Repentance
Origin(s) and latest developments
International interdisciplinary symposium
Dakar, Senegal, 22 and 23 February 2017
Call for papers
The question of repentance now applies to the public sphere and concerns huge collective bodies
(nations, populations, communities, institutions and so forth) as well as individuals. It has a complex
relationship with history (asking for repentance concerns periods that protagonists have not
experienced yet and are far back in time, while also addressing institutions or stakeholders who can
not be linked to the so-called fault). Repentance has even become a global issue and now concerns a
wide range of geographical and cultural areas as well taking on many forms referring to facts whose
scale, temporal distance or context are in no way comparable with it. Indeed, the roots of
repentance are to be found in many traditions (religious, cultural, national and community) and
nowadays, announcements (through the media at large) give rise to secular forms of repentance
which are devoid of the dimensions that traditionally form the definition of repentance.
This international symposium will try to establish the link between traditional forms and
(post?)modernity of repentance through contributions focused on the work of researchers from
different disciplines studying objects situated in various contexts. As such, questions will deal less
with the consequences (assumed or known) of repenting than repenting for itself based on a set of
facts or a specific case, texts, an author’s understanding, the specific practice of an institution, groups
or an individual. Contributors are invited to give serious thought to the links between repenting and
pardoning, or reconciliation without merely thinking about the “afterwards” or the “blank page”
opened by repentance. Rather than seeking a meaning (theological, anthropological, philosophical,
etc.) to repentance, the aim of the symposium is to highlight the meanings of repentance from
distinct circumstances (often asymmetrical historical, political, religious, sociological and legal
contexts) and by considering eventual strategic purposes or forms of exploitation, etc. The meaning
of resistance or refusal to enter into a process of repentance can also be analysed.
For proposals under priorities 2, 3 and 4, papers will be based on precisely defined case studies
(potentially comparable) to offer a problem and an analysis. Priority will be given to papers based on
the analysis of a corpus of texts, archives or media productions. The following four priorities will
structure how the topic of repentance can be explored:
Priority 1. Conceptual approach(es)
How can repentance be defined? What concepts can be called upon? How can the challenges of
repentance be understood? What is it that distinguishes repentance from other practices (selfcriticism, confessions, etc.)?
Priority 2. Historical and cultural legacies and repentance
Repentance raises the question of the relationship the person who repents has with the faults he or
she is accused of, or accepts to bear responsibility for. On what continuities can repentance be based
which transcend change, cultural and political breaks with the past, or the transformation of
institutions? How can the question of interpreting facts from the past in the repentance process be
articulated in the light of this?
Priority 3. Process, publicity and staging repentance
The many forms of repenting, sacred or secular, challenge the process of repentance and its steps
from individual or collective awareness to the organisation of rituals, staging and publicity (in the
sense advocated by Habermas) as well as strategic uses for in-depth questions on the history,
museum, memorial or commemorative practices that highlight historical complexity. As such, how
has repentance been practiced, or is being practiced today?
Priority 4. Repentance, what expectations?
What is expected from repentance? What is the nature of the “blank page” that it claims to open?
How can repentance contribute to reconcile memory and pardon, acknowledgement (of a fault) and
reconciliation, antagonisms and identities? Without studying the aftermath of repentance, the
purpose is to focus contributions on debates and questions that come with repentance as well as the
anticipated ‘costs’ and ‘benefits’ (often symbolic) of repentance.
Submission guidelines for papers
Language of proposal: French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, German.
Symposium language: French, English (options for simultaneous interpretation -depending on
requests- will be considered)
Proposals should be presented as follows:
 Accurate contact details (first name and last name, position, institutional affiliation:
university and laboratory of affiliation, e-mail address of each author),
 Title of paper followed by chosen priority,
 Summary of proposal - approximately 2,500-5,000 character limit excluding bibliographic
references to be quoted at end of text (WORD, ODT format or compatible),
 A brief CV of 10 lines maximum can be attached to the paper
Proposals should be sent by e-mail to both Pierre Leroux ([email protected]) and Frédérique
Poulet ([email protected]).
Deadline for submission of proposals : March 31th, 2016
Assessment of proposals
Each proposal will be assessed anonymously in parallel by two members of the Scientific Committee.
Authors of the proposals selected will be informed by e-mail before April 1st, 2016.
Participation in the symposium requires the full text of the paper to be sent by January 1ST? 2017 at
the latest.
Organisation committee:
Members in charge : Jean-Claude Angoula (UGB Saint Louis / CSA Dakar), Pierre Leroux (UCO Angers),
with Léon Diagne (UCAD Dakar / CSA Dakar), , Philippe Loiseau (UCO Angers), Henriette Mbaye (CSA
Dakar), Dominique François Mendy (CESTI Dakar / CSA Dakar), Thérèse Ndione (CSA Dakar,
Christophe Pichon (UCO Angers), Frédérique Poulet (UCO Angers), Blaise Pascal Sagna (CSA Dakar).
Scientific committee:
Béatrice Bouvier-Lafitte, UCO Angers, CoDiRe, Université de Nantes, France
Magali Bessone, Université de Rennes 1, EA 1270 "Philosophie des Normes", IUF, France
Yvon César Banackissa, CSA Dakar, Sénégal
Léon Diagne, UCAD Dakar / CSA Dakar, Sénégal
Jeanne Hersant, Centro de Estudios Avanzados, Universidad de Playa Ancha (Valparaíso), Chile
Renaud Hourcade, Université de Rennes 1, CRAPE, France
Christian Le Bart, MSH Rennes, IEP de Rennes, France
Sandrine Lefranc, CNRS, Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique, Université de Paris Ouest
Nanterre, ENS Cachan, France
Pierre Leroux, UCO, CRAPE IEP de Rennes, France
Jean-Clément Martin, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut d’Histoire de la Révolution
française (IHRF), France
Henriette Mbaye, CSA Dakar, Sénégal
Dominique François Mendy, CESTI Dakar / CSA Dakar, Sénégal
Johann Michel, Université de Poitiers, IUF, EHESS, France
Thèrèse Ndione, CSA Dakar, Sénégal
Erik Neveu, IEP de Rennes, CRAPE, France
Christophe Pichon, UCO Angers, DTSR UMR 8167, Orient et Méditerranée, France
Philippe Portier, Ecole pratique des hautes études, Paris-Sorbonne, France
Frédérique Poulet, UCO Angers, DTSR, GRAC, Institut Catholique de Paris EA 4377 Strasbourg, France
Dany Rondeau, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Groupe de recherche Ethos de l’UQAM, Canada
Blaise Pascal Sagna, CSA Dakar, , Sénégal
Olivier Turbide, UQAM, Montréal, Canada
Jacques Walter, Centre de recherche sur les médiations, Université de Lorraine (EA 3476), France
Yingde Zhang, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et
contemporaine (EHESS/CNRS), EA 172 - Centre d'Études et de Recherches Comparatistes (CERC),
France