Boston-Area Consortium for Kant and 19th Century German Philosophy

Boston-Area Events

Upcoming Events

• Kant Day Workshop
  • Organizers: Jens Timmerman, Giovanni Pietro Basile, and Lewis Wang (kwang39 [at] bu [dot] edu).
  • Location: Boston University.
  • Flyer.
  • Sat May 9, 2026 — Boston University
• Graduate Student Work in Progress Workshop: XIX Century German Philosophy
  • Flyer
  • Schedule:
    • 2 PM. Sina Rezaei (BC): “The Role of Religion in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right”
    • 3 PM. Abolfazl Jafari Khaneh (Emory): “From Reality of Freedom to Freedom of Reality: An ontological reading of Schelling’s conception of freedom”
    • 4 PM. Magnus Imber (BC): “The Beautiful Soul of Assisi: A Critique of Milbank’s ‘Franciscan Conundrum’”
    • 5 PM: Jesse Goodman (BC): “The Meistersinger and his Shadow: Nietzsche’s Wagner and the Project of European Renewal”
    • 6:30 PM: dinner at Cafe Landwer, Cleveland Circle
    • Organized by Paolo Degiorgi (Degiorgi [at] bu [dot] edu) and Caroline Wall (cbwall [at] bu [dot] edu).
    • Location: Stokes Hall N325, 307 Beacon St, Chestnut Hill.
    • Sat April 11, 2026, 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM — Boston College
• Graduate Student Work in Progress Workshop: Kant and Idealism
  • Speakers: Mustafa Aziz (Harvard), Lewis Wang (BU), Joshua Folkerts (Universität Rostock), Joaquin Martinez (BC).
  • Event flyer (with talk titles).
  • Organized by Paolo Degiorgi (Degiorgi [at] bu [dot] edu) and Caroline Wall (cbwall [at] bu [dot] edu).
  • Location: STH 541, 745 Commonwealth Ave.
  • Sat Feb 7, 2026, 2:00 PM – 6:30 PM — Boston University

