The Department of French at Trinity College Dublin announces a one-day conference as part of the Identity Workshop
Du bon usage de Rousseau
Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
13 September 2012
Many events during this tercentenary year of the birth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau have assessed or will assess his legacy from different perspectives, his relationship with his contemporaries, his influence in other countries, or the relevance of his thought for contemporary society.
Rousseau’s work appears as an important touchstone in university programmes across a very broad range of research areas within the humanities, such as philosophy, Enlightenment history, political science, literary criticism, and jurisprudence. The aim of this event is to gather together researchers from different academic fields who rely on Rousseau in their teaching in order to share and problematize approaches to his work which may help us reflect on the ways in which we use Rousseau in our own teaching and research.
Pedagogical approaches can inform or be informed by methodological approaches and we would welcome papers that address both of these aspects in relation to Rousseau’s thought. As such, this event will also encourage broader reflection on teaching and research within the humanities by considering Rousseau as emblematic of the interdisciplinary implications of the use value of any given thinker.
Contributors could also consider the following questions as points of departure:
· How do we, as teachers and researchers, use (or misuse) Rousseau’s work?
· How do we engage with the unity and diversity of Rousseau’s work?
· How does Rousseau encourage and problematize the use of his work?
· In what way does reading Rousseau today entail searching for a method of approaching him?
Guest speaker: Jean-Luc Guichet (Université de Picardie Jules Verne)
Abstracts (200 words) should be sent to Dr James Hanrahan (hanrahaj@tcd.ie) by 31 May 2012
This event is supported by the French Embassy in Ireland and the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies at Trinity College Dublin