The term “ethics” can refer to morality or to an unconditional hospitality of the Other. This later view, proposed by Emmanuel Levinas, positions the ethical act as a response to the destitute call of the Other.

This year’s Ereignis conference aims to explore the relationship between ethics and aesthetics in both of these conceptions of the ethical. Key questions are:

• What is the role of art in environmental ethics and in a confrontation with unethical aspects of hyper-capitalism?
• Can art and should art propose ethical models of behaviour for the well-being of society?
• What does ethics as hospitality mean, and can art function as a site for such hospitality?

The 5th interdisciplinary Ereignis conference will take place on August 9 (and 10, contingent on sufficient attendance), 2025 at Hotel Nadmorski in Gdynia, Poland, with a hybrid option for those unable to attend in person. Registration will be required.

Image: Miletus Torso, c. 480–470 BCE. Louvre Museum. © Daniel Lebée and Carine Déambrosis. Used by permission.

Call for Abstracts

• The 5th interdisciplinary Ereignis conference in Gdynia, Poland, August 9 and 10, 2025.
• This conference offers a hybrid option for those unable to attend in person.
• Submission deadline: 1 June, 2025 (guidelines below).

Theme

The term “ethics” carries two distinct — and at times even conflicting — meanings. In its first sense, ethics is understood as a synonym for morality: a codex of rules that emanate either from the autonomous subject or from God, which must be followed and implemented. In its second sense, drawn from Levinas, ethics is seen as an unconditional hospitality of the Other, guided by a response to their destitute call.

This conference aims to explore the relationship between ethics and aesthetics in both of these conceptions of the ethical. In the first sense, the central question is: how should the relationship between ethics and aesthetics be conceived? Should art be regarded as ethically neutral, as Kant and modernity suggested? Or should it be understood as always-already operating under the auspices of the ethical, conveying an ethical message? In the second sense, the primary question concerns how the artwork can be viewed as a space in which the hospitality of the Other unfolds within its framework.

Key questions that we will discuss at this conference include:

• What is the role of art in environmental ethics?
• How can art confront unethical aspects of hyper-capitalism?
• Can art and should art propose ethical models of behaviour for the well-being of society?
• What does ethics as hospitality mean, and can art function as a site for such hospitality?
• Which works of art might serve as ethical sites of hospitality?
• What is the nature of the Other to whom hospitality is given within works of art?

This conference is occasioned by the publication of Prof. Dror Pimentel’s book Aesth-ethics: Of Hospitality in Art (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), translated into English by Talya Halkin. Papers and interventions that interrogate Pimentel’s book or other essays (see, e.g., https://doi.org/10.59391/inscriptions.v5i1.143) will be particularly welcome.

Invitation

We invite papers from all traditions and schools of philosophy and adjoining discipline (critical and social theory, media studies and arts, literary theory and comparative literature, etc.) to address any of the topics and questions above. Submissions should be structured, well-argued, and show evidence of rigorous scholarship. Include an abstract (max. 300 words) and a short author bio (max. 50 words).

Submit abstracts by June 1, 2025 through our online submission engine at ereignis.no. We will return by mid June with a notification on acceptance.

Hybrid format

The conference will be held on-site in Gdynia, Poland, on August 9, 2025, and on-line on the Zoom videoconferencing platform for those unable to attend in person. The conference will be extended to August 10 pending sufficient attendance. More information about travel and accommodation is available on the conference page. For accepted papers registration will be required by July 1, 2025.

Scholastic committee

• Dr. Torgeir Fjeld, Ereignis Center for Philosophy and the Arts (chair)
• Senior Lecturer Jytte Holmqvist, Lund University
• Dr. Gorica Orsholits, European Graduate School
• Prof. Dror Pimentel, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem
• Prof. Em. Jørgen Veisland, University of Gdańsk

Publishing opportunities

All authors are encouraged to submit essay-versions of their presentation to a themed issue of our peer-reviewed journal, Inscriptions. Deadline for submitting full-text essays will be October 15, 2025. Note that this journal has its own criteria for submission, review and publication. For more information, see the journal’s about page.