In honor of Kant’s Tercentennial, there will be two events hosted and supported by Johns Hopkins University with additional support from NAKS,  and co-organized by Lucy Allais, Andrew Chignell, and Katharina Kraus:

Thomas Bernhard’s Immanuel Kant – Performance and Discussion

Together with the Goethe-Institut in Washington, DC, professional actors under the direction of Drew Lichtenberg, resident dramaturg at the Shakespeare Theatre Company DC, will stage a reading of Thomas Bernhard's play Immanuel Kant – a seldom performed absurdist play that offers an excellent opportunity to consider the complexities of Kant’s lasting impact and the achievements, struggles, and contradictions of the Enlightenment project in general.

The first reading will be at Hopkins’ Homewood Campus in Baltimore on Friday, March 8, 2024 (evening).

The second reading will be staged at the Goethe-Institut in Washington, DC, on Sunday, March 10, 2024 (evening).

Before each performance there will be a short introduction to the play, and it will be followed by a panel discussion with the dramaturg, the translator and scholars of Kant and Bernhard.

Workshop/Symposium: “Kant and the World Today”

The play will be accompanied by a symposium on “Kant and the World Today” at Johns Hopkins University on Friday, March 8, and Saturday, March 9, 2024. Talks and panels will explore the relevance of Kant’s philosophy for today, focusing on critical discussions of the implications of his philosophy for issues of political economy, the role of hope and despair in the face of global challenges, and Kant’s universalism and cosmopolitanism in light of questions of particularity, participation, and exclusion.

Hosts: Johns Hopkins University, with additional support from NAKS

Organization: Lucy Allais (Hopkins), Andrew Chignell (Princeton), and Katharina Kraus (Hopkins)