Sessions 2025

Program
The PACT Division of the European Graduate School enters its 2025 sessions in Bergamo, Saas Fee, and Valletta, with an exceptional program of seminar offerings.

In Bergamo, Italy, June 18–July 3, we host Slavoj Žižek, Alenka Zupančič, Peter Szendy, Keller Easterling, and Sreten Ugričić.  This session, to be held at the Accademia di Belle Arti G. Cararra, will include a visit to Cremona and presentations by the visual artist, Salvatore Puglia, and the film theorist, Francesco Cassetti.

In Saas-Fee, Switzerland, July 29–August 29, we host seminars by Catherine Malabou, Avital Ronell, Christopher Fynsk, Elie During (with Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond), Achille Mbembe, Frank Ruda, Jodi Dean, and Étienne Balibar.

In Valletta, Malta, September 29–October 14, we host Mladen Dolar, Joan Copjec, Aïcha Livingston-Messina, and Judith Butler. All seminars can be taken for credit toward an advanced degree, or audited, in-person or online.

Art at the EGS
The seminars announced here, like all PACT seminars in its MA and PhD programs, are cross-disciplinary encounters involving globally recognised critical theorists and creative thinkers. Art is quite frequently at the heart of discussion in all sessions and many who join these seminars are practicing artists or students of art who are familiar with the celebrated EGS faculty by reason of the significant impact they have had on philosophy of art and art theory.

Creative practitioners in the visual arts, design, music, and architecture, along with students in art theory, have found the level and depth of intellectual exchange at the EGS consistently inspiring for their work.  The same is true for individuals working in arts-related industries and areas such as museum curation since it enhances a capacity for addressing what is genuinely at stake in works and performance.  At the EGS, participants discover ways of articulating the worldly meaning of art along with paths for understanding their own work and that of others. They join a cross-disciplinary discussion that moves at the highest theoretical and philosophical levels but remains open to a quite diverse community and in this respect is inherently public.

Social theorists and philosophers also consistently find inspiration in the PACT programs through exposure to artistic experimentation and performance.  In this profoundly diverse community, creativity provokes creativity in unexpected ways that cannot be fully theorized.  The EGS seeks to advance elements of experimental projects that have been defining for modern thought and art. The example of the Black Mountain College is a living one for us.

Freedom of thought
It must be emphasized that the creative exchange we describe here demands work of a profound level on the part of those who lead the relevant seminars.  It requires something far more searching and sophisticated than what is offered in a standard review of cultural theory.  This is why the PACT Division of the EGS turns to experienced leaders in the fields of study it engages and is uncompromising in its commitment to academic freedom.  Its celebrated professors present current research that is both responsive to its moment and accessible for a diverse audience.  Their efforts in this moment when freedom of speech and critical response are threatened are perhaps more important than ever.

We want to underscore that the exceptionally beautiful locations in which the EGS community takes form are sites in which open thought and exchange are possible.  At a time when study in the U.S., for example, can carry risk, and when the humanities are under threat, the EGS offers an alternative that is not only flexible and affordable, but of the very highest quality.

For a statement on academic freedom at the EGS and a review of the coming sessions, see the recent address by Christopher Fynsk: “Study at the EGS in 2025: Inspiration and Critical Freedom”.