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2026 Program

Program

 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Crisis & Recovery – Ethics in Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Societas Ethica’s 62nd Annual Conference 2026
August 20–23 2026, University of Tartu, Estonia



(preliminary) Conference Program


Thursday, Aug 20, 2026

14:45–17:00

Registration

16:00
Room 230

Pre-Conference Workshop – Young Societas
For PhD students and Postdocs who have registered for this event

15:00–17:00

Coffee & Snacks

18:00

Dinner

19:00
Assembly Hall

Opening of the Conference – Welcome by the President and Hosts
Prof. Dr. Gotlind Ulshöfer and Prof. Dr. Thomas-Andreas Põder

19:30
Assembly Hall

Keynote Lecture: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life? Optimism, Pessimism, and Radical Hope
Prof. Dr. Ingolf U. Dalferth, Claremont Graduate University / University of Zurich


Friday, August 21, 2026

09:00
Assembly Hall

Keynote Lecture: Masters of the Sign and Peacemakers – Semioethics and New Humanism
Prof. Dr. Susan Petrilli, University of Bari Aldo Moro

10:30

Coffee Break

11:00–12:30

Paper Sessions (1)

 

Session A

Room 230

Tomasz-Łukasz Stanowski:
Repairing the Semiosphere of Legality: Constitutional Memory and Semiotic Ethics of Recovery in a Stateless Public Sphere (1830–1880)

Yousef Khasho:
Ethical Implications of the Sign ‘God’ in Dominion Theology for Indigenous Suffering and Recovery in Guatemala


Session B

Room 228

Marta Kucza:
Epistemic Injustice and Climate Crisis: On the Ethics of Participatory Research in Ecosemiotics

Antonina Wozna:
Ethics of Ambiguity as A Starting Point of The Sustainability Principles


Session C

Room 307

Sitian Liu:
Caring in Motion: Pragmatic Ethics of Care and Moral Agency under Pressure

Lea Chilian:
From Care to Empowerment:  Entrustment as an Ethical Resource for Institutional Recovery


Session D

Room 140

Andrey Makarychev:
The New Russian Ethical Debate: A Biopolitical Interpretation

Anna Seidl:
Ethics of Possibility: Imagines Futures in War and Refugee Narratives


12:30

Lunch

14:00
Assembly Hall

Keynote Lecture: Between Self-Victimization and Safety Culture – Ethical Remarks on Encountering and Coping with Crises
Prof. Dr. Jaana Hallamaa, University of Helsinki

15:30

Coffee Break

15:45–17:15

Paper Sessions (2)

 

Session E

Room 230

Petra Partanen:
The Narrative Ethics of Mothers’ Life Writing as a Passage from Crisis to Recovery

Susanne Wigorts Yngvesson:
Crisis and Renewal: Women’s Vocation and Moral Agency in Early Twentieth-Century Sweden


Session F

Room 228

Thomas-Andreas Põder:
The Sign “God” between Crisis and Recovery: A Theosemiotic Perspective from Post-Secular Estonia

Erik Georg William Kõvamees:
Crises in the Semiosphere: Cultural Semiotics and Prison Ethics in Dialogue


Session G

Room 307

Simona Mitroiu:
(Re)Discussing the Ethics of Recognition from the Margins: Roma’s Structural Discrimination in Romania

Marleen Rensen:
Analyzing an Intimate Testimony of the Humanitarian Crisis in Wartime Ukraine: Narrative Activism and the Ethics of Recognition


Session H

Room 140

Eric Martinez Tomasini:
Forgiving Ourselves and Those Who Have Hurt Us: Queer Christian Narratives of Recovery, Ethical Agency, and Reconciliation

Sónia da Silva Monteiro:
The Rhetoric of Forgiveness and the Crisis of Clerical Sexual Abuse


17:15

Break

17:30–19:00

Paper Sessions (3)

Session I

Room 230

Laura Maria Vilbiks:
Nature in Crisis: Ethical and Ontological (Re)orientation in a Deeply Entangled World

Harshita Tripathi:
Responsibility without Authorship: Systemic Climate Crisis and the Sāṃkhya Reconfiguration of Moral Agency


 

Session J

Room 228

Fatima Festić:
Postdiasporic Dispersion, Nomadic Ethics, and Semioethics

Leena Käosaar:
War, Displacement, and the Ethics of the Ordinary: Life Narratives of Ukrainians Seeking Shelter in Estonia


