Announcements

  • CFP - Renovating humanity. Facing inhumanity in public and social life (SRSP 2026) - UniSR

    2026-05-04

    Call for papers

    Renovating humanity. Facing inhumanity in public and social life

    San Raffaele School of Philosophy 2026

    December 14th – 16th, 2026

    Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan

    Faculty of Philosophy

    Campus Milano 2 - Segrate

    Accepted papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of Phenomenology and Mind.

    Confirmed Invited Speakers

    Mounira Al Solh (visual artist, Kunsthochschule Kassel)

    Robin Celikates (Freie Universität Berlin)

    Jérôme Dokic (EHESS and Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris)

    Julia Jansen (KU Leuven)

    Dima Mohammed (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

    Guest Editors

    Vittorio Catalano (University of Vienna)

    Simone Santamato (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University)

    In a multi-crisis and rapidly changing world such as the one we are currently living in, our own humanity faces crucial challenges. Conflicts and wars, as well as social and political contexts in which propaganda, manipulation and conformism, violence, hate speech, and abuse of power overflow, make philosophical reflection on what remains of humanity and how to promote its flourishing all the more compelling.

    In this School, we aim to explore this issue from a variety of philosophical perspectives, combining a theoretical approach with more practical and applied ones.

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  • CFP - Social Constitution through Affectivity. Phenomenological Perspectives

    2025-11-19

    In the last few decades, the nature of collective and social experiences has become a central concern of many phenomenologists. As has been shown, classical phenomenologists (such as Husserl, Walther, Scheler, Stein, Reinach, and many others) have left a rich theoretical legacy on topics such as social cognition, collective intentionality, and the different kinds of we-experiences (see Szanto & Moran, 2016; Salice & Schmid, 2016; De Vecchi, 2014, 2022; Zahavi, 2025). Building upon this, the political dimension of the phenomenological discourse (see Herrmann et al., 2024) has been rediscovered, thus opening up new paths for future research in the field.

    What has remained somewhat in the background of these discussions, however, is the set of questions about what Husserl called ‘the constitution of the spiritual world’—a world meant as both personal and social at the same time.  To speak of social constitution is to ask how the social world comes to have its particular sense and validity for us. Furthermore, it means asking how it is built up through a variety of human experiences and interactions (e.g., empathy, social acts, forms of shared experiences), sedimenting into enduring and even stable practices and social arrangements. The notion of constitution is particularly relevant as it is a methodological concept that underwent several reinterpretations—think of Schutz’s (1967) ‘Aufbau’ or the later development as ‘construction’ by Berger & Luckmann (1967)—as well as important critiques—as in the case of Merleau-Ponty’s (2003) replacement of this notion with that of ‘institution.’ Moreover, social constitution and construction have been major issues in social ontology outside phenomenology as well (see Searle, 1995; Haslanger, 2012).

    Now, while the problem of social constitution has certainly been crossed in recent literature, it has never been directly addressed as a theme on its own—with a few exceptions (see Steinbock, 1995; Wehrle, 2013). In particular, what appears to be lacking in the literature is a thorough examination of how the affective, temporal, and bodily dimensions of experience contribute to the constitution of the social and are, in turn, shaped by this very process (Zahavi 2025 has begun to move in this direction).

    This special issue aims to address this broad theme from a specific perspective: the role that emotions and affective experiences play in such constitutive processes, and how experiential and affective dynamics shape collective identities, collective memories, and historical traditions, as well as norms and institutions.  In this way, the volume will serve the purpose to ‘think otherwise’—in Ricœur’s words—about the most fundamental experiential structures involved in the social constitution of our world, thus bringing into view how the body, time, and affectivity dynamically interact in shaping the collective dimensions of experience and lifeworld, and, in turn, how the communal sphere acts back upon them.

