Summer Institute of Psychoanalysis
The Summer Institute of Psychoanalysis, a joint venture of Northwestern University and the Sorbonne Nouvelle that was inaugurated in 2017, develops topics at the intersection of psychoanalysis and the humanities.
We are pleased to announce that the 2025 session takes place from June 23 through June 27 in Paris, and focuses on the topic of “Psychoanalysis and Trauma.” Taught in English, the Institute proposes an intensive week of study for doctoral and postdoctoral students in the humanities. Application deadline is March 28, 2025.
If you are interested in attending, please send to Alessia Ricciardi (a-ricciardi@northwestern.edu) and Isabelle Alfandary (isabelle.alfandary@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr)...
- Your CV;
- A 300-word statement of interest; and
- A 2-3 page abstract of a research paper, with a bibliography, on either psychoanalysis and/or trauma studies.
*CLS will work with selected CLS grad students to provide some financial assistance. Other grad applicants are encouraged to work with their own departments and TGS. All inquiries should be directed to SIP faculty.
Summer Institute: Psychoanalysis & Trauma
Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle, June 23-27, 2025
Psychoanalysis came into being through the discovery of trauma. We may recall that, in his work with Breuer on hysteria, Freud first linked trauma to the question of seduction but later, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, revisited trauma in relation to the death drive. Throughout his life he reflected on the limits of remembering and on the specific temporality of trauma (Nachträglichkeit or après-coup), which arguably has evolved into one of the most important concepts of psychoanalytic theory. After Freud, the question of trauma was taken up and elaborated productively by Ferenczi, Lacan, and Laplanche, thus acquiring important new dimensions.
The 2025 session of the Summer Institute of Psychoanalysis will focus on these different psychoanalytic notions of trauma in light of more recent critical approaches, while considering at the same time the necessary ethical and political implications of trauma studies, especially in the literary, historical, feminist, and postcolonial fields. Trauma in this light has proven to be an old concept that continually renews itself. The goal of this year’s seminars will be to reflect on how psychoanalysis may contribute to the future of trauma studies.
PARTICIPATING FACULTY FOR 2025:
Isabelle Alfandary, Professor of American Literature & Critical Theory, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Alessia Ricciardi, Herman and Beaulah Pearce Miller Research Professor in Literature, Northwestern University
For more information, please contact Alessia Ricciardi (a-ricciardi@northwestern.edu).