The Kierkegaard Library hosts lectures and other research activities throughout the year. Here, you will find details to upcoming events. Please feel free to email hkl@stolaf.edu with any questions.
The Kierkegaard Summer Institute (KSI) of the Kierkegaard Library is pleased to announce the 2025 Internal Seminars Series. All sessions are in person. A schedule of events can be found below (with time and location). All are welcome!
Presley Martins: “Revisiting the Book of Job: Kierkegaard’s Lens on The Tree of Life”
Date: June 5, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Kierkegaard Library (Steensland Hall), Lower Level
Niklas Goldenthal: “Faith and Articulation in Fear and Trembling”
Date: June 12, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Kierkegaard Library (Steensland Hall), Lower Level
Troy Wellington Smith: “Translating Thomasine Gyllembourg’s Two Ages”
Date: June 17, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Kierkegaard Library (Steensland Hall), Lower Level
Roe Fremstedal: “The Ethical and the Religious”
Date: June 20, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Kierkegaard Library (Steensland Hall), Lower Level
Alexander Jech: “Dialectical Lyric”
Date: June 26, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Kierkegaard Library (Steensland Hall), Lower Level
Amber Bowen: “Kierkegaardian Hope: A Hermeneutical Virtue”
Date: July 3, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Kierkegaard Library (Steensland Hall), Lower Level
Presenter and topic TBA
Date: July 10, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Regents Hall of Natural Sciences, room 290
Sophie Höfer: “Kierkegaard and Jacobi on Curiosity, Explanation, and Truth”
Date: July 17, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Regents Hall of Natural Sciences, room 290
Presenter and topic TBA
Date: July 24, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Regents Hall of Natural Sciences, room 290
Presenter and topic TBA
Date: July 29, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Regents Hall of Natural Sciences, room 290
Mark Wrathall will lead our Utech Seminars during KSI 2025! Please see here fore more details.
Where: Regents Hall of Natural Sciences 290, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota
When:
Seminar 1: 2:00-4:00pm on Tuesday, July 22
Title: “Time, Eternity, and the Moment: Kierkegaard and the Temporality of Existence”
Seminar 2: 2:00-4:00pm on Wednesday, July 23
Title: “Kierkegaardian Temporality and 20th Century Phenomenologies of Time”
This annual lecture series is held in honor of St. Olaf College alum George W. Utech, ’53 and made possible by a generous donation from the Utech family. With this endowed lectureship, we bring a world-renowned scholar to the Library each summer to deliver two public lectures on campus and to engage with Research Fellows attending our Kierkegaard Summer Institute.
The Tenth International Kierkegaard Conference will be hosted by the Kierkegaard Library from June 15-19, 2026. The conference theme is “Readings of Kierkegaard.” For more information please see the Call for Papers here.
Past Events
Please view the following archives of events including the Julia Watkin Memorial Lectures, the Utech Seminars, the KSI Internal Seminar Series, the Poul Lübcke Memorial Lecture Series, and other talks by Kierkegaard scholars. Recordings are included when available.
The Julia Watkin Memorial Lecture series was inaugurated in 2006 in memory of Dr. Julia Watkin, (1944–2005) a leading scholar in the field of Kierkegaard studies.
Spring 2025
“Where’s the Archimedean Point? Kierkegaard on Existential Orientation in Life’s Crises”
Speaker: Claudia Welz, Aarhus University, Denmark
More information here.
Fall 2024
“The Enigma of Adler’s Revelation“ Recording
Speaker: Jon Stewart, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia
More information here.
Spring 2024
“The Kierkegaardian Text“ Recording
Speaker: Joakim Garff, Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, University of Copenhagen
More information here.
Fall 2023
“The Existential Need of Anxiety: Kierkegaard and the Current Mental Health Crisis” Recording
Speaker: René Rosfort, Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
More information here.
Spring 2023
“Thought Projects and Imaginary Constructions: Kierkegaard’s Experimenting Mind” Recording
Speaker: Eleanor Helms, California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California
More information here.
Fall 2022
“My Walk with Kierkegaard: Agreements and Disagreements” Recording
Speaker: Gordon Marino, Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, Minnesota
More information here.
Fall 2021
“Dare to Rejoice” Recording
Speakers: Carson S. Webb, Piedmont University, and Gordon Marino, Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College
Spring 2021
“Kierkegaard and Luther: What Søren Kierkegaard Lauded, Lanced, Missed, and Misjudged of Martin Luther” Recording
Speaker: David Coe, Concordia University, Minnesota
Fall 2020
“The Responsibility to Revolt: Søren Kierkegaard and the Politics of Love” Recording
Speaker: Jamie Aroosi, New York University, New York
Spring 2020
“Kierkegaard’s Critique of Nationalism Reconsidered” Recording
Speaker: Thomas J. Millay, Baylor University, Texas
Fall 2019
“Kierkegaard on the Transformative Power of Art”
Speaker: Antony Aumann, Northern Michigan University, Michigan
Spring 2019
“What Makes Kierkegaard ‘Biblical’?” Recording
Speaker: Carl Hughes, Texas Lutheran University, Texas
Fall 2018
“Crashing Into One’s Self: Decisive Encounters with the Wisdom of Kierkegaard & the Value of First Person Responses” Recording
Speaker: Jamie Lorentzen, Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, Minnesota
Spring 2017
“Kierkegaard and Nature” Recording
Speaker: Anthony Rudd, St. Olaf College, Minnesota
Spring 2016
“Kierkegaard on Narcissism and Self-Love” Recording
Speaker: Sergia Hay, Pacific Lutheran University, Washington
Fall 2015
“Kierkegaard and His Reader” Recording
Speaker: John Poling, Saint Mary’s University, Minnesota
Fall 2014
“Kierkegaard Crumbs: ‘For to be in Existence is Always a Bit Inconvenient’” Recording
Speaker: David Cain, University of Mary Washington, Virginia
Fall 2013
“Søren Kierkegaard: In the Wake of the Flying Geese” Recording
Speaker: Rune Engebretsen, Kierkegaard House Foundation
Fall 2012
“Inherited Sin: Kierkegaard on Guilt Against Generations”
Speaker: Ronald Green, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Fall 2011
“Kierkegaard and the Subjectivity in Being the Truth”
Speaker: Poul Lübcke
Fall 2010
“Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling: The Poetry of Suffering”
Speaker: Vanessa Rumble, Boston College, Massachusetts
Fall 2009
“Bonhoeffer to His Fiancée: ‘Take a Strong Dose of Kierkegaard!’”