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  • CFP - "Varieties of Atmospheres. Across Philosophy and History of Art" SRSP 2025

    2025-03-27

    Varieties of Atmospheres. Across Philosophy and History of Art

    San Raffaele School of Philosophy 2025

    September 30th - October 2nd, 2025

    Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan

    Faculty of Philosophy

    Accepted papers will be published in a special issue of Phenomenology and Mind.

    Confirmed Invited Speakers

    1. Marta Benenti (University of Murcia)
    2. Huub Dijstelbloem (University of Amsterdam)
    3. Anna Donise (University of Naples Federico II)
    4. Joel Krueger (University of Exeter)
    5. Julianknxx, visual artist, London
    6. Teresa Marques (University of Barcelona)

    Guest Editors

    Mariaenrica Giannuzzi (University of Turin)

    Stefano Pinzan (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University)

    What is an atmosphere? How do we perceive atmospheres? Do places have atmospheres? How about objects and events? Which relation exists between emotions and atmospheres? These are highly-debated and multifaceted questions that need to be investigated from different but interrelated perspectives. In this School we aim at exploring these issues from a variety of philosophical points of view and from the perspective of arts and history of art.

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  • CFP "Exploring Personal Identity. Philosophical Perspectives and Insights from Arts" - SRSP 2024

    2024-03-18

    Exploring Personal Identity. Philosophical Perspectives and Insights from Arts

    San Raffaele School of Philosophy 2024

    October 2nd–4th, 2024

    Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan

    Faculty of Philosophy

    Palazzo Arese Borromeo – Cesano Maderno

    Accepted papers will be published in a special issue of Phenomenology and Mind.

    Invited Speakers

    Chiara Cappelletto (University of Milan)

    Esa Díaz-León (University of Barcelona)

    Claire Fontaine, collective artist (Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill)

    Sara Heinämaa (University of Jyväskylä)

    Ingrid Salvatore (University of Salerno)

    Alfredo Tomasetta (IUSS Pavia)

    Guest Editors

    Francesca Cesarano (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University)

    Marco Di Feo (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University)

    Eleonora Volta (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University)

    What does it mean to be a person? What is personal identity? These are highly-debated and multifaceted questions that need to be investigated from different but interrelated perspectives. In this School we aim at exploring these issues from a variety of philosophical points of view and from the perspective of art and history of art.

     

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  • CFP - Structural Injustice: Reflections on Social Groups, Identity and Intersectionality

    2023-04-04

    The Journal Phenomenology and Mind invites submissions for a special issue on “Structural Injustice: Reflections on Social Groups, Identity and Intersectionality”.

    Traditionally, the debate on social justice has been largely dominated by matters of distributive justice. From a structural perspective, distributive justice focuses on social groups as differentiated along economic and productive dimensions. However, it has long been stressed that, without denying the importance of distributive justice, the emphasis on the economic dimension of justice overshadows many other axes − gender, race, disability, age, ethnicity, etc. − by virtue of which individuals may be a victim of injustice (Young 1990, 2001). While in the case of economic differences eliminating the disadvantage of an economic group coincides with eliminating the group itself, there is nothing so straightforward in the case of social groups whose identification depends on disadvantages determined by identity characteristics (Haslanger 2012). At least in some cases, in particular in the case of gender identities, the existence of a social group seems rather to depend on demands for recognition, and gender identities are primarily self-ascribed (Dembroff 2020).

    Besides economic disadvantages, the injustice that members of certain social groups suffer seems to reside as much in social prejudices, as in actual instances of mistreatment. In these instances, injustices take various (and often intersected) forms. Oppression can be institutionalized and/or primarily encompass a symbolic harm perpetuated toward disadvantaged groups. Further, the harm can be directed toward individuals qua members of a specific group and can involve systemic forms of misrecognition often coupled with unwarranted biases regarding the epistemic credibility of these individuals (Dotson 2011; Fricker 2007, 2013). In general terms, addressing injustices related to identity groups requires clarifying the self-reinforcing dynamics between structural disadvantages and identity-based prejudices.

