THEME & FORMAT

HEIDEGGER 50 YEARS ON

IS THERE STILL A GOD THAT CAN SAVE US?

A number of events are being planned to mark the centenary of the publication of Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time / Sein und Zeit in 2027. However, May 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of Heidegger’s death. Accordingly, the Philosophy Department at the University of Sussex will convene the British Society for Phenomenology Annual Conference 2026 to consider where we are 50 years on in terms of Heidegger’s legacy.

Our event is framed by Heidegger’s infamous 1966 interview with Der Spiegel (published posthumously in 1976 at Heidegger’s request), which appeared five days after his passing. Der Spiegel published the interview with a title taken from one of Heidegger’s statements in the interview: Only a God Can Save Us.

‘Heidegger 50 years on – Is There Still a God That Can Save Us?’ asks people to reflect on our times along with the many questions and themes Heidegger’s philosophy opens up. 

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Papers range from engagements with technology, art, politics, Artificial Intelligence, the continental/analytic divide (to the extent that there still is one), history, nihilism and so on. This is very much a ‘Heidegger and…’ conference, and speakers will focus on Heidegger’s own work, but also Heidegger in relation to other thinkers, those exploring interdisciplinary approaches within and beyond phenomenology, and practitioners who engage with Heideggerian themes in their work.

The team were really impressed by the range of abstracts submitted for the event during the call for abstracts, and we received some 140 presentation submissions overall (after excluding any duplications or multiple submissions after consulting those who submitted such). To make the selection, anonymized abstracts were peer reviewed by a special committee from the Philosophy Department at the University of Sussex and from the executive team at the BSP. The committee members individually scored each abstract, and the aggregate at the uppermost tiers were then selected. Focusing upon relevance to the theme and the qualities of each submission, as well as space available at the venue and the desired shape of the event, the team selected 80 of the abstracts for presentation. Speakers will confirm thier attendance during early bird registration for the event.

Event Format

• The conference will be held in person at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, over three full days from Thursday 21st to Saturday 23rd May 2026.

• Speakers will present their papers across multiple parallel tracks. Papers will be 20 minutes long, with time for questions and answers after each. Papers will be grouped into thematic panels by the organisers, except where people have submitted as part of a pre-constituted panel.

• Keynote presentations will take place over the three days of the event, and will span all tracks so all participants can attend.

• There will be an option for all people presenting a paper to have their presentation recorded for the BSP Podcast.

• There will be an optional conference meal on the second evening of the event.

British Society for Phenomenology Annual Conference 2026 convened by the 

Philosophy Department, Faculty of Media, Arts, & Humanities, University of Sussex, UK

Brighton, UK | 21 – 23 May 2026 | In-person

This site created in October 2025 for the British Society for Phenomenology Conference 2026 | British Society for Phenomenology - BSP Online