Societas Ethica Annual Conference 2026
Pre-conference-Workshop for PhD students and PostDocs

Societas Ethica will offer the opportunity for the Young Societas Ethica network to organise a pre-conference workshop for PhD students and PostDocs ahead of the regular program of annual conference.

The planned workshop will provide a deep talk with an esteemed expert (topic to be decided) as well as peer discussion on pre-read texts on the conference’s topics and themes.

The aim of the workshop is to provide PhD students and PostDocs with the chance of extending their academic network as well as explore how the conference topic of crisis and recovery can be related to their ongoing research.  

Attending the pre-conference workshop is free of charge. Please indicate your participation in the registration form (upcoming).

Date: Thurday, 20th of August, est. 16:00.
Location: University of Tartu, School of Theology and Religious Studies, Room 230
Contact: lea.chilian@sozethik.uzh.ch

Programme

We, Young Societas Ethica, would like to extend a special invitation to early career researchers to participate in our pre-conference workshop. 

The preconference workshop will be held on Thursday, August 20, from 16:00 to 18:00; Location: University of Tartu, School of Theology and Religious Studies, Room 230.

We are pleased to have Prof. Dr. Johann-Christian Põder as our special guest. He will give us a lecture on his own research in ethics and discuss with us one text from memory studies and one from semiotics, both from an ethical perspective, to help us engage with the related themes of the conference.

First, please read Eneken Laanes’s text “Born Translated Memories: Transcultural Memorial Forms, Domestication and Foreignisation”. While reading, please pay particular attention to how memories are translated across cultural contexts, what is gained or lost in this process, and what ethical problems arise from the domesticating and foreignising effects of “travelling memories«.
Link to the text: Here. 

Second, please also read Chapter 11, “The Logic of Explosion” from Juri Lotman’s "Culture and Explosion". Notice how explosion is not merely crisis or destruction, but a moment in which established meanings become unstable and new possibilities emerge. From an ethical perspective, consider what such openness and unpredictability mean for moral judgement: do they create space for freedom and creativity, or make it more difficult to reach clear and responsible decisions?«
Link to the text: Here.

We will have group discussions concerning the lecture and the texts, and mingle session in the end with coffee and cakes. 

This workshop offers a great opportunity to meet other early career researchers and can serve as a perfect warm-up session for the intensive discussions of the main conference.   

We cordially invite you to join us for this workshop. We look forward to seeing you there!