    The volume aims at investigating the ways in which oppression, marginalization, and misrecognition are determined and/or fostered by practices, social standards, and attitudes concerning intersectional identities and how we should conceptualize social groups under these circumstances.

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  • San Raffaele School of Philosophy 2023 - Call for papers "The Coming of Age. Personal Identity, Well-Being and Justice in an Ageing Society"

    2023-03-08

    The Coming of Age. Personal Identity, Well-Being and Justice in an Ageing Society

    San Raffaele School of Philosophy 2023
    October 4th–6th, 2023

    Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan
    Faculty of Philosophy

    Palazzo Arese Borromeo – Cesano Maderno

    Accepted papers will be published in a special issue of Phenomenology and Mind.

    Extended deadline for submissions: June 20th, 2023.

    Invited speakers 

    Tiziana Andina (University of Turin)

    Elvio Baccarini (University of Rijeka)

    Simone Cenci (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and San Raffaele Scientific Institute)

    Danielle Petherbridge (University College Dublin)

    Jessie Stanier (University of the West of England, Bristol)

    Guest editors of the special issue

    Maria Russo (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan)

    Alessandro Volpe (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan)

    Call for papers

    Population ageing is a central phenomenon of our contemporary age. As a trend that concerns the whole world, individuals have increasing chances to reach old age due to improvements in survival, and the share of older people over the total population grows because of reductions in fertility. Not surprisingly, this trend is triggering several transformative processes concerning societies, welfare states, markets, medical practices and political agendas.

    Ageing is not always equal to healthy ageing, so that many medical, social, and political issues arise in relation to ageing pathologies and the elderly’s specific vulnerabilities. Nonetheless, old age should not necessarily be considered as a time of mental and physical decline, which would only imply an increasing socioeconomic and health dependence. Indeed, a new way of looking at the elderly, their life, and their possible social role can and should constitute an opportunity for innovative trends in promoting inclusive well-being and in building more prosperous, just and sustainable societies.

    On this background, ageing appears as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that, due to its existential, ethical, social and political dimensions, also offers a fruitful field for philosophical investigation.

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  • Back to the things themselves. The practice of phenomenology/ Zurück zu den Sachen selbst. Die Praxis der Phänomenologie

    2023-01-19

    Deadline for paper submissions: June 30th, 2023

    The issue will be published in June 2024

    Call for Papers

    Our aim is to focus on the core task of phenomenology, i.e., the description of concrete phenomena. This means especially: We do not want historical or meta-theoretical contributions regarding phenomenology, nor the works of certain phenomenologists. By this we intend to showcase phenomenology as a specific practice of philosophy in an exemplary way.

    Concrete descriptions of different phenomena should be developed, and their validity discussed – descriptions, which are phenomenological in a specific sense, because they fulfill two criteria: firstly, they refer to experiences as experiences from the first-person perspective and secondly, they claim to determine necessary characteristics for this kind of experience through eidetic variations. Regarding the selection of phenomena, the special issue pursues a great variety. In the selection of phenomena, this special issue of Phenomenology and Mind strives for the greatest possible breadth. Descriptions of classical phenomena like: perception, imagination, time, body, morality, feeling, gender, art, literature and image; but also attempts to discover phenomena as phenomena sui generis through phenomenological description: such as from the fields of sport and movement, work and everyday life, quarantine and disease, digitality and technology, drugs and addiction, violence and conflict, kitsch and fashion.

     

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  • Call for Papers: The True, the Valid and the Normative San Raffaele School of Philosophy 2022 September 20th–22nd, 2022

    2022-02-28

    Call for Papers

    Extended deadline for submissions: June 15th, 2022.
    Notification of acceptance: July 31st, 2022.
    San Raffaele School of Philosophy: September 20th–22nd, 2022.
    Publication of the special issue (expected): June 2023.

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