Session K

Room 307

Hanna Klimpe:
Your Slavic Bestie: Female Self-Help and the Exploitation of Cultural Heritage on Instagram

Mark Lack:
“Become What You Are”: Helmut Thielicke’s Theological Anthropology Founded on a Relational Imago Dei as a Response to West Germany’s Postwar Wirtschaftswunder


Session L

Room 140

Alexandra Lebedeva:
What is Political about Political Reconciliation: A Critical Analysis of Theories of Political Reconciliation

Kam Fung Johnny Lai:
The Failure of Hong Kong Political Theology? An Evaluation and a Proposal


19:00

Dinner

20:30
Assembly Hall

General Assembly
General Assembly for all members of Societas Ethica.
Those who are not yet members are very welcome to attend.

Later

Social Evening


Saturday, August 22, 2026

09:00
Assembly Hall

Keynote Lecture:
Prof. Dr. Margit Sutrop, University of Tartu

10:30

Coffee Break

10:45–12:15

 

Paper Sessions (4)

Session M

Room 230

Leo Mendoza:
Democracy and the Theological Challenge of Christian Nationalism: Reclaiming John Courtney Murray’s Vision for a Pluralist Public Ethic

Liv Steinebach:
As Christians, You Shall not Tolerate – A Theological-Ethical Perspective on Objections against Tolerance and the Question of Whether Tolerance Should be Abandoned


Session N

Room 228

Andrews Chhakchhuak:
Trauma, Moral Perception, and the Limits of Just War: Toward a Trauma Responsive Christian Just Peace Ethic in the Manipur Crisis

Lukas Johrendt:
Artificial Intelligence as Crisis and Salvation Dark Enlightenment, Political Theology, and the Ethical Challenge to Democracy in the AI Summer


Session O

Room 307

Amanda Lindestreng:
Democracy, Disagreement, and Human Rights: A Critical Reading of Dworkin

Xin Mao:
Democratic Rights against Democracy: In the Time of Crisis


Session P

Room 140

Andrew Packman:
Conscience in the Wake of Irreparable Evil: Atmospheric Adhesion, Infinite Moral Demands, and the Theological Pathos of Responsive Ethics

Thomas Wabel:
Addressing a Denied Trauma in Commemoration? The Difficult Road Towards Coming to Terms with Germany’s Colonial Past


12:15

Lunch

13:30

Excursion to Emajõgi River
Guided Boat Tour discovering the history of Estonia

18:00

Conference Dinner
Including the presentation of the Young Scholar’s Award winner


Sunday, August 23, 2026

09:00–10:30

 

Paper Sessions (5)

Session Q

Room 230

Judith Bollongino:
„Schwerter zu Pflugscharen“ – Ist es Zeit für eine Friedensethik der Erinnerung?

Isa Roese:
„Sterben helfen, Abschied gestalten“ – Ethische und praktisch-theologische Reflexionen zu Euthanasie, Trauer und ritueller Praxis beim Tod von Haustieren


Session R

Room 228

Johann-Christian Põder:
Knud E. Løgstrup’s “Forgetfulness of Creation” as Environmental Amnesia: Ethics, Memory, and Practices of Re-Membering

Randika Perera:
Remembering Otherwise: Buddhist Reflection on Suffering, Forgiveness, and Ethical Life in Sri Lanka


Session S

Room 307

Tabea Ott:
Human Dignity: Analytic and Narrative-Anamnetic Approaches in Ethical Reasoning

Meego Remmel:
Sense of Virtue in Singing Through Crisis: A MacIntyrean Virtue-Ethical Analysis of 16th-Century Anabaptist and 21st-Century Ukrainian Baptistic Hymnody


Session T

Room 140

David Wellman:
The Power of Interconvictional Diplomacy in a Fractured World: Deepening Transnational Collaboration and Community Among Populations of EU Member States

Ruben Scheunders:
The Ethical Implications of Symbolic Boundaries for Liberal Democracy


10:30

Coffee Break

11:00
Assembly Hall

Keynote Lecture:
Prof. Dr. Hans Ruin, Södertörn University

12:30
Assembly Hall

Farewell Note
Prof. Dr. Gotlind Ulshöfer and Prof. Dr. Thomas-Andreas Põder

12:45

Brown Bag Lunch
Travel bus to Tallinn Airport