Society for Ricoeur Studies – An Introduction
The Society for Ricoeur Studies is a scholarly group to perpetuate and enhance Paul Ricoeur’s legacy. Although originating in North America, members come from a wide range of countries on 6 continents, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Disciplinary Fields Represented
The influence of Ricoeur and the disciplinary interests of Society members extend well beyond Ricoeur’s origins in philosophy. Members come from the following range of fields: architecture, art, law, literature, philosophy, political science, psychiatry, psychology, religion, rhetoric, theatre, and theology. The Society actively promotes interdisciplinary exchange. As stated in the Society’s Bylaws:
In the spirit of Ricoeur’s work, the Society seeks to foster dialogues across disciplines in the interest of developing broader understandings and insights into the ethical, religious, political and aesthetic issues of our time. The Society is committed to providing a welcoming forum nationally and internationally for critical engagements with Ricoeur’s philosophy and its relevance for current research across multiple disciplinary spectrums.
Graduate Students
The Society seeks to be especially attentive to the welfare of graduate students engaged in the study of Ricoeur’s work. They have rights of equal participation in Society activities, including conferences and elections. Special sections of annual conferences are dedicated to graduate student participation.
Financial support for graduate student conference participation is available. As noted in later sections, resources in Ricoeur studies are open to graduate students, including submissions to the Ricoeur journal and to the Ricoeur book series.
Organizational Structure
Description of these offices and their responsibilities is available in the Bylaws. The current office holders can be found here.
Society Officers and Directors
The Society is run by a volunteer group of elected Officers and Directors. These offices include:
- President
- Vice-President
- Treasurer
- Secretary
- Co-editor of the journal, Études Ricoeuriennes/Ricoeur Studies
- Webmaster
- Director of Communications and the Newsletter
- Director of Asian Relations
- Director of Digitization
- Director of European Relations
- Director of the Financial Development Committee
- Director of Graduate Student Relations
- Director of Web Design and Social Media
Bylaws
With the help of an attorney specializing in nonprofit organizations, the Society has created, implemented, and periodically updated Bylaws governing the organization.
The Bylaws address the Society’s tax-exempt status, its mission, member categories, roles of officers and directors, elections, and annual meetings. You can find them here.
Society Incorporation and Donations
The Society has been incorporated in the United States under Pennsylvania law. It has been granted tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service, which allows donations to be deductible.
The Society’s tax-exempt allows it to serve as a conduit for donations to the Fonds Ricoeur, the Ricoeur archive in Paris (see below). For more information on donations to the Society, see the donation page.
Brief Society History
The Society arose out of conversations during an initial conference after Ricoeur’s death organized presciently by Scott Davidson in Oklahoma City in 2006. Formal Society conferences began in 2007, and the Society incorporated in 2008. The initial officers and directors included: President, George Taylor; Vice-President, Dan Stiver; Secretary-Treasurer, Roger Savage; Journal co-editor, Scott Davidson; Webmaster, John Arthos; and Directors, Molly Mann, Todd Mei, David Pellauer, and Charles Reagan. The history of office holders can be found here.
To promote geographic variety, the Society has met over the years in the following locations in the United States and Canada: Arlington (Virginia), Atlanta, Chicago, Eugene (Oregon), Los Angeles, Montreal, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester (New York), and Toronto. For several years, the Society coordinated the timing and location of conferences with the annual North American conference on continental philosophy, called SPEP (Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy), but with the increasing disciplinary diversity of the Society, its annual conference meetings are now separately scheduled.
Resources in Ricoeur Studies
01
Digital Ricoeur
Digital Ricoeur (www.digitalricoeurportal.com) provides free online access to search tools for locating terms in Ricoeur’s primary texts in English, French, German, and Spanish. It also contains a Corpus of digitized works available for search and a Bibliography of all Ricoeur works (whether digitized or not).
02
Fonds Ricoeur
The Fonds Ricoeur is the Ricoeur archive in Paris. It provides opportunity for both in-person and online research and offers seminars and summer workshops. Much of the archive is now available online at DAN (Documentation et archives numerisées). Other Ricoeur articles are available at a site coordinated between the Fonds Ricoeur and PSL (Paris Sciences et Lettres).
03
Journal
Études Ricoeuriennes/Ricoeur Studies (http://ricoeur.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/ricoeur) is a biannual, bilingual (French and English), open access journal. It is receptive to graduate student submissions.
International Affiliations
01
Africa
For French-speaking Africans, Olivier Abel of the Fonds Ricoeur has helped to develop some Ricoeur conferences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
As an outgrowth of the European Network described below, a conference for English-speaking Africans occurred in South Africa.
02
Asia
The Society has supported Ricoeur conferences in the Phliippines and Taiwan. There is a Ricoeur Research Center at Soochow University in Taiwan.
The Society Director for Asian Relations seeks to foster these conferences.
03
Europe
In addition to maintaining ties with the Fonds Ricoeur, the Society has helped to support independent conferences in various European countries. Conferences have taken place in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom.
The European Network for Ricoeur Studies, led by the Society Director for European Relations, seeks to assist the development of these European conferences.
04
Latin America
The Society has coordinated with Latin American groups to assist various conferences in that region, and there is now an independent Ricoeur group in Latin America (ASIER) and a separate group in Brazil (Rede Brasil-Ricoeur). Ricoeur conferences have taken place in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.
Membership Structure and Fees
There are no membership requirements other than an interest in the Society and its work. There are two general categories of members: “Regular” and “Associate.”