Wrocław University of Science and Technology (Poland)
Department of Science, Technology and Society Studies

September 24-25, 2026

Women have been and continue to be underrepresented in the history of philosophy. Unfortunately, pragmatism is not an exception to this current trend. The genealogy of pragmatism pays less attention to the works of those women who contributed to the movement. Jane Addams, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Alice Hamilton, Mary Parker Follett, Anna Julia Cooper, Ella Flagg Young, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Christine Ladd-Franklin, Mary White Calkins, Florence Kelley, Victoria Welby and many others are only just resurfacing in the literature, after having been cast into oblivion for decades. For those women, to pursue an academic career or to live as public intellectuals was at best a challenge, if not an impossibility. One century later, the situation is only slowly changing. Women represent almost half of the community of professional philosophers. However, women keep being less quoted, less considered and held less creditable as subjects or objects of knowledge as their male peers.  

The aim of this conference is thus to celebrate the past and current work of women researching and advancing philosophy in a pragmatist tradition and highlight their ongoing contributions to specialist academic research as well as public discourse. As the Third International Women in Pragmatism Conference will be held at Wrocław University of Science and Technology we shall be particularly discussing issues of: philosophy of science and gender equality in context of academia and research work. In times of global political uncertainty and rising tensions, we will also revive the idea of a permanent global peace, inspired by the legacy of Jane Addams: her philosophical beliefs about the possibility and necessity of establishing permanent peace and her American and international work for peace.

The conference will also promote mentoring, networking, and sharing good  practice between women working on any aspect of the pragmatist tradition,  broadly construed. Lastly, the reunion of women pragmatists should lead to the adoption of some resolutions to correct gender bias in research, teaching and  cooperation analogous to other associations of women philosophers. 

Call for Papers

Persons who self-identify as women and gender non-conform persons are encouraged to send a 300-word abstract prepared for blind-peer review to agnieszka.hensoldt@pwr.edu.pl before the 17^th of April 2026 within one of the following research areas (please give the number of the area in which you wish to be considered): 

1. HISTORY, GENEALOGIES OF PRAGMATISM, PRAGMATISM AND OTHER PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS 

2. LOGIC, METAPHYSICS, EPISTEMOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 3. AESTHETICS, THEOLOGY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY 

4. PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE, PHILOSOPHY OF MIND, PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOLOGY 

5. SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY, PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, ETHICS 6. GENDER, RACE, SEX, INTERSECTIONAL ANALYSIS 

7. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, PHILOSOPHY OF LAW, PHILOSOPHY AND ECONOMICS 

8. INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO PRAGMATISM 

Attendance is open to all persons interested in pragmatism. 

Deadline for submission: April 17, 2026 

Communication of acceptance/rejection: May 31, 2026 Conference venue: Wrocław University of Science and Technology ul. Łukasiewicza 5, Wrocław, Poland