Fichte and Social Thought:
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Seventeenth Biennial Meeting of the North American Fichte Society
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
June 11-13, 2026
University of California, Santa Cruz
The Seventeenth Biennial Meeting of the North American Fichte Society will be held at University of California, Santa Cruz, June 11-13, 2026. Local arrangements will be coordinated by Dr. Silvestre Gristina (University of Padua/University of California, Santa Cruz).
The conference will focus on the theme “Fichte and Social Thought,” broadly conceived. We encourage presenters to adopt both historical and contemporary perspectives on Fichte’s philosophy and/or to connect his thought to other historical and contemporary philosophers. Authors are encouraged to explore the historical use and contemporary retrieval of Fichte’s philosophy for social and political thought (e.g., socialism, nationalism, colonialism, decolonization, feminism, or struggles for emancipation), inclusive of issues of race, gender, or class.
As is the practice of the North American Fichte Society, this event is open to all interested scholars, both in North America and elsewhere. The official language of the conference will be English. Please submit a title and an abstract (approx. 750 words) of the paper’s contents to Gabe Gottlieb (Xavier University) fichtesociety@gmail.com no later than November 15, 2025. Please note that submissions should not be sent to his personal address.
Conference papers should have a maximum reading time of 30 minutes. As in the past, we intend to publish a volume of selected papers from the conference. For papers not included, we will encourage the authors to send their papers to relevant journals, as part of NAFS’s aim of promoting and broadening the area of Fichte studies.
Please note that no funds will be available from the conference organizers to support either travel costs or living expenses of the participants. However, an official "letter of invitation" for the purposes of obtaining travel support from one's own institution, can easily be arranged. Further details concerning lodging, program, etc. will be forthcoming at a later date.
For more information and updates: https://www.fichtesociety.org/