Successful 2012 Conference

The 2nd annual conference of the Australian Girard Seminar, Sacrifice – in Life, Love and Literature, was held on January 13-14, 2012. Thank-you to those all those who participated and presented. We appreciate the support of our sponsors, Imitatio and Philosophy@UWS (University of Western Sydney), and the hospitality of the venue, St Mary’s College.

We look forward to the 2013 conference – watch this space! In the meantime, you are welcome to join a Girard reading group to explore Girard’s ideas further. These reading groups have open discussions and are available in different places (see the Events page). Email info@australiangirardseminar.org to receive more information.

The conference was held at St Mary’s College, the University of Melbourne, with the keynote speaker being Professor Ann Astell, of the University of Notre Dame (USA) & President of the Colloquium on Violence & Religion (COV&R).

Wolfgang Palaver speaking about Rene Girard at the 2011 AGS Conference

Peter Kirkwood has written an article called ‘Intimacy of religion and violence’ based on an interview with Wolfgang Palaver. The article is based on Palaver’s visit to this year’s AGS conference and is accompanied by a video interview with snippets from his keynote presentation. You can view the article here.

Welcome to the Australian Girard Seminar

René Girard offers the most comprehensive, boldest, and most controversial account of human motivation, culture and religion. This French-American thinker weaves literature, anthropology, philosophy and theology into a developing project with many convinced followers in all these areas, also many critics. His unique insights have found their way into boardrooms, counselling rooms, lecture halls and pulpits around the world.

A number of Australian academics working on Girard have got together and founded the Australian Girard Seminar (AGS). It’s first Conference, held in Sydney in January 2011, attracted approximately forty interested people from many walks of life—not just academics by any means. Reading groups are underway in Eastern capitals (also one in a rural village called Tilba!). Annual gatherings, this website, and links to the wider Girardian world are the ways that we can help you get to know Girard, and be part of a real historical breakthrough in human understanding.