Date/Time
Date(s): 26. May – 29. May
All Day
Location
Vienna University of Technology and the University of Vienna
Categories
The Susanne K. Langer Circle, hosted at Utrecht University (NL) in collaboration with the Research Unit Architecture Theory and Philosophy of Technics ATTP, TU Wien and the Institute Vienna Circle, University of Vienna.
This conference seeks interdisciplinary perspectives on the thought of logician and philosopher of the arts Susanne K. Langer (1895-1985), which spanned the domains of language, mathematics, the arts, life, and mind through logical analysis and synthesis, embodied cognition and symbolic projection.
The symbolistic paradigm central to Langer’s philosophy is gaining increased attention, and the international network of the Susanne K. Langer Circle continues to foster fresh perspectives on her work, while promoting its ongoing relevance and scholarly continuation. Our third, bi-annual conference in 2026 will take place at TU Wien and the University of Vienna, with a local focus on architectural humanities as well as Vienna’s historical relevance for analytic philosophy.
We invite scholars from the humanities, the arts, and sciences to contribute papers on topics spanning philosophy, technology, architecture, artistic and speculative research, theoretical or technological approaches. As a cross-disciplinary conference, we welcome contributions from fields, including but not limited to:
Aesthetics
Anthropology and Ethnology
Archaeology
Architecture
Biosemiotics
Biotechnology
Communication Theory, Symbol Theory, and Semiotics
Computer Science
Creativity Studies
Historiography
History of Ideas (20th century history of philosophy: Cassirer, neo-Kantianism, pragmatism,
philosophy of science, The Vienna Circle)
Information and Computing
Life Sciences
Literary Criticism
Logic and the Theory of Knowledge
Media Theory
Music(s) and Musicology
Pedagogy and Educational Thought
Performing Arts and Performance Theory
Philosophy of Art and Art Criticism
Poetry
Popular Culture and Cultural Studies
Programming
Psychology (Cultural, Gestalt, Developmental, Clinical, Humanistic)
Social and Political Theory
Visual and Sonic Arts
Women’s, Gender and Queer Studies
Call opens: 01 September 2025
Please submit abstracts of 300–400 words (Chicago Manual of Style), including full name, contact information, affiliation and academic title (if applicable) to: langer-conference2026@attp.tuwien.ac.at
Deadline: 01 October 2025
Notification of acceptance: 30 October 2025
The conference will be held at the Vienna University of Technology and the University of Vienna, Austria. May 26-29, 2026.
For further information, visit the Langer Circle website: https://langercircle.sites.uu.nl/
For updates on the program and possible travel support, please register as a member: https://langercircle.sites.uu.nl/register/
Organized in collaboration with the Research Unit Architecture Theory and Philosophy of Technics ATTP at the Vienna University of Technology and the IVC Institute Vienna Circle at the University of Vienna, this conference illuminates the history and relevance of Susanne K. Langer’s philosophy—demonstrating how her thought continues in contemporary debates in philosophy, aesthetics, the arts, and science, and how it is linked to the city of ideas, Vienna.
Selected conference proceedings will be published as an edited journal (TU Academic Press).
Previous Susanne K. Langer Circle conferences took place in 2022 at the Max-PlanckInstitute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt a.M., and in 2024 at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Conference Committee: Prof. Vera Bühlmann (AT), Dr. Lona Gaikis (AT), Dr. Matthew Ingram (USA), Prof. Randall E. Auxier (USA), Prof. Christian Grüny (DE).
The European Society for Aesthetics was founded in 2008 at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), where it has been based ever since
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