This three-day conference will celebrate the academic career of Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne on the occasion of his retirement from the Departments of French and Philosophy at Columbia University. Colleagues and former students from Africa, Europe, and the U.S. will present talks related to Professor Diagne’s research, writing and teaching interests, and these contributions will later be collected in a festschrift published in his honor.
Thursday, April 3, 6:30-8:00 PM
In Praise of the Universal
Keynote Lecture by Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Opening remarks by Bruno Bosteels, Dean of Humanities
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Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Celebrating the work of Souleymane Bachir Diagne
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With contributions by:
Salim Abdelmadjid, Mouhamadou El Hady BA, Alioune Bah, Etienne Balibar, Akeel Bilgrami, Ali Benmakhlouf, Françoise Blum, Charles Bowao, Jean-Godefroy Bidima, Hamid Dabashi, Daniel Dauvois, Vishaka Desai, Penelope Lisa Deutscher, Mamadou Diouf, Thomas Dodman, Pierre Force, Lewis R. Gordon, Philippe Gouët, Chike Jeffers, Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Anais Maurer, Ramatoulaye Diagne Mbengue, Christia Mercer, Bado Ndoye, Nasrin Qader, Emmanuelle Saada, Felwine Sarr, Achille Varzi, Gary Wilder, Frédéric Worms, and Souleymane Bachir Diagne.
[The full conference agenda will be provided soon.]
This conference is organized by the Columbia University Maison Française and Department of French, with additional support provided by Columbia’s Institute of African Studies, Office of the Dean of Humanities, Department of Philosophy, Committee on Global Thought, The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, Alliance Program, Arts and Sciences, and MESAAS, and by Villa Albertine, Cultural Services of the Embassy of France.
Souleymane Bachir Diagne was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal and received his academic training in France. An alumnus of École Normale Supérieure, he holds an agrégation in Philosophy (1978) and a Doctorate in philosophy from the Sorbonne (1988) where he also earned his BA (1977). In 1982, Diagne returned to his native country to teach philosophy at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, where he became vice-dean of the College of Humanities. The former president of the Republic of Senegal, Abdou Diouf, named him Counselor for Education and Culture, a position which he held from 1993 to 1999. Before joining Columbia University in 2008, Professor Diagne also taught philosophy at Northwestern University. His fields of research and teaching have included the history of logic, history of philosophy, Islamic philosophy, philosophy and Sufism in the Islamic world, African philosophy and literature.
Professor Diagne is the author of African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude (Seagull Books, 2011), The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa, (Codesria, 2016), Open to Reason: Muslim Philosophers in Conversation with Western Tradition (Columbia University Press, 2018), Le fagot de ma mémoire (Editions Philippe Rey, 2021) that received the Prix Saint-Simon, De langue à langue (Albin Michel, 2022) with a forthcoming English translation by Dylan Temel published by Other Press, Universaliser (Albin Michel, 2024) and Ubuntu. Entretien avec Françoise Blum (Éditions de l'EHESS, 2024), among others. His book, Bergson postcolonial. L’élan vital dans la pensée de Senghor et de Mohamed Iqbal, (Editions du CNRS, 2011) was awarded the Dagnan-Bouveret prize by the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences for 2011, when he also received the Edouard Glissant Prize for his work.
A fierce critic of contemporary forms of racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, especially in the European context, Souleymane Bachir Diagne regularly participates in public debates and is frequently interviewed on platforms such as France24, Radio France, RTS, RFI, and France Culture. He engages with political and social issues that affect both Africa and the rest of the world. His intellectual pursuits span a range of subjects, including the philosophy of Islam, the decolonization of thought, Africa's place in the modern world, migration issues, and the role of the humanities in shaping future generations.
Professor Diagne holds a unique position in the public sphere, notably for his ability to make complex ideas accessible to a broad audience while remaining committed to a deep intellectual engagement. He has a particular gift for bridging Western philosophical traditions with those of Africa, the Arab world, and Islam. He is also a staunch advocate for intercultural and interreligious dialogue, as well as for an inclusive modernity that embraces universal values such as liberty, justice, and solidarity. Diagne advocates for transcending identity divides to foster collective reflection on contemporary global challenges.
Professor Diagne is co-director of Éthiopiques, a Senegalese journal of literature and philosophy, and a member of the editorial committees of numerous scholarly journals, including the Revue d’histoire des mathématiques, Présence africaine, and Public Culture. He is a member of the scientific committees of Diogenes (published by UNESCO’s International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies), CODESRIA (Conseil pour le développement de la recherche en sciences sociales en Afrique), and of the African and Malagasy Committee for Higher Education (CAMES), as well as UNESCO's Council on the Future.