A Conference Celebrates the Career of Souleymane Bachir Diagne

A three-day conference (April 3-5, 2025) will celebrate the academic career of Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne on the occasion of his retirement from the departments of French and Philosophy. Colleagues and former students from Africa, Europe, and the U.S. will present talks related to Diagne’s research, writing, and teaching interests, and these contributions will later be collected in a Festschrift published in his honor. 

Diagne was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal, and received his academic training in France. An alumnus of École Normale Supérieure, he holds an agrégation in philosophy (1978) and a doctorate in philosophy from the Sorbonne (1988), where he also earned his BA (1977). In 1982, Diagne returned to Senegal to teach philosophy at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, where he became vice dean of the College of Humanities. The former president of Senegal, Abdou Diouf, named Diagne counselor for education and culture, a position that he held from 1993 to 1999. Before joining Columbia in 2008, Diagne also taught philosophy at Northwestern University. His fields of research and teaching have included the history of logic, history of philosophy, Islamic philosophy, philosophy and Sufism in the Islamic world, and African philosophy and literature. 

A fierce critic of contemporary forms of racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, especially in the European context, Diagne engages with political and social issues that affect both Africa and the rest of the world—the decolonization of thought, Africa's place in the modern world, migration issues, and the role of the humanities in shaping future generations.

Through his teaching, writing, interviews, and debates, he holds a unique position in the public sphere, notably for his ability to make complex ideas accessible to a broad audience while remaining committed to a deep intellectual engagement. He has a particular gift for bridging Western philosophical traditions with those of Africa, the Arab world, and Islam. He is also a staunch advocate for intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, as well as for an inclusive modernity that embraces universal values such as liberty, justice, and solidarity. Diagne advocates for transcending identity divides to foster collective reflection on contemporary global challenges.

Diagne discusses these issues and his retirement with Columbia News.

How does it feel to be honored with a conference devoted to your academic career?

I could not think of a better way to mark my retirement. That my colleagues and friends have decided to devote three days to celebrate my career and discuss my work moves me beyond all the words I could find to express my gratitude to our Columbia community.

What does the title of your keynote speech—In Praise of the Universal—mean?

My work is in great part a discussion of universalism. That is particularly the case for my latest books: From Language to Language: The Hospitality of Translation (2025) and Universaliser: L’humanité par des Voies d’Humanité (2024). My central point is that the end of the West’s claim to embody a universalism that it must bring to the rest of the world should not mean the end of all demands for a universal. We need in particular to elaborate a notion of a politics of humanity, a cosmopolitics, to respond to the challenges—sanitary and environmental—that we face today precisely as one humanity.

From Language to Language explores the notion of translation as a humanism, in the sense that to give hospitality in a language of what has been thought and created in another—the very condition of a world literature—conveys the ethical meaning of overcoming our fragmentation into tribes by aiming for the humanity we share. The universal Logos is not one given European language (Greek, German, French, etc.), but translation, the language of languages, as Kenyan author and academic Ngugi wa Thiong’o has defined it. My book, Universaliser (to universalize in French), insists on the verb, on the action of universalizing. Philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty was opposed to an imperial, vertical, overarching universalism, what he called a lateral universal to be pursued and forged by cultures situated on the same horizontal plane. I understand it as a practice of universalizing together, a practice of (multi-)lateralism. My address will clarify and develop these points.

What is the single unifying thread that runs through your broad body of work?

I have been presented as a philosopher of translation by my colleague and friend, Cameroonian philosopher Jean-Godefroy Bidima, who saw the concept of translation as running through my publications. It is the case that my work in the field of the history of algebraic logic is about the translation of our logical procedures into the language of algebra and the language of machines. My work in Islamic philosophy is, among other aspects, of course, also about the translation of Greek philosophy into Arabic and other languages of the Muslim world.

What were the final classes you taught?

For my last semester of teaching—fall 2024—I taught two classes: one in Islamic philosophy, about the relationship between theology and philosophy, and the other in French philosophy, on discovering existence. For that class, the last session was a discussion of Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus, and the class ended on the last sentence of the text: “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

What projects are you working on now?

I am currently turning lectures I gave at the Louvre in Paris into a book to be published this year. I also have two books on my agenda—one on hospitality, one on African philosophy. I expect to be busy in the next several years after retirement.

Any advice for students interested in pursuing a path similar to yours?

It has been a blessing to teach our brilliant students at Columbia. I am confident that the values we share in our Columbia community—passion for knowledge, in particular—constitute an excellent preparation for a splendid career.

What are your future plans, post-retirement?

I plan to continue to live in New York, and to work in our wonderful Columbia libraries on my book projects. But I will also spend more time on the other side of the Atlantic in France and in Africa.

Anything you would like to add?

I owe so much to the colleagues, friends, and students I have had the good fortune to meet here at Columbia. So all I want to add is: Thank you.

The conference is organized by Maison Française and the Department of French, with additional support provided by the Institute of African Studies, Office of the Dean of Humanities, Department of Philosophy, Committee on Global Thought, Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, Alliance Program, Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, along with Villa Albertine, Cultural Services of the Embassy of France.