In his seminar, philosopher Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a prominent figure in contemporary debates surrounding the ownership and placement of museum objects, will present his work on both restitution and decolonization.

Souleymane Bachir Diagne received his academic training in France. An alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure, where he studied with Althusser and Derrida, he holds an agrégation in Philosophy (1978) and he took his Doctorat d’État in philosophy at the Sorbonne (1988), where he also took his BA (1977). Before joining Columbia University in 2008 he taught philosophy for many years at Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar (Senegal), and at Northwestern University. 

His field of research includes history of logic, history of philosophy, Islamic philosophy, African philosophy, and literature. He is the author of African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude (Seagull Books, 2011), The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa, (Dakar, Codesria, 2016), Open to Reason: Muslim Philosophers in Conversation with Western Tradition, (New York, Columbia University Press, 2018). His book, Bergson postcolonial. L’élan vital dans la pensée de Senghor et de Mohamed Iqbal (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 2011; English edition, Fordham University Press, 2018). That book was awarded the Dagnan-Bouveret prize by the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences for 2011 and in that same year, Professor Diagne received the Edouard Glissant Prize for his work. Professor Diagne is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

This seminar is a discussion of a pre-circulated paper. It can be found on the GIDEST site for attendees to read in advance.

This event is part of the bi-weekly GIDEST Seminars presented by the Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography & Social Thought.