Boston-Area Events
Upcoming Events:
Graduate Student Work in Progress Workshop
Theme: Kant and Idealism
Speakers: Mustafa Aziz (Harvard), Lewis Wang (BU), Joshua Folkerts (Universität Rostock), Joaquin Martinez (BC), Violetta Lato (BC).
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
Graduate Student Work in Progress Workshop
Theme: XIX Century German Philosophy
Speakers: Bridget Berdit (BU), Sina Rezaei (BC), Jesse Goodman (BC).
Organized by Paolo Degiorgi (Degiorgi [at] bu [dot] edu) and Caroline Wall (cbwall [at] bu [dot] edu).
Location: STH 541, 745 Commonwealth Ave.
Sat April 11, 2026, 2:00 PM – 7:00 PM — Boston University
Kant Day Workshop
Organizers: Lewis Wang (kwang39 [at] bu [dot] edu).
Speakers: TBD.
Location: Boston University.
Sat May 9, 2026 — Boston University
Past Events (since Sept 2024):
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).
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.
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”
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.
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.
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).
Sat March 1, 2025; 10 AM – 5 PM — Boston University
Conference: Devotion and Meaning in Life
Organized by Paul Katsafanas, Boston University.
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”
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.
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”
Location: Miner 225. Abstract available here.
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
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 a German philosophy event taking place in the Greater Boston-Area, you can send an email to rgregor [at] bu [dot] edu.
Boston-Area Consortium for Kant and 19th Century German Philosophy 