After Wollheim: The Richard Wollheim Centenary Project, phase 3

Symposium

14-15 July 2026

St John’s College, Oxford

Organizers:

Louise Braddock (Independent Psychoanalytic Thought network), Elisa Galgut (University of Cape Town), Niall Gildea (Edge Hill University), Derek Matravers (Open University).

The organizers invite expressions of interest for short papers to be given a two-day symposium to be held at St John’s College, Oxford, on July 14-15 2026. Applications to give a short paper responding to the workshop theme are invited from within and outside the academy. Structured around small interdisciplinary panels and emphasising conversation across the disciplines, the meeting is intended to explore the relation between art, including literature, and psychoanalysis with reference, though not exclusively so, to Wollheim’s work.

Speakers include:

International: Elisa Galgut (philosophy, Cape Town), Louise Gyler (Australian Psychoanalytical Society, Sydney), Anna-Lisa Sander (doctoral student in philosophy, Heidelberg).

UK-based: David Collins (philosophy, Cambridge), Charlie Gere (media, film and culture, Lancaster), Derek Matravers (philosophy, Open University).

Theme:

It is well known, if not particularly well understood, that core notions in Wollheim’s philosophy of art depend on his commitment to the psychoanalytic model of the mind owed to Freud and developed by Klein.  Many themes and ideas link Wollheim’s philosophy of art and psychoanalytic thought, in particular complex projection which both underpins his account of expression and plays a role in his account of the creation of, and understanding of, painting. Also prominent are conceptions of affect and drive drawn from Freud, and phantasy and subject-object relations in Kleinian theory. Most broadly, art for Wollheim could be said to be the link between corporeality and aesthetic experience; the ‘voice’ of the unconscious.

Hence the body is central, both to Wollheim’s psychoanalytic philosophy of mind and to his philosophy of art. Predominantly, the flow of his ideas has been from psychoanalysis into the philosophy of art, where their influence is largely recognized and integrated into the canon. But while philosophical understanding of art has benefited from Wollheim’s understanding of the mind, gained from psychoanalysis, equally his understanding of the mind was formed by his understanding of art. The colloquium will open up this line of enquiry onto the less-explored flow of ideas from art to the psychoanalytic picture of the mind.  

The symposium is organised as part of the Richard Wollheim Centenary Project, a programme of the Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Thought network. It receives support from St John’s College, the British Society of Aesthetics, and the Independent Social Research Foundation.

Attendance will be in-room only. The organizers hope to subsidize reasonable costs for  accommodation and/or travel; please feel free to contact us to discuss this.

Please email your title and abstract (maximum 300 words), and title, for a 20-minute paper to: wollheimcentenary@gmail.com with ‘Wollheim Symposium 2026’ in the subject line, by 31 March 2026. All submissions will be evaluated on merit only; please ensure your text is anonymised.