• Workshop on Love, Hate, and Reactive Attitudes
  • Organizer: Professor Paul Katsafanas (pkatsa [at] bu [dot] edu).
  • Talks will focus on XIX century thinkers.
  • Speakers: Steve Darwall (Yale), Krista Thomason (Swarthmore), Patrick Hassan (Cardiff), Bas Tönissen (Princeton).
  • Schedule and Abstracts.
  • Thu Dec 11, 2025, 9:30 AM – 6 PM — Boston University
• Harvard European Philosophy Workshop 2025
  • Theme: The Ethical Life
  • Organizers: Professor Michael Rosen (mrosen [at] gov [dot] harvard [dot] edu), and Enza Jonas-Giugni (enzajonasgiugni [at] g [dot] harvard [dot] edu).
  • Speakers: Francey Russell (Barnard), Peter Gordon (Harvard, History), Paul Katsafanas (BU). Conor Bulkeley-Crane (Harvard, German), Caroline Wall (BU), Eli Davey (Princeton).
  • Location: Minda De Gunzburg Center for European Studies.
  • Flyer with Schedule.
  • Fri Dec 5, 2025 — Harvard University
• Hegel-Rosenzweig Summer Academy
  • More information available here.
  • 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. 170 Beacon Street, Boston
  • Mon Jul 28 – Fri Aug 1, 2025 — Goethe Institut Boston
• Stephen Houlgate (Warwick), Dialectical Thinking in the Humanities Series: “Civil Society and its Discontents: Hegel and the Problem of Poverty”
  • More details.
  • Barker Center (12 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA). Room 133.
  • Wed April 30, 2025, 6-8 PM — Harvard University
• Kant and the Future of University
  • Conference in Honor of Susan Meld Shell
  • Thursday March 20: keynote speech (Christopher Kelly, Boston College) 5 PM, Gasson Hall 100.
  • Friday March 21 panel I: 10 AM – noon, Fulton 250; Panel II : 2-4 PM, Fulton 250.
  • Flyer with schedule.
  • Thu-Fri March 20-21, 2025 — Boston College
• Kant Workshop
  • Organized by Sally Sedgwick. Contact her at ssedgw [at] bu [dot] edu to register.
  • Location: Boston University School of Theology (STH), room 325.
  • Flyer with schedule.
  • Sat March 8, 2025, 11:15 AM – 5:30 PM — Boston University
• Graduate Students Work in Progress Workshop
  • Organized by Caroline Wall, Paolo Degiorgi, and Marco Bonutto.
  • Confirmed Participants: Marco Bonutto (Padua), Magnus Imber (BC), Violetta Lato (BC), Caroline Wall (BU), Lewis Wang (BU), Isaiah Wilkinson (Concordia).
  • School of Theology building, room 541 (Machette Library).
  • Flyer and schedule.
  • Sat March 1, 2025; 10 AM – 5 PM — Boston University
• Kant on Language and Cognition – Hybrid Workshop
  • Organized by Lewis Wang (BU) and Davide Dalla Rosa (Frankfurt).
  • Seminarhaus (SH) 1.106, Campus Westend.
  • Schedule.
  • Form to sign up for online or in-person attendance.
  • Fri February 14, 2025 — Goethe Universität Frankfurt and Online
• Conference: Devotion and Meaning in Life
  • Organized by Paul Katsafanas, Boston University.
  • Speakers and information.
  • Thu-Fri Dec 12-23, 2024 — Boston University
• Boston Area Kant Colloquium
  • Speakers: Tamar Shapiro (MIT), Susan Shell (BC), Lara Ostaric (Temple U.), Banafsheh Beizai (Brown U.)
  • Organized by Giovanni Pietro Basile SJ (BU) and Jens Timmerman (St. Andrews U.)
  • Gasson Hall, room 305.
  • Event flyer (with schedule).
  • Sat Dec 7, 2024, 9 AM – 5:30 PM — Boston College
• Harvard European Philosophy Workshop 2024
  • Organizer: Professor Michael Rosen (mrosen [at] gov [dot] harvard [dot] edu).
  • Speakers: Michael Rosen (Gov, Harvard), Shterna Friedman (Gov, Harvard), Lydia Moland (Philosophy, Colby) Ian Martel (Philosophy, Harvard), Mathis Bitton (Gov, Harvard), Mustafa Aziz (Philosophy, Harvard).
  • Minda De Gunzburg Center for European Studies. Adolphus Busch Hall, Lower Level Conference Room.
  • Event Flyer (with schedule).
  • Fri Dec 6, 2024, 11 AM – 6:30 PM — Harvard University
• Marco Bonutto (Padua) at BU Philosophy Seminar Series: “Monist Ontology and Dualist Epistemology in the Thought of F.H. Bradley”
  • Abstract: The aim is to present Bradley’s thought in relation to the anglo-saxon reworking of Hegelian dialectic, showing how English idealism has progressively settled on positions that tend towards skepticism. While embracing Hegel’s monism, it rejected the Hegelian identification of thought and being. The most emblematic case is indeed that of Bradley, whose critique of Hegel, found in the Principles of Logic, I intend to present, subsequently relating it to his critique of internal and external relations contained in Appearance and Reality.
  • School of Theology at Boston University, room 525.
  • Schedule of BU Philosophy Seminar Series.
  • Wed Nov 20, 2024, 12:45-2:15 PM — Boston University
• Sebastian Rödl (Leipzig): “The Spiritual Life: Against Kant’s Formal Naturalism”
  • Abstract: Human life is no natural life. It is spiritual life, the life of the spirit. – Hegel says this about spirit: spirit sustains the infinite pain, and the wounds of the spirit heal without scars. These metaphors convey the difference of spiritual life from natural life. They have a logical meaning. – Pain is a form of opposition; thus as animals suffer pain, animal life contains within itself an opposition to itself. That opposition, animal pain, is finite. Now, spirit, says Hegel, not only sustains pain; it sustains the infinite pain. This means that, in contrast to a natural life, the life of the spirit is the infinite opposition to itself. – Human life has a depth not found in nature. The depth of human life is the depth of its negativity. This is the point of Hegel’s metaphors. I want to develop this point through a discussion of Kant’s attempt to limit the negativity of the life of the spirit, his attempt to evade the infinite pain. Since the infinity of its pain distinguishes spirit from nature, that attempt of Kant’s is his naturalism. Reflection on the meaning of Hegel’s remark reveals the failure of Kant’s practical philosophy to reside in its formal naturalism. 
  • Emerson Hall, Room 210
  • Fri Nov 15, 2024, 3-5 PM — Harvard University
• Ben Crowe at BU Philosophy Seminar Series: “Fichte’s Ethical Community”
  • School of Theology at Boston University, room 525.
  • Schedule of BU Philosophy Seminar Series.
  • Wed Oct 23, 2024, 12:45-2:15 PM — Boston University
• Prof. Günter Zöller (LMU Munich). “Republicanism Political, Juridical, and Ethical. Kant on Lawful Freedom.”
  • Location: Fulton 235.
  • Organizer: Giovanni Pietro Basile (BC). Flyer.
  • Mon Oct 14, 2024, 4-6 PM — Boston College
• Hegel Society of American Biennial Conference. Hegel’s Relevance Today
  • School of Theology building and Photonics building.
  • Organizer: Jeffrey Church. Hosts: Sally Sedgwick and Allen Speight.
  • Program.
  • Fri Oct 11 – Sun Oct 13, 2024 — Boston University
• Samantha Matherne (Harvard), Tufts Colloquium Series. “Toward a Social Theory of Aesthetic Autonomy: Schiller and Stael”
  • Abstract available here.
  • Location: Miner 225. 
  • Fri Sept 27, 2024, 3:30-5:30 PM — Tufts University, Department of Philosophy
• The Analytic Tradition: A Celebration of the Work and Teaching of Warren Goldfarb
  • More details.
  • Fri-Sat Sept 27-28 2024, 12:00 PM – 5 PM — Harvard University, Department of Philosophy

If you would like to add to this list of XIX Century German philosophy events taking place in the Greater Boston-Area, you can send an email to rgregor [at] bu [dot] edu.