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We are excited to announce that our friends and colleagues at Group d’etudes Sartriennes (GES) are hosting their annual conference during June 2017 and that their call for papers is now open!

The announcement in full:

“Le Groupe d’Études Sartriennes lance son appel pour le colloque annuel qui se tiendra les 23 et 24 juin 2017 à Paris Ve (lieu à préciser).

Le GES propose aux enseignants et chercheurs débutants ou confirmés de soumettre une proposition de communication scientifique originale portant sur la pensée et les écrits de Sartre (littérature, philosophie, textes politiques), ou dont l’objet (auteur, question) est en relation directe avec ceux-ci. L’objectif du GES, qui réunit chaque année une soixantaine de spécialistes de Sartre (universitaires ou non) est de soutenir le développement des perspectives nouvelles sur cette œuvre majeure, de permettre aux enseignants et aux chercheurs de présenter leurs travaux en cours et de promouvoir les études sartriennes à un niveau international.

Outre une session Varia destinée à mettre en valeur les contributions originales aux études sartriennes (tous sujets), le GES souhaite, pour l’édition 2017 :

– Encourager des propositions de communication au sujet des Inédits régulièrement publiés dans la revue Études sartriennes, tels « Caractères » (Scénario Joseph Lebon, n. 11, ), « Mai-Juin 1789 » & « Liberté-Égalité » (Sartre Inédit, n.12), « Je ne suis plus réaliste » (Sartre, l’histoire et les historiens, n. 14), « La technique du roman et les grands courants de la pensée contemporaine » (Les conférences du Havre sur le roman, n. 16), « Les racines de l’éthique » (n. 19) ; « Empédocle » (Inédits de jeunesse, n. 20).

– Encourager toute proposition relative aux Archives radiophoniques (entretiens, causeries et autres) et, plus largement, à la figure médiatique de Sartre. Toute information concernant l’accès à des archives publiques ou privées, ainsi que toute proposition technique relative à l’organisation de la session (qui comptera des moments d’écoute collective) sont également les bienvenues.

Les communications, généralement présentées en français, peuvent également l’être en anglais. Dans ce cas, il sera demandé à l’orateur de fournir, à l’avance, un résumé en français à destination des auditeurs du colloque.

Les propositions de communication, qui doivent comporter un titre et un résumé en un paragraphe, sont à faire parvenir aux secrétaires du GES pour le 26 février 2017. Les communications ne devront pas excéder 30 mn.

Prière de faire parvenir vos propositions de communication à l’adresse électronique personnelle des secrétaires, et non à l’adresse du GES. En cas d’envoi postal, merci de les adresser à Florence Caeymaex.

Pour les propositions qui concernent les archives radiophoniques (accès aux archives, archives inédites, aspects techniques), merci de prendre contact directement par mail avec les secrétaires et avec Grégory Cormann.

Président du GES :
Michel Contat”

Read more on the GES website.

Picture credit: Paris by barnyz is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Generic

Relax over the holidays and catch up on all the latest Sartre scholarship! Hot off the press is Winter 2016 (Volume 22, No 2) of Sartre Studies International. The issue features the following papers and book reviews:

Editors’ Introduction

Sartre, Lacan, and the Ethics of Psychoanalysis: A Defense of Lacanian Responsibility
Blake Scott

What Would I Do with Lacan Today? Thoughts on Sartre, Lacan, and Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Betty Cannon

Sartre face à la liberté du chien
Baya Messaoudi

Sartre on Mental Imagery
Noel N. Sauer

Organized Freedom and Progressive Reflection
Cameron Bassiri

Book Reviews

Thomas R. Flynn, Sartre: A Philosophical Biography
Review by Matthew C. Eshleman

Steven Churchill and Jack Reynolds, eds., Jean-Paul Sartre: Key Concepts
Review by Eric Hamm

Benedict O’Donohoe, ed., Severally Seeking Sartre
Review by Eric Hamm

Sofia Miguens, Gerhard Preyer, and Clara Bravo Morando, eds., Pre-Reflective Consciousness: Sartre and Contemporary Philosophy of Mind
Review by Curtis Sommerlatte

Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
Review by Adrian van den Hoven

Dan Williams, Klein, Sartre and Imagination in the Films of Ingmar Bergman
Review by Adrian van den Hoven

Mark Hulliung, Sartre and Clio: Encounters with History
Review by Michael Lejman

Kris Sealey, Moments of Disruption: Levinas, Sartre, and the Question of Transcendence
Review by Diane Perpich                                                                                       

So don’t delay, head on over to Berghahn Journals and check it out!

If you are fortunate enough to be based Stateside then you’ll probably be aware that it’s only a couple of weeks now until the 22nd North American Sartre Society (NASS) conference hosted at University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW)!

From 4-6 November UNCW will play host to scholars from around the world to discuss numerous facets of Sartre’s work. There’s a whole host of great sessions … from the roundtable discussion “It is right to rebel” on Sunday, to not one but TWO sessions dedicated to different facets of Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason. Not to mention Literature as Praxis and four separate sessions on different aspects of Sartre’s political thought. And if that wasn’t enough there is also Sarah Bakewell who is Saturday’s keynote with How to stop worrying and enjoy Sartre!

Needless to say, don’t miss it! You can check out the programme here or find out more about the conference. And of course, don’t forget to register!

