On the Orientalists’ Divan
Au divan des Orientalistes
Questions of Reflexivity from the 18th to the 21st Centuries
Questions de réflexivité aux XVIIIe-XXIe siècles
Published on Monday, May 11, 2026
Abstract
The academic aim of this conference is to highlight the explicit and conscious relationship between the scholar and their subject of study, and to capture the reflexivity of Orientalists. We invite you to explore the intellectual world of academic Orientalists – philologists, archaeologists, historians, sociologists, anthropologists and linguists – as well as that of Orientalists from other professional backgrounds – publishers, booksellers and librarians. How did those who sought to produce or classify knowledge about the East navigate this essential back-and-forth between questioning their choice of research topics and maintaining a degree of detachment in order to construct more effective analytical frameworks?
Announcement
Organisation
organised by Madalina Vârtejanu-Joubert and Nicolas Pitsos
Argument
Do Orientalists see themselves as such? This is essentially the question posed for this meeting.
A question with many meanings, if ever there was one, for what is the Orient, and what is an Orientalist? It is well known that the East is not only a geographical reality but also an imaginary one, as North Africa and the Maghreb/‘West’—are often included within it. The East is also a diverse collection of regions—the Balkans, the Levant, the Near East, the Middle East and the Far East—whose boundaries have shifted over time. Despite its fluctuations, this concept continues to endure and to shape a certain aspect of the geography of knowledge. So much so that in China, at Peking University, a three-part division remained in place until 1983, comprising a department of ‘Western Languages and Literatures’, another of ‘Russian Language and Literature’, and a third covering ‘Eastern Languages and Literatures’. Thus, the concept of the Orient cannot be understood solely in terms of geopolitical fluidity, but also in terms of its crystallisation as a field of study.
Before it became a pejorative term associated with a form of -ism, in this case ‘Orientalism’, those who studied the East referred to themselves as Orientalists. One example of this is the ‘International Congress of Orientalists’, which was held annually between 1873 and 1912[1]. But what is the story behind this self-designation? How does this sense of family develop, and how does this awareness of belonging to a distinct branch of specialists come about? For some, the East is a single entity requiring encyclopaedic knowledge; for others, the technical nature of source analysis leads to specialisation[2].
The academic aim of this conference is to highlight the explicit and conscious relationship between the scholar and their subject of study, and to capture the reflexivity of Orientalists—that ‘close, intimate and entirely personal bond they maintain with their work’. Researchers are invited to catch Orientalists in the act of ‘explaining, as historians, the link between the history we have made and the history that has made us’, to borrow and expand upon the words of Pierre Nora[3].
Autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, correspondence, and book prefaces are all potential sources of such traces. They can also be found in footnotes or in the introductions to more detailed articles.
We invite you to explore the intellectual world of academic Orientalists – philologists, archaeologists, historians, sociologists, anthropologists and linguists – as well as that of Orientalists from other professional backgrounds – publishers, booksellers and librarians. How did those who sought to produce or classify knowledge about the East navigate this essential back-and-forth between questioning their choice of research topics and maintaining a degree of detachment in order to construct more effective analytical frameworks? Did they reflect on the reasons that led them to undertake a particular line of research, publish a particular journal, or establish criteria for classifying a particular collection? Did they situate themselves within a historical context? Did they recognise any social or political determinism?
Submission guidelines
If you wish to participate in this conference, which will be held in Paris on March 15 and 16, 2027, please send your proposal—in English or French, no longer than 1,500 characters—along with a brief biographical and bibliographical note to reflexorient2027@gmail.com by September 15, 2026. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in late September 2027. The working languages of this conference will be English and French.
Scientific Committee
- Simona Corlan-Ioan (University of Bucharest)
- Cristina Ion, (National Library of France)
- Aleksandra Kolaković (Institute of Political Studies, Belgrade)
- Frosa Pejoska-Bouchereau, (PLIDAM/INALCO)
- Nicolas Pitsos (CREE/INALCO, BULAC)
- Madalina Vârtejanu-Joubert (PLIDAM/INALCO)
- Jean-Michel Butel (INALCO, IFRAE)
Notes
[1] Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn, « « Les grandes assises de l’orientalisme ». La question interculturelle dans les congrès internationaux des orientalistes (1873-1912) », Revue germanique internationale, 12 | 2010, 47-67.
[2] Suzanne L. Marchand, German Orientalism in the Age of Empire, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009.
[3] Pierre Nora (dir.), Essais d’ego-histoire, Gallimard, Paris, 1987, p. xxxiii-iv.
Subjects
- History (Main category)
- Society > Science studies > History of science
- Mind and language > Representation > Cultural history
- Mind and language > Thought > Intellectual history
- Periods > Early modern
- Periods > Modern
- Mind and language > Epistemology and methodology > Epistemology
- Mind and language > Epistemology and methodology > Historiography
Places
- Inalco, 2 rue de Lille
Paris, France (75007)
Event attendance modalities
Full on-site event
Date(s)
- Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Attached files
Keywords
- orientaliste, réflexivité
Contact(s)
- Madalina Vârtejanu-Joubert
courriel : madalina [dot] vartejanu-joubert [at] inalco [dot] fr
Reference Urls
Information source
- Nicolas Pitsos
courriel : nicolas [dot] pitsos [at] bulac [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« On the Orientalists’ Divan », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, May 11, 2026, https://doi.org/10.58079/16761
