June 17-19, 2026
Kaunas, Lithuania
Call for Papers
Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophical reflections on home, exile, dwelling, and displacement remain central to contemporary ethical, political, and phenomenological inquiry. These themes resonate with questions of identity, hospitality, migration, and responsibility – issues that continue to shape our global and local landscapes.
In June 2026, scholars are invited to gather in Kaunas, Lithuania, the birthplace of Levinas, for a three‑day conference dedicated to exploring these themes from diverse methodological, historical, and interdisciplinary perspectives. The conference aims to provide a platform for Levinas scholars – both established and emerging – to engage deeply with his thought and its contemporary relevance.
We welcome proposals from philosophy, religious studies, political theory, literature, Jewish studies, cultural studies, and related fields.
Suggested Topics and Guiding Questions
Presentations may address, but are not limited to, the following topical questions:
- Levinas’s conception of “home” as both refuge and limitation
- Forms of exile – ethical, ontological, historical – in Levinas’s writings
- The influence of Levinas’s Lithuanian-Jewish background on his understanding of place
- Hospitality and the ethical reconfiguration of host-guest relations
- Levinasian insights into contemporary migration, statelessness, and displacement
- Exile and subjectivity in Levinas’s phenomenology of the self
- Language, translation, and the “home of the Same” in Levinas’s critique of ontology
- Tensions between rootedness, identity, and responsibility for the Other
- Literary or artistic representations of exile in dialogue with Levinas
- The ethical encounter as a form of “un-homing” of the subject
- Critical engagement with other notions of home in thinkers like Heidegger, Arendt et al.
Submission Guidelines
- Abstract length: 300-500 words
- Deadline for proposals: March 15, 2026
- Notification of acceptance: April 1, 2026
- Conference dates: June 17-19, 2026
- Languages: English
Please send abstracts and inquiries to: viktoras.bachmetjevas@vdu.lt
Keynote Speaker
Graham Harman is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI‑Arc) in Los Angeles and one of the central figures of contemporary speculative realism. Best known as the founder of object-oriented ontology, Harman has reshaped debates in metaphysics by insisting on the autonomy, depth, and inexhaustibility of objects – whether physical, social, or conceptual. His work spans philosophy, architecture, art theory, and the digital humanities, and he has held visiting positions across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, contributing to a genuinely international philosophical conversation.
Harman’s engagement with Emmanuel Levinas is both critical and appreciative. While his ontology departs sharply from Levinas’s ethical primacy of the Other, Harman has consistently treated Levinas as a crucial interlocutor in the struggle to think beyond correlationism and human-centered philosophy. His readings of Levinas highlight the tension between ethical asymmetry and metaphysical withdrawal, and he has argued that Levinas’s insights into alterity can be extended into a broader account of the opacity of all beings. For a conference dedicated to Levinas, Harman brings a distinctive voice – one that challenges, reinterprets, and ultimately enriches the ongoing effort to understand what it means to encounter what exceeds us.
Organizing Committee
Viktoras Bachmetjevas (Vytautas Magnus University)
Thomas Froy (University of Antwerp)
Agnė Gintautaitė (Vytautas Magnus University)
David F. Hoinski (West Virginia University / Vytautas Magnus University)
The conference is organized by the Department of Philosophy at Vytautas Magnus University. Keynote address is co-sponsored by the Vytautas Kavolis Transdisciplinary Research Institute.