We are very sad to announce that one of our committee members, Paul Wallace, passed away on 8th June.

Paul was one of our longest serving and most loyal members. He combined his impressive knowledge and infectious enthusiasm about all aspects of the works of Sartre and Beauvoir with a friendliness and generosity of spirit that made him a great participant at our conferences.

Paul’s contributions to the field, through his own conference presentations, his responses to other people’s talks, and his work on the committee have been highly valuable. We shall certainly miss him.

This year’s conference is dedicated to Paul’s memory.

If you’re still thinking about joining us on 1 July in Oxford for our annual conference (this year our theme is Existentialism and the Body) there’s still time to grab a ticket! We’ve got a great line-up of speakers, including Katherine Morris (Oxford) as our keynote, so to help you make the call, here’s the provisional running order for the day:

Book your place!

Download a copy of the schedule!

We look forward to seeing old and new friends alike next Friday in Oxford – safe travels!

Early July is packed with Sartre goodness! Hot on the heels of the UK Sartre Society conference on 1 July (don’t forget our CFP deadline is fast approaching!) is the German Sartre Society’s meeting in Munich on 8 & 9 July 2016.

Details as follows:

“Title: Democracy and participation – today’s relevance of the political philosophy of existentialism

Subject: A conference will be held about today’s relevance of the political philosophy of existentialism. In contrast to most other political philosophies, emancipatory existentialism does not give primacy to the state, but to the individual. The term ‚existentialism’ is understood in its broadest sense. It includes not only Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus and Merleau-Ponty, but as well as theirs predecessors (e.g. Sade, Kierkegaard, Stirner, Nietzsche) and contemporaries (e.g. Marcel, Jaspers, Heidegger, Arendt, Bataille).

Organisers: Prof. H.-M. Schönherr-Mann, Univ. Munich, and Sartre Society, Berlin.
Place/date: GSI University Munich, Germany, July 8th / 9th, 2016
Duration: 30-45 minutes per presentation
Languages: German/English
Publication: The presentations will possibly be published as a book.
Abstracts: Abstracts of not more than one page to be sent to nl [at] sartregesellschaft.de by January 31st, 2016.
Contact: Alfred Betschart, nl [at] sartre-gesellschaft.de”

The North American Sartre Society (NASS) has just released this year’s call for papers!

21st Conference of the North American Sartre Society

East Stroudsburg University, Conference Center, Bethlehem, PA, November 13-15, 2015.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The North American Sartre Society is issuing a call for papers on the occasion of its twenty-first conference, hosted by Storm Heter, at East Stroudsburg University’s Conference Center in Bethlehem, PA, November 13-15, 2015. We welcome papers in any area of Sartrean scholarship (philosophy, literature, theater, psychology, politics, intellectual history, Sartre and other writers, etc.). Reading time for a paper should be 20-25 minutes maximum. In addition to individual papers, we welcome suggestions for panel topics. Graduate students are encouraged to submit suggestions for papers. We hope to provide a limited number of stipends for graduate students to help defray the cost of travel and lodging. Any graduate student whose paper has been accepted must however apply for these stipends.

While topics on any of Sartre’s many activities are welcome, one of the themes we are promoting this year are applications of Sartre’s philosopher to contemporary philosophical debates.

We invite anyone interested to submit proposals in either English or French. Nevertheless, we require those whose papers are accepted to become members of NASS (if they are not already) in order to present their paper.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: July 31, 2015.

Please E-MAIL an abstract (1-2 pages max) as an attachment to Matt Eshleman and Beth Butterfield. For panel submissions, please submit both an abstract for the whole panel and abstracts for each individual paper. These will be forwarded to the Program Committee for blind refereeing.

We have been very fortunate to secure Dr. Tom Flynn as our Keynote Speaker. Tom Flynn, known to every Sartre scholar, has generously agreed to talk to us about his new philosophical biography of Sartre just out on Cambridge University Press. His talk will be titled, “Sartre and the Imaginary: The Nonexistent Thread that Ties together a Life and Work.”

Further details on the conference and hotel arrangements will be communicated to you in due course. Any questions can be directed to:

Matt Eshleman (President)
Elizabeth Butterfield (Co-President)
Storm Heter (On-Site Conference Organizer)

Existentialism, Race, and Gender

London, UK
Provisional date: Friday 18th September 2015

Keynote speaker: Professor Lewis R. Gordon (Connecticut)

What can existentialist theories of authenticity, bad faith, embodiment, the look, being-for-others, interiorisation, and the social structure of the material world contribute to our understanding of what it is to be gendered and racialised? What other contributions might consideration of the literary and theoretical works of Beauvoir, Fanon, Sartre and other paradigmatically existentialist thinkers make to current debates about race or gender?

We invite abstracts of papers on these topics to be delivered at this year’s UK Sartre Society conference. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words. Please bear in mind that each selected paper will be scheduled 30 minutes presentation time plus some time for questions.

Our keynote speaker will be Professor Lewis R. Gordon, author of What Fanon Said (2015), Fanon and the Crisis of European Man, Existentia Africana, and Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism, editor of Existence in Black, and author of numerous articles on existentialism and the philosophy of race.

Abstracts should be fully prepared for anonymous review and sent as email attachments to our conference email address.

The closing date for submissions is Monday 20th April 2015.