Search results

Success for the interfaith and interdisciplinary colloquium organised by the University Chair Our Lady of Peace and the eponymous research centre, in collaboration with the Abbey of Maredsous.

Arcadia is the name of an ideal society, a bucolic utopia. But it is also the name chosen by the members of a brand-new research centre at UNamur. This centre, created within the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and attached to the ESPHIN institute, questions three themes at the heart of our contemporaneity: the Anthropocene, history and utopias.

Increasingly sophisticated technologies are invading our spheres of activity without our prior consultation as citizens. Shouldn't the new digital tools, artificial intelligence or technologies resulting from progress in neuroscience, which are transforming our identity and social relationships, be the subject of broad and sufficiently informed democratic debates? This question is at the heart of the international "research-action" project "A new humanism in the age of neuroscience and artificial intelligence" in which UNamur is participating.

As part of its seminar, Centre Arcadie will be pleased to welcome Igor Krtolica for a session devoted to his book Romain Gary. De l'humanisme à l'écologie, Gallimard, 2025.Maître de conférences en philosophie à l'Université de Picardie Jules-Verne, junior member of the Institut universitaire de France, Igor Krtolica is the author (in addition to the work to be discussed) of Gilles Deleuze (PUF, coll. "Que sais-je? ", 2015), of Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari : Une philosophie des devenirs-révolutionnaires(Éditions Amsterdam, 2024) and of a commentary on an extract from Romain Gary's Les Racines du ciel entitled Antifascism, humanism and ecology (PUF, coll. "Classiques de l'écologie", 2025).After a presentation of the work, Igor Krtolica will be interviewed by Jean-Baptiste Vuillerod and Thibault De Meyer.Free admission. All welcome.Book presentation 1956: the Prix Goncourt is awarded to Racines du ciel, a novel whose hero, Morel, fights against the extermination of elephants in an Africa struggling for independence. Romain Gary described it as the first ecological novel. Ecology enabled him to resolve the unbearable political contradiction in which the post-war West finds itself: the impossibility of believing in man, the impossibility of giving up believing in man. How can we continue to give meaning to the idea of civilization? If we are to maintain the humanist ideal, we need to wage a battle in which man is no longer at the center. Such is the paradox explored here. This literary and philosophical essay reveals the complexity of Romain Gary's thought, his constant irony and humor, his contradictions, his rejection of dogmatism. And its modernity: ahead of his time, the novelist anticipated the controversies driving contemporary ecological thinking, where the human being is only a part of nature, but where nature itself becomes inseparable from history, society and politics. This previously unpublished synthesis of Romain Gary's work is an original analysis of the tension between humanist commitment and ecological cause.. Toutes les activités du Centre Arcadie

As part of its seminar, Centre Arcadie will be pleased to welcome Jeanne Etelain for a session devoted to her book Zones. Terre, sexes et science-fiction, Flammarion, 2025.Jeanne Etelain, PhD from New York University and Université Paris-Nanterre, teaches philosophy and contemporary theory at the École supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier.After a presentation of the book, Igor Krtolica will be interviewed by Jean-Baptiste Vuillerod and Thibault De Meyer.After a presentation of the book, Jeanne Etelain will be interviewed by Ludovic Dubois, Nathalie Grandjean and Sébastien Laoureux.Free admission. Welcome to all.Book presentation Zone: this ubiquitous term nevertheless remains elusive. In a stunning conceptual investigation at the crossroads of geography, psychoanalysis and science fiction, Jeanne Etelain explores how "zone" has become central to understanding space, in the contemporary context of a crisis in the planet's conditions of habitability. The zone thus emerges as a spatial modality that defies habitual categories, confronting us with space's power to act, whether it's nature, the Earth or the body. All Centre Arcadie activities

Conference organized by Centre Arcadie and the Department of Philosophy as part of the "Philosophie du cinéma" course and the "Cultures et pensées cinématographiques" Specialization Master's degree.Dork Zabunyan is Professor of Film Studies at Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis. His publications include Les Cinémas de Gilles Deleuze (Bayard, 2011), L'Insistance des luttes - Images, soulèvements, contre-révolutions (De l'incidence éditeur, 2016), Foucault va au cinéma (Bayard, 2011) with Patrice Maniglier, Jacques Rancière et le monde des images(Mimesis, 2023).In 2020 he published Fictions of Trump. Puissances des images et exercices du pouvoir(Le point du jour). In this conference, the aim will be to take up this work in the context of Trump's second term.Presentation of the workDonald Trump's body is almost everywhere, outside us, on our screens, caught up in information channels that disseminate still and moving images of him. He is also present within us, more or less floating, in the minds of his detractors and supporters alike. The 45th President of the United States of America is not, however, the book's only subject. Based on his countless audiovisual representations, both before and after his election, the aim here is to explore the function of images in the exercise of power today, the stories they tell and the discourses they condition. Two questions run through this essay: what is this strange love of power, conveyed by images of an authoritarian leader, to which individuals who have no interest in voting for him adhere? What filmic counter-fires, real or imagined, are likely to mobilize the powers of images to evade this power, or even to thwart it? All Centre Arcadie activities

