« Hannah Arendt: Forty Years Later » Paris, December 3 and 4, 2015

Friday the 4^th of December 2015 marks the 40^th anniversary of Hannah Arendt’s untimely death in her apartment in New York City. For this occasion the Doctoral School of Sciences Po and the CEVIPOF organize the event « Hannah Arendt: Forty Years Later », which will take place in Paris on Thursday the 3^rd  and Friday the 4^th of December. In collaboration with several partners, the evening of Thursday the 3^rd of December will gather perspectives from the three countries in which Arendt lived – Germany, France and the USA – on the pertinence of Arendt’s thought to confront the world at present. On Friday the 4^th of December, a journée d’étude will bring together recent developments in Arendt scholarship and connect these to some of the most pressing political issues of our own time. Contributions on diverse themes and from a variety of academic perspectives pertaining to Arendt’s oeuvre are welcomed. This journée d’étude aims, with the help of Arendt’s insights, to confront contemporary issues like:

o   Identity and politics

How do Arendt’s reflections on identity inform our comprehension of current struggles in the political realm? How do particular political practices disentangle existing and give rise to new identities and connections? In what ways do these practices challenge and displace the role of established religious, national or ideological identifications and sources of belonging? How can these reflections nourish our judgments on a wide variety of topics like, e.g., struggles for same sex marriage; the current migration tragedies around the Mediterranean; the terrorist attacks in Paris and Kopenhagen; etc.

o   The plasticity of the political (…and the social and the economic)

Can Arendt’s writings illuminate the role of public and common goods to sustain political communities? How does the category of work mediate between the social and the political or is Arendt’s ‘purification’ of the political still a credible line of interpretation? How can worldly, common practices be conceived in a fractured environment, marked by the loss of a shared common world and of common sense? How do Arendt’s reflections illuminate the material (pre)conditions for building a common world? Can the lenses Arendt provides illuminate current economic and political struggles, e.g., in the EU or over regional trade negotiations such as TTIP?; etc. etc.

Both senior and junior researchers from France and abroad are encouraged to propose abstracts for contributions to this journée d’étude, the working languages of which will be both English and French. Selected contributions will also occasion the composition of a special issue on Hannah Arendt in the French academic journal Raisons Politiques.

Submission guidelines

If you are interested in presenting a paper at this journée d’étude on Friday the 4^th of December 2015 in Paris, please send a 500-700 word-long anonymous abstract in .doc format to hannaharendtfortyyearslater@gmail.com before Friday the 11^th of September 2015. Out of the received abstracts, 6 participants will be selected. Decisions regarding acceptance of the abstract will be notified by the end of September 2015. The working languages of the journée d’étude are French and English. Dinner and refreshments will be provided for by the organization, but unfortunately transport and accommodation will not be reimbursed (even if the organization committee is engaged to help in the search of bursaries for participants in collaboration with its partners).

Organization committee

Marianne Fougère and Maurits de Jongh

Scientific committee

Myriam Revault d’Allonnes, Jean-Claude Poizat and Astrid von Busekist