The IRL aims to promote collaborative research in philosophy (philosophy of language, philosophy of science, political theory), literature (literatures in French, world literatures, literary theory), linguistics, philology and the arts – with an opening towards the social sciences, especially on questions of democracy and environmental and medical humanities. It is based on a convergence of academic approaches: research grounded in disciplines yet open to interdisciplinarity (and to the way in which interdisciplinarity can recompose disciplines); a comparable emphasis on studies connected to specific spaces and contexts (area studies), as well as on comparative and transnational approaches; a shared desire to encourage research projects that shed light on major contemporary societal and political challenges.

The following (non-exclusive) research clusters have been singled out:

• Decentering canons and broadening corpora: digital humanities, world literatures, area studies;
• Habitability at risk: environmental and medical humanities, democracy studies;
• Truth, information, fiction;
• Language emergence;
• Textual and archaeological studies: history of writing, heritage preservation, ancient cultures

Note: The below research clusters do not constitute a restrictive list; the program will expand to include future projects.

Decentering canons and broadening corpora: digital humanities, world literatures, area studies

The University of Chicago and CNRS Humanities and Social Sciences emphasize research  grounded in specific spaces, times, and contexts, particularly those outside the West, and research in the field of digital humanities. At the University of Chicago, a strong focus on the cultures, languages and literatures of the Global South is reflected in the remarkable network of interdisciplinary “area studies” centers (Center for East Asian Studies; Center for Middle Eastern Studies; Committee on Southern Asian Studies, etc.), and in the realm of digital humanities, by a range of exceptional programs and platforms, including the Forum for Digital Culture and OCHRE, which will become key partners of the IRL, offering invaluable sets of texts and metadata for the long-term history of literature and ideas.

Working on specific texts, archives, histories, languages and contexts on the one hand, and on very large corpora seen “at a distance” by digital humanities on the other, invites us to reconsider traditional scales and paradigms of reading and analysis. Research in the fields of digital humanities and area studies allows us to decentralize, pluralize (and sometimes decolonize) the canon, expanding scholarly awareness to larger and less Western-centric corpora, ultimately fostering a more global history of literature, the humanities and social sciences. The IRL will thus serve as a space for reflection and dialogue between seemingly disparate approaches and methods: close reading and distant reading; the study of large corpora on the one hand and attention to the cultural, linguistic, poetic, historical (etc.) specificity of texts and archives on the other.

Habitability at risk: environmental and medical humanities, democracy studies

The habitability of the planet is under threat from various risks, including ecological and climate emergencies, and crises in democracy.

Drawing on insights from political theory, sociology, history, democracy studies, postcolonial studies, environmental and medical humanities, collaborative work addresses the history, forms, and conditions of democracy from a comparative and transnational perspective, while also addressing the various threats it faces, including imperialisms, authoritarianisms, new forms of censorship and enduring inequalities related to class, race, gender, or North-South divides. Collaborations also explore the diverse responses to these challenges: collective mobilizations, civic engagement and activism, critical and artistic practices and interventions.

Research between the CNRS and UChicago will focus on the planet as both a place at risk and a damaged place; on innovative theoretical, eco-critical and creative methods to address, represent, visualize and conceptualize climate change and biodiversity loss, but also the environmental, social, and political transformations and struggles at play; on reparative measures, narratives and practices in the context of the Anthropocene, or the interconnectedness of humans and non-humans. A specific emphasis is also placed on the ‘urban Anthropocene’, in light of UChicago’s pioneering role in the field of urban studies and urban ecology, and in light of the innovative interdisciplinary research today conducted at CEGU.

Collaborative research is also conducted on the ethical, historical, philosophical, discursive and social dimensions of medical practices, of health care policies and inequalities.  

Truth, information, fiction

Epistemic questions cut across philosophy, literature, and linguistics. The notion of veridicality (the judgment a speaker makes regarding the truth of an utterance) expressed through various linguistic tools, such as modalities, epistemic verbs or adverbs that qualify the strength of a judgment or grammatical particles that convey the speaker’s commitment to the truth of the utterance, will form the foundation of a scientific program that bridges linguistic theories with theories of knowledge and action.

The IRL will focus on current discussions surrounding  “phronesis,” envisaged as a method of analysing communication that emphasizes the agency of individuals in relation to acts of enunciation in public discourse. It will examine how subjects interpret the intentions behind acts of communication and recognize the linguistic and communicative strategies used to influence them. The IRL will also engage with research into the role of language in the development of rhetorical strategies such as “trolling” or “dog-whistling”, and in the context of social networks. For instance it will investigate which rhetorical tropes are most successful in manipulation, how truth or verisimilitude are constructed in social networks, why fake news is persuasive, how language manipulates logical reasoning.

Questions surrounding the notion of veridicality, and the linguistic strategies that influence judgment align with broader  inquiries about the distinction between truth and fiction, as well as theories and boundaries of truth. These issues have been explored in literary studies, particularly as contemporary literary practices challenge these conventional divisions by blending practices of documenting reality with creative transformations of facts and testimonies.

Language emergence

How do new languages emerge? This intriguing question becomes more accessible for research through the study of sign languages (used in Deaf communities) and tactile languages (used in some DeafBlind communities). The CNRS and the University of Chicago are among the leading global institutions in the study of both sign languages and tactile languages.

A key innovation in this research involves exploring the “birth” of languages. Unlike spoken languages, homesign systems and emerging sign languages offer natural examples of linguistic creation, as their development occurs in contexts of linguistic deprivation (the partial or total absence of input). The varied social environmentss in which deaf children grow up allow us to explore the transition from a non-linguistic communication system to a linguistic one: sign languages are the only human languages whose birth we can directly observe.

Collaborative research between the University of Chicago and CNRS also investigates language and language-use among DeafBlind speakers, to examine how social, historical, and interactional contexts influence the process of language creation.