The notion of "academic freedom" is often evoked in public debates, but is it really known in its singularity? Where does it come from? What is its history? What decisive role does it play in our democracies and the defense of the university's role as a counter-power? To what extent is it threatened today, particularly by the reforms announced?This morning of reflection, open to all, will explore these questions from a variety of perspectives. Historians, philosophers and jurists will shed light on the subject. Institutional leaders will share their concrete experience and their analysis of the threats that reforms could pose to this essential principle.An organization of the Philosophy Department, the History Department, the ESPHIN Institute in collaboration with the Centre d'Action Laïque Namur.The speakers- Anne-Emmanuelle Bourgaux, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Mons- Nicolas Offenstadt, Professor of History at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne- Quentin Landenne, Qualified Researcher at the FRS-FNRS at the UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels, scientific leader of the ERC BildungLearning project- Susanna Zellini, Research Fellow at the FRS-FNRS at UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels- Annick Castiaux, Rector of UNamur- Edouard Delruelle, Professor of political philosophy at ULiège; Chargé de mission by the Rectrice of ULiège on "ULiège facing global conflicts".PracticalitiesThéâtre Jardin Passion 39, rue Marie Henriette - 5000 Namur.Free admission - Welcome from 9amAn organization of the Departments of Philosophy and History of the University of Namur and the ESPHIN Institute in collaboration with the Centre d'Action Laïque Namur with the support of the ERC BildungLearning project. I want to register The ERC BildungLearning project is funded by the European Union (n° 101043433). The views and opinions expressed, however, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Located in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is an island with a rich natural heritage and multiple cultural influences. For over 15 years, researchers from the University of Namur have been working with a number of Madagascan universities and institutes on a variety of themes, including environmental preservation, water management and institutional capacity building. Focus on some of these projects.

Space has become a major economic and strategic issue. As a member of the European UNIVERSEH Alliance, UNamur explores this space theme in its various departments, from physics to geology, via mathematics, computer science or philosophy. Without forgetting to address the general public, who still dream of the stars...

A delegation from the Université de Namur took part in an exploratory mission to the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) in Dakar, Senegal. The aim: to discover the research carried out in the field, meet UCAD researchers and initiate future collaborations between the two institutions.

Research seminar co-organized by Louis Carré and Sabina Tortorella as part of the activities of the Esphin Institute, the Department of Philosophy, and the Arcadie Center as well as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie SOCIAL project This seminar sets out to explore contemporary uses of Hegel's practical thought as well as to question its relevance and legacy. Themes central to recent philosophical debates, such as globalization, race, feminism and the Anthropocene, as well as contemporary challenges facing philosophical reflection - such as social justice and ecological transition, state sovereignty in the face of international markets and the emergence of supranational subjects, or the crisis of democracy in the face of the rise of populism and the return of war - may call for a mobilization of Hegelian thought. The aim of this seminar is not necessarily to propose a strictly historical-philosophical reading of Hegelian thought, but rather to seek to take Hegel beyond Hegel himself, by engaging in a reflection on problematics that find their first formulation in him, but that have developed far beyond his conceptual framework, or by questioning his concepts from perspectives that do not necessarily lay claim to Hegelianism. The aim of this approach is to bring Hegel's thought into dialogue with other philosophical traditions and currents of political philosophy, in order to question its ability to shed light on some of the major issues of our time. By questioning its topicality and limitations, this seminar aims to examine what practical Hegelian philosophy can still offer us today, and how it enables us to question our own problems from a renewed angle. While it is unlikely to provide ready-made solutions, it can perhaps help us to ask the right questions and think differently about the tensions of our time.Chiara Magni (Università degli Studi Roma Tre) will speak on the theme: "What rights for the accused and the convicted? Criminal prosecution and human dignity in the light of Hegel's practical philosophy"Link to attend the online seminar Contact: sabina.tortorella@unamur.beThis project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101150961.