The winds of scholars’ and society’s favour toward the Enlightenment have shifted. The uplifting narrative of progress attributed to the Enlightenment has long underpinned liberal societies, particularly in the West, but in recent years it has come under fierce criticism from postcolonial perspectives, political fringes, and some eighteenth‑century specialists. The conference will reflect the contemporary context in which Enlightenment research is conducted. Its aim is to move beyond a simplistic for‑or‑against positioning on the Enlightenment and to emphasise the complexity of both the Enlightenment as a historical phenomenon and its legacy for the present and the future.

Where: 
Wednesday, 10 June, 9.00-20.00: GHIP, 8 rue du Parc-Royal, 75003 Paris
Thursday, 11 June, 9.00-17.00: Sorbonne Université, Amphithéâtre Quinet, 46 rue Saint-Jacques, 75005 Paris
Thursday, 11 June, 18.00: Collège de France, Amphithéâtre Maurice Halbwachs, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris
Friday, 12 June, 9.00-15.00: Bibliothèque Polonaise, 6 Quai d‘Orléans, 75004 Paris

Registration for in-person participation:event@dhi-paris.fr
Registration for online-participation:

Wednesday, 10 June, 9.00-18.00: Zoom
Wednesday, 10 June, Lecture, 19.00: Zoom
Thursday, 11 June, 9.00-18.00: A link will be published shortly
Thursday, 11 June, Lecture, 18.00: A link will be published shortly
Friday, 12 June, 9.00-15.00: A link will be published shortly
 

Co-organisers, alongside ISECS (represented by its President Daniel Fulda): 
German Historical Institute Paris (Christine Zabel); Chaire d’Histoire des Lumières, xviiie-xxie siècle, Collège de France (Antoine Lilti); Sorbonne Université/Société Française d’Étude du Dix-huitième Siècle (Christophe Martin); Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris 
(Maciej Forycki); Sorbonne Nouvelle (Florence Magnot-Ogilvy); University of California (Chunjie Zhang)
 

Image credits: Hubert Robert (1733-1808), The Grotto of Posillipo, ca. 1769, Wikimedia Commons.