"Rousseau's Legacies / Fortunes de Rousseau," Sixteenth Biennial Colloquium, Rousseau Association, UCLA, June 25-28, 20090.

Rousseau's legacies are multiple and contested. In philosophy, he was described as the Newton of the moral sciences by Kant, and yet alongside those who champion an ethic of rights and duties, are others, equally influenced by Rousseau who take forward his concerns with virtue, community or moral psychology. In social anthropology, Rousseau was hailed as precursor, by none other than Levi-Strauss. Rousseau's concern with the natural world and the environment has echoes both in the romantic movement and in the environmental politics of our own day. Rousseau's autobiographical writings prefigure a concern with subjectivity that finds later expression in Freud and the psychoanalytic movement. His writing on education has been rediscovered, championed or excoriated by successive generations of advocates or opponents of "child centred education". His political legacy has been bitterly contested between advocates of deliberative democracy, liberals, nationalists of various stripes, and those who see him as the harbinger of totalitarianism. We invite papers reflecting critically on any aspect of Rousseau's various legacies in philosophy, literature, political theory, theatre, music, biography, etc. Proposals on the above topic (title and short summary), in English or French, for papers of 20 minutes duration should be sent to the President of the Rousseau Association, Christopher Bertram, by electronic mail at C.Bertram@bristol.ac.uk or by ordinary mail at thefollowing address: Department of Philosophy University of Bristol 9 Woodland Road Bristol United Kingdom (If using ordinary mail, please also give if possible an electronic address for acknowledgement. ) The deadline for receipt of proposals is December 31st, 2008. Proposals will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee (Professors Christopher Bertram, Patrick Coleman, Ourida Mostefai) and a decision communicated by January 31st 2009. A preliminary program for the conference will be available in February 2009.