Prof. Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Short-Term Fellow
September 2026
Bio
Souleymane Bachir Diagne is Professor Emeritus of French and Philosophy at Columbia University. Born in Saint-Louis, Senegal, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, obtained the agrégation in philosophy in 1978, and completed his Doctorat d’État in philosophy at the Sorbonne in 1988. Before joining Columbia in 2008, he taught at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar and at Northwestern University.
His research encompasses the histories of philosophy, logic, and mathematics, as well as Islamic philosophy, African philosophy, and African literature. His work explores connections between European, African, and Islamic philosophical traditions, including Henri Bergson’s influence on Léopold Sédar Senghor and Muhammad Iqbal. He has written on African art and Negritude, philosophical reasoning in Islamic intellectual traditions, and debates about universalism and decolonization. His writing on universalism asks how a shared humanity can be developed through dialogue among different traditions and experiences. He also examines translation as a form of hospitality, attending both to dialogue across languages and to inequalities shaped by colonial histories.
Diagne received the Édouard Glissant Prize in 2011. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Senegalese Academy of Sciences and Techniques, and an associate member of the Royal Academy of Belgium and the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco.
Research
History of Philosophy, Islamic Philosophy, Intercultural Philosophy
Regions
West Africa
Languages
French, English, Wolof
books
Books in English
Ubuntu: Conversations with Françoise Blum, Cambridge: Polity, 2026.
From Language to Language: The Hospitality of Translation, New York: Other Press, 2025.
African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude, New York: Other Press, 2023 (new edition; first English edition: London: Seagull Books, 2011).
In Search of Africa(s): Universalism and Decolonial Thought, Cambridge: Polity, 2020 (with Jean-Loup Amselle).
Postcolonial Bergson, New York: Fordham University Press, 2019.
Open to Reason: Muslim Philosophers in Conversation with the Western Tradition, New York: Columbia University Press, 2018.
The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa, Dakar: CODESRIA, 2016.
Islam and Open Society: Fidelity and Movement in the Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal, Dakar: CODESRIA, 2010.
Identity and Beyond: Rethinking Africanity, Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2001 (with Amina Mama, Henning Melber, and Francis B. Nyamnjoh).
The Cultural Question in Africa: Issues, Politics and Research Prospects, Dakar: CODESRIA, 1996 (with Henri Ossébi).
Books in French
L’hospitalité: Affirmer l’humanité, Paris: Autrement, forthcoming October 2026.
Les Universels du Louvre, Paris: Albin Michel / Musée du Louvre, 2025.
Universaliser: « L’humanité par les moyens d’humanité », Paris: Albin Michel, 2024.
Ubuntu: Entretien avec Françoise Blum, Paris: Éditions de l’EHESS, 2024.
De langue à langue: L’hospitalité de la traduction, Paris: Albin Michel, 2022.
Le fagot de ma mémoire, Paris: Philippe Rey, 2021.
La controverse: Dialogue sur l’islam, Paris: Stock / Philosophie Magazine Éditeur, 2019 (with Rémi Brague).
Suis-je le gardien de mon frère ?, Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon, 2019 (with Jean-Marie Gueullette, Delphine Horvilleur, and Frédéric Worms).
En quête d’Afrique(s): Universalisme et pensée décoloniale, Paris: Albin Michel, 2018 (with Jean-Loup Amselle).
Philosopher en islam et en christianisme, Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2016 (with Philippe Capelle-Dumont; interviews conducted by Damien Le Guay).
L’encre des savants: Réflexions sur la philosophie en Afrique, Paris: Présence Africaine / Dakar: CODESRIA, 2013.
Bergson postcolonial: L’élan vital dans la pensée de Léopold Sédar Senghor et de Mohamed Iqbal, Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2011.
Comment philosopher en islam ?, Paris: Éditions du Panama, 2008; reissued Paris: Philippe Rey / Dakar: Jimsaan, 2013.
Léopold Sédar Senghor: L’art africain comme philosophie, Paris: Riveneuve Éditions, 2007.
100 mots pour dire l’islam, Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2002.
Islam et société ouverte: La fidélité et le mouvement dans la pensée de Muhammad Iqbal, Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2001.
Reconstruire le sens: Textes et enjeux de prospectives africaines, Dakar: CODESRIA, 2000.
La question culturelle en Afrique: Contextes, enjeux et perspectives de recherche, Dakar: CODESRIA, 1996 (with Henri Ossébi).
Logique pour philosophes, Dakar: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines du Sénégal, 1991.
Boole, 1815–1864: L’oiseau de nuit en plein jour, Paris: Belin, 1989.
Edited volumes
Religion et ritualité, Strasbourg: Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, 2021.
Les sciences sociales au Sénégal: Mise à l’épreuve et nouvelles perspectives, Dakar: CODESRIA, 2016 (co-edited with Mamadou Diouf).
Tombouctou: Pour une histoire de l’érudition en Afrique de l’Ouest, Dakar: CODESRIA / Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2011 (co-edited with Shamil Jeppie; French translation of The Meanings of Timbuktu).
Conflit ou dialogue des civilisations: Une alternative mal posée ?, Casablanca: Fondation du Roi Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud pour les Études Islamiques et les Sciences Humaines, 2009.
The Meanings of Timbuktu, Cape Town: HSRC Press in association with CODESRIA, 2008 (co-edited with Shamil Jeppie).
Temps et développement dans la pensée de l’Afrique subsaharienne / Time and Development in the Thought of Subsaharan Africa, Amsterdam / Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1998 (co-edited with Heinz Kimmerle).
Gaston Berger: Introduction à une philosophie de l’avenir, Dakar: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines du Sénégal, 1997.
Autour de la méthode: De Descartes à Feyerabend, Dakar: Presses universitaires de Dakar, 1995.
La culture du développement, Dakar: CODESRIA, 1991.
Articles
“Restituer pour partager”, Hommes & migrations 1340, 2023, pp. 73–78.
“Negritude, Universalism, and Socialism”, Symposium 26 (1–2), 2022, pp. 213–223.
“Philosophie africaine, traduction et hétéroglossie”, Lendemains 45 (177), 2020, pp. 18–25.
“Theology and Philosophy of Pluralism”, Review of Middle East Studies 54 (2), 2020, pp. 289–293.
“Pour une histoire postcoloniale de la philosophie”, Cités 72, 2017, pp. 81–93.
“‘Philosophie africaine’: histoire d’une expression”, International Journal of Francophone Studies 18 (2–3), 2015, pp. 385–394.
“On the Postcolonial and the Universal?”, Rue Descartes 78 (2), 2013, pp. 7–18.
“Individual, Community, and Human Rights”, Transition 101, 2009, pp. 8–15.
“Bergson in the Colony: Intuition and Duration in the Thought of Senghor and Iqbal”, Qui Parle 17 (1), 2008, pp. 125–145.
“Rhythms: L. S. Senghor’s Negritude as a Philosophy of African Art”, Critical Interventions 1 (1), 2007, pp. 51–68.
“Islam and Philosophy: Lessons from an Encounter”, Diogenes 51 (2), 2004, pp. 123–128.
“Revisiter « La Philosophie bantoue ». L’idée d’une grammaire philosophique”, Politique africaine 77, 2000, pp. 44–53.
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