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Call for Papers Theme: From where do you speak? Type: International Conference Institution: Society for Ricoeur Studies (SRS) Department of Philosophy and Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University Location: Stellenbosch (South Africa) Date: 23.–25.5.2018 Deadline: 12.1.2018 __________________________________________________ The Society for Ricoeur Studies is pleased to announce the theme of the 2018 conference: “From where do you speak?” The conference will be co-hosted by Stellenbosch University’s Department of Philosophy and Faculty of Theology. We are pleased to announce that the SRS keynote speakers are Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Morny Joy, Bernard Lategan, Damien Tissot, Marlene van Niekerk and Ernst Wolff. From where do you speak? From where do you speak? Paul Ricoeur famously began his seminars by posing this question to his students: D'où parlez-vous? With reference to the scope and depth of Ricoeur’s thought his recurring question can be read in many different ways. ‘From where do you speak?’, firstly, is a reminder that we always speak from somewhere; that speaking, thinking, acting and suffering are always situated and contextual. This may well be a timely question to pose at the 2018 Society for Ricoeur Studies Conference which, for the first time, will take place on African soil; in Stellenbosch, South Africa. In such a context, Ricoeur’s question becomes an invitation to reflect on and give an account of the often unacknowledged topoi from which we speak. In particular, raising this question in South Africa may become an occasion for scholars from various African contexts to reflect on the reception of Ricoeur’s work over many years, in diverse cultural, religious and linguistic traditions, in response to a variety of contextual challenges and opportunities, within and between a wide range of disciplines and theoretical vantage points. Similarly, scholars from every region of the world could come to confront each other with new ways of thinking with Ricoeur, beyond Ricoeur. ‘From where do you speak?’, secondly, introduces the question of a hermeneutics of place and space, which gives rise to countless questions related to phenomenology and historical spatial paradigms (topos, spatium, Lebenswelt), narrative and symbolic space, memory and moral space, architecture and the poetics of space, social imaginaries and geo-politics, justice and globalisation, phronesis and the environment, recognition and displacement, technology and the ascent of virtual space. Certainly, the question of ‘where’ should also be heard as an inquiry about time, temporality and history. Seemingly spatial categories like ‘utopia’, ‘retrotopia’ and ‘nostalgia’ in fact also denote a specific relationship to time, and have – in our time – acquired a particular relevance. ‘From where do you speak?’ thirdly, can be heard as a sign of Ricoeur’s profound awareness that speaking literally takes place (a lieu), that no interpretation of the said can ever fully account for the event of speaking that takes place when someone says something to someone about something. It asks that hermeneutics be supplemented with a rhetorics that is attentive to the relationships between meaning and (asymmetrical) constellations of power and agency. In addition, it calls forth a renewed attentiveness to performativity, for the ways in which sense and sense-making arise from the lived world of embodied acts, gestures and rituals. In the fourth instance, it is quite possible to imagine Ricoeur asking ‘from where do you speak?’ in a rhetorical sense, challenging us to confronting the ironies and ambiguities of selfhood, identity, memory and agency. What type of answer, we may ask, would be appropriate? A narrative, perhaps, but how and what do we narrate? What remains unsaid? What gets recalled, and what forgotten? Who speaks? Is speaking and acting always on time and in place? What if the question is a way of putting someone in their place? Silence? Finally, ‘from where do you speak?’ might provoke the ‘addressee’ to respond with an alternative question that in some contexts may be more appropriate and even urgent: Who’s listening? Can you hear me from where I am calling? We live in times in which the demand to listen is felt with ever greater urgency. But what could this mean? Or rather, how do we listen better? Scholars attending the 2018 Society for Ricoeur Studies Conference might also reflect on Ricoeur (who often confessed himself to be a listener) and the art of listening. “To confess that one is a listener,” Ricoeur wrote in an essay called Naming God (1979), “is from the very beginning to break with the project dear to many, and even perhaps all, philosophers: to begin discourse without any presuppositions.” With Ricoeur’s question in mind, we welcome submissions that address the influence of Ricoeur’s thought inside and outside the discipline of philosophy. Papers Please submit an abstract of approximately 300-500 words without any author-identifying information. In your email, please include the paper’s title, the author’s name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and email address. Abstracts and papers may be in English or French. Please note that finished papers should be no longer than twenty minutes when read aloud (roughly 3000 words). Panels Proposals for a panel discussion of a theme, a book, or an author related to Ricoeur are also welcome. The proposal should include a brief description (300-500 words) of the topic, the names of the panel members, and, as a separate document, the abstracts for each presentation (300-500 words). Panels will last for a period of 1 hour 30 minutes (or what comes to 3 x 20 minute presentations with 30 minutes of discussion). In your email, please include 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 send in an abstract (300-500 words) for a panel around the theme of the conference, or any other theme related to the work of Paul Ricoeur. We intend to ask scholars visiting the conference to act as respondents to the papers. Submissions Extended submission deadline: 12 January 2018. Please send the abstracts to Judy-Ann Cilliers: jacilli...@sun.ac.za Abstracts and panel proposals will be reviewed blind by an academic committee. Notification of acceptance will be given via email by 19 January 2018; proposals submitted before the original submission deadline (20 November) will still receive notice by 15 December 2017. Abstracts and panel proposals accepted for conference presentations will be published on the Society’s website prior to the conference. If you prefer not to have your submission published there, please inform Judy-Ann in your submission email. Additional Information Information regarding conference fees and hotel accommodations will be published on the Society’s website in the near future. Questions regarding the conference can be addressed to either of the following of conference organizers: Prof. Robert Vosloo Email: rrvos...@sun.ac.za Prof. Louise du Toit Email: louis...@sun.ac.za Mr. Helgard Pretorius Email: help...@sun.ac.za Ms. Judy-Ann Cilliers Email: jacilli...@sun.ac.za __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __________________________________________________
