as well as about the ways we think — and rethink — difference within a shared world.

In a fragile global context marked by multiple crises — political, technological, social, ecological —, we are compelled to reconsider, amid the accelerating pace of life, the very modes of being together. The pressing question becomes: How can we (still) be and live together? Coexistence, relationality with the other — human or non-human —, knowledge and recognition, responsibility, multiplicity, interdependence, communication, tensions, exclusion, boundaries, and conflict — all are variables that contemporary reflections and mappings of being-together must take into account.

We invite PhD candidates in philosophy, as well as from related humanities disciplines and the exact sciences (political science, sociology, anthropology, journalism, cultural studies, theology, visual, performing and cinematic arts, law, history, mathematics, computer science, natural sciences, etc.) to engage with the theme of “being and living together” from a wide range of perspectives rooted in both classical traditions and contemporary thought, including but not limited to:

• Political philosophy and ethics (the public sphere and plurality; what it means “to be among men” in contemporary democracies and non-democracies; the relationship between the individual and the collective; moral responsibility toward the other—questions of autonomy and interdependence);
• Phenomenology and relational ontology (identity and alterity; intersubjectivity and the common world; phenomenology of the world-structures/social structures; phenomenology of human activities);
• Aesthetics and the arts of coexistence and alterity (the aesthetic imaginary of relationality; art as a space of encounter and reconciliation; representations of being/not being together — in literature, film, and theatre; the artist as witness/mediator among people and worlds);
• Philosophical ecology; posthumanism; intersectionality;
• Technologies of coexistence: networks, social media, digital spaces, new forms of socialization, and coexistence with the non-human (artificial intelligence, animals, ecosystems);
• Sociology and political science (social theories and practices of living-together; models of cohabitation in pluralistic societies; theories and policies of citizenship, community, hospitality, inclusion and exclusion, violence, borders, crises, conflicts);
• Theology and philosophy of religion (theology of the neighbor and the fellow human; being-together as communion; the sacred dimension of the other — charity, hospitality, forgiveness; religious conflicts and reconciliations);
• Cultural studies, anthropology, history (memory, history, trauma — crisis, living-together, and survival in post-conflict contexts; rituals of coexistence — tradition vs. globalization; shared spaces of living — urban/rural spaces, “non-places” of encounter and relation; narratives and collective vs. individual memory of cohabitation and being-together).

Submission Guidelines

Doctoral students interested in participating are invited to submit by January 10, 2026, to [email protected], a Word document including the following information:

• Name and surname
• Contact email
• University affiliation
• Title of the presentation
• Abstract (300–500 words, in Romanian or English; Times New Roman 12 pt, 1.5 spacing, justified alignment)
• Five keywords
• Short biographical note (name, date of birth, institutional affiliation, year of study, research field, PhD supervisor, and other biobibliographical details as preferred).

Each presentation (in Romanian or English) should last 15–20 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A.

Notification of acceptance will be sent by February 9, 2026. A detailed program and updated information about the event will be communicated to selected participants via email.

Participation in the colloquium is free of charge. The organizers are currently exploring possible solutions for covering travel and accommodation expenses for selected doctoral students from other Romanian universities, as well as for the publication of selected papers in a volume of proceedings to be issued by the University of Bucharest Press (CNCS-accredited, Category A).

For additional information, please contact [email protected] (PhD candidate Georgeta-Anca Ionescu together with the organizing committee).