26/01/2017

For several years now, numerous events have given the public the opportunity, at nightfall, to meet researchers, artists and creators so as to discover their work and share their analyses in the effervescence of authentic ‘thinking parties’. Debates of a new kind, Nights of Philosophy, Nights of Philosophers, Nuit des idées (Night of Ideas), … have won the hearts of thousands of spectators around the world, all attracted by this open and generous forum for discussion.

After accompanying these initiatives from London to Tokyo and from Buenos Aires to Rabat, the Institut français proposes to take a further step forward on 26 January 2017:

- To bring together all these Nuit des idées (Night of Ideas) on the same day, or rather the same night, all around the world
- To involve major places of knowledge and culture in France and internationally in order to promote the free circulation of ideas together
- To make this event a participative forum that invites all those who wish to propose their own Nuit des idées (Night of Ideas) this same night.

A World in Common

The Nuit des idées (Night of Ideas) will take place on 26 January 2017. The theme will be “One World” and will bring together speakers of international renown – intellectuals, researchers and artists – invited to debate in all the event partner sites and over the five continents: from Dakar to Los Angeles, including Brussels, Buenos Aires and Kathmandu, Marseilles and Paris… We also invite the general public to propose their Nuit des idées (Night of Ideas) projects: booksellers, associations, NGOs, schools, art centres, laboratories, etc. Submit your debate project here and become a relay for the Nuit des idées (Night of Ideas) throughout the world in your town/city or country.

Projects may be registered as of 1 December 2016 and until 15 January 2017. The best ones will be selected by a committee of qualified personalities and will be included on the interactive Nuit des idées (Night of Ideas) map of the world.

The Nuit des idées (Night of Ideas) benefits from support from a sponsoring committee comprised of distinguished personalities from the cultural world: Robert Badinter (Lawyer, Academic and political leader, France), Patrick Boucheron (historien, France) ; Barbara Cassin (philosophe, France), Hélène Carrère d’Encausse (Permanent Secretary of the Académie Française, France), Michaël Foessel (Philosopher, France), Esther Duflo (Economist, France and USA), Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Philosopher, Senegal), Achille Mbembe (Historian, Cameroon), Pierre Rosanvallon (Historian, France),  Anne Cheng (Sinologist, France), Maylis de Kérangal (Novelist, France), brought together under the leadership of the two event coordinators Mathieu Potte-Bonneville (Philosopher, Head of the Ideas and Knowledge Department of the Institut français) and Mark Alizart (Philosopher).

• The Nuit des idées is proposed by

• Partners