2026 Keynote Speakers
Keynote speakers
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
CRISIS & RECOVERY – ETHICS IN INTERDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE
Societas Ethica’s 62nd Annual Conference 2026
August 20–23 2026, University of Tartu, Estonia
Prof. Dr. Margit Sutrop
University of Tartu
Keynote Lecture:
List of Margit Sutrop’s publications.
Prof. Dr. Ingolf U. Dalferth
Claremont Graduate University / University of ZUrich
Keynote Lecture: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life? Optimism, Pessimism, and Radical Hope
Ingolf U. Dalferth, born 1948; Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology, Symbolism and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Zurich and Danforth Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of Religion at Claremont Graduate University in California.
Dalferth was president of the European Society for Philosophy of Religion several times, founding president of the German Society for Philosophy of Religion from 1999 to 2008 and president of the Society for the Philosophy of Religion in the USA in 2016/2017. He was editor-in-chief of “Theologische Literaturzeitung” in Leipzig, “Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion” in California and “Religion in Philosophy and Theology” in Tübingen. Dalferth holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Uppsala (2005) and Copenhagen (2006). His recent publications include The Passion of Possibility: Studies on Kierkegaard's Post-Metaphysical Theology (2023), We: Humanity, Community, and the Right to Be Different (2024), and The Mystery of Existence: Philosophy of Religion and the Existential Turn(2025).
Prof. Dr. Susan Petrilli
University of Bari Aldo Moro
Keynote Lecture:
Susan Petrilli is Professor of Philosophy and Theory of Languages, University of Bari Aldo Moro where she teaches Philosophy of Language, Semiotics, Semiotics of Translation and Semioethics.
She launched semioethics in the 1980s with Augusto Ponzio. On the topic they co-authored the monograph Semioetica in 2003 and Semioetica. La scienza dei segni in ascolto in 2024. In addition to numerous essays, related books by her include Sign Studies and Semioethics(2014); The Global World and Its Manifold Faces (2016); Challenges to Living Together (2017); Signs, Language and Listening (2019); Maestri di segni e costruttori di pace (ed. 2021); Oltre il significato. La significs di Victoria Welby (2023); The Past, Present and Future of Semioethics (2025); Il diritto all’infunzionalità come fondamento dei diritti umani (ed. 2025); Semioethics as Existential Dialogue. The Gift and Burden of Responsibility (ed. 2025); Materialistic Semiotics and Social Reality. A European School for World Peace (ed. 2026). She co-directs the book series “Nel segno” (Giuseppe Laterza), “Reflections on Signs and Language” (Peter Lang); “Il segno e i suoi maestri” (Pensa Multimedia). She has contributed to launching Victoria Welby (Significs) as a central figure in the history of modern semiotics. Peace movements are a central concern for her in theory and practice, with special reference to the International Women’s Movement and the Maternal Gift Economy.
Prof. Dr. Jaana Hallamaa
University of Helsinki
Keynote Lecture: Between Self-Victimization and Safety Culture – Ethical Remarks on Encountering and Coping with Crises
Acknowledging the importance of and considering the voice of victims has become an important component of political efforts to improve criminal justice, enhance support services and foster restorative justice for people traumatized by crime, war and other violence, or human rights violations.
Recently, the focus has shifted to a different type of victim as members of ethnic and religious majorities, and proponents of traditional gender roles have presented themselves as victims and insisted on the protection of their rights. The measures designed to safeguard victims, e.g., enhancing use of non-offensive language and creating safe spaces, now represent suppression and discrimination. The shift from considering the voice of victims to various forms of self-victimization in political rhetoric has been surprisingly rapid. How did guarantees of respectful language and safe spaces become toxic?
For a way forward from a social stalemate, I suggest exploring types of safety and measures to prevent circumstances that create victims. We could strengthen our moral resources by making use of approaches developed in safety studies.
Jaana Hallamaa is Professor of Social Ethics, University of Helsinki and Life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Her fields of research include conceptions of moral personhood, theory of social action, ethics of failure, and various fields of applied ethics.
Her most recent research project dealt with ethical design of AI (ETAIROS Consortium, Academy of Finland, SRC STEER program 2019–2025; Vice Consortium PI and PI of the Ethics work package). She has contributed widely in ethics committees and boards in chair and member positions (National Advisory Board of Health Care Ethics, Finnish National Board on Research Integrity, Council for Mass Media in Finland, and Ethical Council for Education).
ORCID: 0000-0002-3897-4543
Photo by Veikko Somerpuro
Hans Ruin
Södertörn University
Keynote Lecture:
Professor of Philosophy, Södertörn University (Stockholm). Director of Memory studies platform. Co-editor of Nietzsche’s collected works in Swedish. Specializes in phenomenology, hermeneutics, ancient philosophy, and memory studies. Recent books: Being with the Dead. Burial, Ancestral Politics, and the Roots of Historical Consciousness (Stanford UP, 2019), Reduction and Reflection. Introduction to Husserl’s Phenomenology (in Swedish, 2020), In the Shadow of Reason. Essays on the philosophy of Nietzsche (in Swedish, 2021). Introductions to Phenomenology: Hegel - Husserl - Heidegger (2024). Currently preparing a Swedish translation of Rosenzweig, Der Stern der Erlösung.