Call for Papers:
Weil and her Contemporaries
The 46th Annual Colloquy of the American Weil Society
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA
April 23–25, 2027
The American Weil Society and the Department of Philosophy at Stony Brook University invite proposals for in-person presentations at the 2027 Annual Colloquy, due 31 October 2026. We also invite submissions for the inaugural Springsted Prize, due 31 December 2026. Cf. p. 2. Simone Weil composed her philosophical writings at one of the richest periods in the history of European philosophy. A contemporary of Henri Bergson, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Georges Bataille, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty in France, Weil contributed to a milieu struggling with questions of human rights, political life, and gendered and racialized embodiment. In the broader European context, Weil’s work both participated in and departed from discussions unfolding with Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, and Martin Heidegger, among others.
Questions the colloquy seeks to address, include: How might our understanding of Weil’s corpus be enriched through a reappraisal of the work of her contemporaries? And how do Weil’s own contributions to the intellectual context of the first half of the twentieth century transform our understanding of de Beauvoir, Bataille, Sartre, Césaire, and so many others?
We welcome expansive approaches to Weil’s contemporaries, including artists, poets, filmmakers, journalists, memoirists, novelists, and theologians.
The theme of the conference is intentionally broad to accommodate a wide variety of topics including but not limited to:
Weil and phenomenology, critical theory, hermeneutics, or existentialism
Weil and post-war theology
Weil and Jewish philosophy
Weil and Catholic philosophy
Weil and French feminism
Reception history through Camus, Thibon, and others
Please submit anonymous Abstracts of 250-500 words and a separate short bio (including academic engagement with Weil) by 31 October 2026 to AWScolloquy@gmail.com
All participants must be AWS members and register for the conference.
Funding: Limited travel funding is available for international and precarious scholars. If this applies to you, explain your situation in a third section in your submission.
And announcing:
The Eric O. Springsted Prize of the American Weil Society
This award will be given in recognition of an outstanding essay on Simone Weil. The prize will fund travel and lodging for one graduate student or junior scholar to attend the American Weil Society’s annual colloquy. The recipient will be given extended time for their lecture in order to present the essay and have a sustained discussion with members of the Society.
Submissions are limited to one of the following: (1) unpublished dissertation chapters; (2) unpublished book chapters; or (3) forthcoming articles, which may be currently under review.
For all three types of submissions, the author would receive feedback from the AWS to consider before publication.
Self-nominations are welcome.
Send submissions, including the complete essay and a 200-word bio, by 31 December to awsamericanweilsociety@gmail.com.