For the Society to continue its growth, financial support is valuable to assist a range of causes. Below we highlight three such causes: graduate student support, Digital Ricoeur, and the Hermeneutics in Real Life project. Descriptions of these causes are below, and other important causes in Ricoeur studies. You may designate a specific purpose for your gift using the Paypal donation buttons below. One may donate an unrestricted gift also. Contributions of any amount are welcome.
Over time the Society would like to establish an endowment to ensure long term resources for Society activities. We also encourage other forms of contributions to the Society such as stock equities or estate bequests. For more information on these options or to raise any other financial questions, please contact Charles Sharp, the Society Secretary-Treasurer, at the following gmail address: CharlesSharp2
General Support
General funds donated to the Society will be used for a myriad of beneficial activities: such as enriching the Society’s online presence; increasing opportunities for international dialogue in Ricoeur studies; developing online tutorials and seminars in education about Ricoeur, his themes, and hermeneutics in general; and enhancing Society conference opportunities (for example, to offset costs for meeting rooms and to fund some meals to allow for greater informal interchange). Donations can be made through the Paypal buttons below. The website accepts credit card payments through PayPal.
Graduate Student Flight and Lodging Funding for Ricoeur Studies Conference
The Ricoeur Society has made a continuing effort to promote and support presentations by graduate students in its conferences. Because many students have limited travel budgets as part of their program, the Society seeks to provide more financial support for their conference participation. This benefits the individual students and supports the continued growth of Ricoeur studies over time. With enough funding, students could also be supported for travel to international Ricoeur conferences outside North America. At the 2023 Society conference, graduate student funding helped to enable four sessions of graduate student participation, with students present not only from the United States and Canada but China, Colombia, Italy, Poland, and Turkey.
Digital Ricoeur Project (www.digitalricoeurportal.org)
This website provides online search access for books and articles by Ricoeur in English, French, German, and Spanish and soon in Portuguese. Funding will help support development of several initiatives, including an online interactive bibliography, use of artificial intelligence (AI) to convert Ricoeur’s handwritten manuscripts into typed form, transcription and editing of various recorded Ricoeur courses, and the inclusion of secondary material on Ricoeur.
Hermeneutics in Real Life Project (www.hinrl.org)
The Hermeneutics in Real Life project is organized by Ricoeur scholars and seeks to promote the continuing significance of hermeneutics as a resource in our contentious times. Currently the project is pivoting away from public online monthly sessions to development of the following two endeavors:
A Place on Earth: Academic Congress on the Indiana Dunes and Calumet Lakeshore
As a way to reimagine scholarly work in environmental philosophy and environmental justice, this Congress will convene in June of 2025 on the lower shores of Lake Michigan along the famous and historic Indiana Dunes of the Calumet Region. With this meeting we hope to stimulate productive alliances between the rich varieties of burgeoning environmental scholarship (hermeneutic, critical-cultural, phenomenological, feminist, pragmatist, etc.). We especially encourage scholarly work touching on environmental themes of the Great Lakes, First Nation peoples, the Calumet Region, the National Parks, applied and theoretical research collaboration, and the politics of land use in fragile ecosystems. Donations will help support graduate student travel and venue costs.
Hermeneutics Seminar
The Hermeneutics Seminar is designed to offer graduate students and advanced undergraduates an introduction to hermeneutics. Hermeneutics Seminar 1 will concentrate on the very timely and topical text, first published in 2017, Johann Michel’s Homo Interpretans: Towards a Transformation of Hermeneutics. As both a philosopher and a social scientist, Professor Michel’s work amply demonstrates the contemporary significance of hermeneutics, even as he seeks to rethink the field. In the future, more advanced iterations of the seminar will discuss classic texts in hermeneutics (Seminar 2) and analysis of applications of hermeneutics in various fields (Seminar 3). Hermeneutics Seminar 1 will occur online in June 2024, with subsequent in-person versions of the Seminar to take place in various nations and languages. Donations will provide support for the development and maintenance of an online course infrastructure (including website developer) and then for the costs of in-person seminars, including instructor travel and lodging. The instructors are otherwise unpaid.
Support for the Fonds Ricoeur
The writings and thought of the philosopher Paul Ricoeur cover nearly three quarters of a century, from 1935-2005 and place him at the crossroads of one of the greatest traditions in philosophy and human sciences, a tradition with which he maintained a constant conversation. In 2003, he generously bequeathed his personal library and archives with the intention of making them available to researchers from all over the world. Thus the Fonds Ricoeur was born. Located on Boulevard Arago in Paris (14th district) this unique documentary collection comprises more than 12, 000 books, documents and written, audio and visual archives. This privileged location for study and meetings welcomes working parties and seminars and organizes conferences. An area has been created to give access to archival documents. The Paul Ricoeur Association now exists and awards the Paul Ricoeur literary prize. Now, to fulfill Paul Ricoeur’s wish to open the Fonds Ricoeur to everyone, the Paul Ricoeur Foundation needs new funds.
How can you take part?
Donations to the Fonds Ricoeur through the Society website provide an expeditious way for donations to be provided to support the Fonds Ricoeur. For donors from the US, US law permits contributions to US nonprofits, as the Society is, are tax deductible even if the money is targeted for a foreign nonprofit, as long as the US entity provides some direction on how the funds will be allocated by the foreign organization.
Simply click the Paypal donation button below and select Support the Fonds Ricoeur option.
