Past RA Colloquia

Here is a list of past RA colloquia, with further details below.

2023. XXIIIrd Colloquium: “Le possible, le réel et l’idéal chez RouseauThe Possible, the Real and the Ideal in Rousseau,” Sorbonne, Paris, June 1-3, 2023, organized by Johanna Lenne-Cornuez and Louis Guerpillon. See Program, Call for Papers, Conference Report, and a photo from the event.

2021. XXIInd Colloquium: “Rereading Rousseau’s Essay on the Origin of Languages / L’Essai sur l’origine des langues de Rousseau : une relecture,” Online via Zoom, May 21-23, 2021, organized by Nathan Martin. See Program and Call for Papers, and read Conference Report.

2019. XXIst Colloquium: “Rousseau and Aesthetic Experience: Art, Nature, Politics / Rousseau et l’expérience esthétique : Art, nature, politique,” Stockholm, Sweden, 6-9 June 2019, organized by Maria Gullstam & Dr Jennie Nell. RA 40th Anniversary
Final Program

The colloquium featured a staging of Rousseau’s Pygmalion and Le Devin du village at Confidencen (Ulriksdal Palace Theater), Sweden’s oldest rococo theater, a performance of some of Rousseau’s songs, a botanical stroll in the park, and an eighteenth-century dinner. The Keynote Speaker was Martin Rueff, Professor and director of the Department of French Language and Literature at the University of Geneva and President of the Société Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Rousseau Association: Business Meeting 2019/ Assemblée générale 2019. Consult the Agenda here

Friday June 7th 2019 / vendredi 7 juin 2019, 16h30 – 18h

Here’s the Stockholm colloquium Call for Papers.
A longer version (English only) can be consulted here.
-Stage, Confidencen Theatre, Ulriksdal Palace, Stockholm
Creative Commons, Photographer: Holger Ellgaard.

2017. XXth Biennial Colloquium: Silence, Implicite et Non-Dit chez Rousseau / Silence, The Implicit and the Unspoken in Rousseau, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA. Chair: Brigitte WELTMAN-ARON. Read Conference Report by Patrick Cox here.

2015. July 20th-22nd.
XIXth Biennial Colloquium (RA and International Adam Smith Society Joint Colloquium)

At the University of Glasgow (Scotland)
Organizer: Craig Smith, University of Glasgow.
Program, Abstracts, and Conference Report by Chris Bertram.

2013. June 27th-29th.
XVIIIth Biennial RA Colloquium: Revisiting Emile / Retour sur Emile
Colloquium at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC.
Organiser: Prof. Byron Wells.
Call for Papers here.
Colloque à la Wake Forest University, Caroline du Nord, organisé par Byron Wells.Voir l’appel à communications ici.

2012. December 13-15.
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA:
Tercentenary Conference held by the Colorado College and the Rousseau Association:
“The Enduring Challenge of Rousseau’s Thought”
“La pensée de Rousseau: un défi permanent”

At the Colorado College. Organiser: Prof. Eve Grace.
Call for papers here. Appel à communications ici.
Conference program here. Voir le programme du colloque ici.

2011. XVIIth Biennial Colloquium of the Rousseau Association.
University of Bristol, England.
July 21st-23rd, 2011.
Rousseau’s Republics / Les Républiques de Rousseau
Call for Papers and Program

2009. XVIth Biennial Colloquium of the Rousseau Association
Los Angeles, California, USA
25-27 June, 2009
Rousseau’s Legacies/ Fortunes de Rousseau
The Rousseau Association came to Los Angeles on the invitation of the UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies. Twenty-four papers covered such topics as education, politics, nature, marginality, music, the self, and the influence of Rousseau on (among others) Adam Smith and Tolstoy. The congenial surroundings of UCLA also gave many opportunities for informal discussion and exchange.

2007. XVth Biennial Colloquium of the Rousseau Association
Hosted by the LIRE XVIIIème siècle research group, Université de Lyon II, Lyon, France
June 28th to 30th, 2007
Rousseau and the Philosophes
The Rousseau Association came to Lyon on the invitation of the eighteenth-century team of the research group LIRE (Litteratures, Ideologies, Representations), which is jointly funded by the CNRS (French National Research Council) and Lyon II University. The colloquium was held in central Lyon, at the university and in the Institute for Human Sciences nearby. In addition to the academic program, we had some pleasant evenings together, and visited Chambéry and Les Charmettes after the conference. This was the Rousseau Association’s first colloquium in France, held in a city that Rousseau visited frequently and knew well.

2005. XIVth Biennial Colloquium of the Rousseau Association
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
June 9-12, 2005
The Nature of the Reveries: A colloquium on Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Rêveries du promeneur solitaire (1782)
The 2005 colloquium of the Rousseau Association, “The Nature of the Reveries,” brought 32 Rousseau scholars from across the US as well as from Canada, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Hong Kong to the beautiful campus of Hamilton College in upstate New York. In addition to hearing the 27 papers given in plenary session, attendees viewed a special exhibition presented at Hamilton’s Emerson Art Gallery entitled “Nature as Refuge: From Rousseau’s Cascade to Central New York’s Trenton Falls,” which used images of local natural wonders to illustrate the influence of Rousseau’s ideas, especially those found in The Reveries of the Solitary Walker, on the way people have regarded nature since the nineteenth century.

2003. XIIIth Biennial Colloquium of the Rousseau Association
St. Hugh’s College, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
26-29 June, 2003
Rousseau, Voltaire, and Fanaticism

2001. Musique et Langage chez Rousseau / Rousseau on Music and Language (Claude DAUPHIN), Montréal, Québec, Canada.1979— Les Confessions / The Confessions (Howard CELL), Glassboro, New Jersey, USA.

1999. Rousseau et les Anciens / Rousseau and the Ancients (Ruth GRANT & Philip STEWART),
Durham, North Carolina, USA.

1997. Les Dialogues de Rousseau / Rousseau’s Dialogues (Philip KNEE & Gérald ALLARD), Laval, Québec, Canada.

1995. Autour de la Lettre à d’Alembert / Rousseau on Arts and Politics (Melissa BUTLER), Wabash, Indiana, USA.

1993. Rousseau et la Critique / Rousseau and Criticism (Jim MACADAM & Lorraine CLARK), Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

1991. La Nouvelle Héloïse / The New Heloise (Ourida MOSTEFAI), Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

1989. Rousseau et la Révolution / Rousseau and Revolution (Jean ROY), Montréal, Québec, Canada.

1987. Du Contrat Social / The Social Contract (Hilail GILDIN & Howard CELL), New York, USA.

1985. Les Discours / The Discourses (Guy LAFRANCE), Ottawa, Canada.

1983. Emile (Mary CISAR), Northfield, Minnesota, USA.

1981. Les écrits politiques mineurs / The Minor Political Works (Aubrey ROSENBERG), Toronto, Ontario, Canada.