Speaker: Andrew Burgess, University of New Mexico, New Mexico
Fall 2008
“Poetry, History, and Humanity: A Historian Reads Kierkegaard”
Speaker: Bruce Kirmmse, Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, Cøpenhagen
Fall 2007
“Kierkegaard: Father of Existentialism or Critic of Existentialism”
Speaker: Stephan Evans, Baylor University, Texas
Fall 2006
“‘With the Help of Ideals—Against Illusions: For Eternity!’ Kierkegaard’s Critique of Christendom”
Speaker: Robert Perkins, Stetson University, Florida
The George Utech Memorial Series is an annual two-day, intensive seminar led by an expert in the field of Kierkegaard studies. It is made possible by a generous donation from the Utech family in honor of St. Olaf College alum and Kierkegaard enthusiast , George W. Utech ’53.
2025 – Mark Wrathall, Oxford University
July 22: “Time, Eternity, and the Moment: Kierkegaard and the Temporality of Existence”
July 23: “Kierkegaardian Temporality and 20th Century Phenomenologies of Time”
More information here.
2024 – Begonya Saya Tajafuerce, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
“On the Truth of Truth: Exploring Kierkegaard’s Epistemological Anarchism”
June 27: “A Kind of Magic: Irony and Image on Display”
June 28: “The Image of the Self of Kierkegaard as an Illusion”
More information here.
2023 – Iben Damgaard, Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, University of Copenhagen
June 13 & 15: “The question of dignity and recognition in Kierkegaard’s Works of Love”
2022 – Roe Fremstedal, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
June 23rd: “Kierkegaard’s ‘Naked Abstract Self’: Minimal, Transcendental, Ironic, or Narrative Self?”
July 27th: “Kierkegaard on Faith and Reason”
2021 – Sharon Krishek, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“Kierkegaardian Selfhood and Romantic Love”: July 7 Recording & July 8 Recording
2020 – Clare Carlisle, King’s College, London
“Kierkegaard: Writing a Life”
2019 – Jacob Howland, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma
“Kierkegaard Reflections on The Sickness Unto Death”
2017 – Patrick Stokes, Deakin University
“Consciousness, Reflection, and Subjectivity”: Part 1 and Part 2
2016 – Vincent McCarthy, Saint Joseph’s University, Pennsylvania
Day 1: “Kierkegaard and Psychology before Psychology”
Day 2: “Did Heidegger Plagiarize Kierkegaard?”
2015 – Poul Lübcke
“Aesthetics, Religion, and the Crisis of Metaphysics”
2014 – Lee Barrett, Lancaster Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania
“St. Augustine and Kierkegaard”
2013 – Richard Crouter, Carleton College, Minnesota
“Schleiermacher and the Persistence of Romanticism”
2012 – John Davenport, Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, New York
2011 – Jon Stewart, Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia
2010 – Ed Mooney, Professor at Syracuse University, New York
2024 Internal Seminars were led by the following Kierkegaard Summer Institute (KSI) Research Fellows:
6.7.2024 – Jeff Matheson led a seminar on the topic of Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling.
6.14.2024 – Suzan ten Heuw led a seminar on the topic of “Kierkegaard’s Thinking About the Self in Light of His Relation to Fichte.”
6.21.2024 – Noah Valdez led a seminar on the topic of “Nemo contra deum nisi deus ipse: Or, Kierkegaard, Schmitt, and the Closure of the Problem of Political Theology.”
7.5.2024 – Z Quanbeck led a seminar on the topic of “Doubt’s Despair: Kierkegaard on Moral Responsibility for Believing.”
7.10.2024 – David Heckerl led a seminar on the topic of “Vouching for the Unconditional.”
7.12.2024 – Christopher Nelson led a seminar on the topic of “This disastrous confusion of politics and Christianity, Revisited, Again.”
7.19.2024 – Presley Martins led a seminar on the topic of “Faith, Love, and Hope in the Valley of Shadow and Death: A Kierkegaardian Existential Perspective.”
7.26.2024 – Wendy Hao Wang led a seminar on the topic of “Stephen Mulhall on Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein: Analogical Nonsense and Living the Great Riddle of Our Life.”
The Kierkegaard Library summer programming took place online in 2021:
June 9, 2021 – Marcia Robinson, Syracuse University
Recording – “Out over 70,000 Fathoms with the Lilies and the Birds: Easter as Philosophia in Kierkegaard’s 1849 Discourses on the Lilies and the Birds”
June 16, 2021 – Frances Maughen-Brown, College of the Holy Cross
Recording – “The Call in the Response: Kierkegaard’s Patterns”
June 23, 2021 – Antony Aumann, Northern Michigan University
Recording—“Kierkegaard on Risk, Loss, and Finding Happiness”
June 30, 2021 – Jason Mahn, Augustana College
Recording —“Kierkegaard and Camus on Neighbor Love through Pandemics”
July 14, 2021 – Rick Furtak, Colorado College
Recording—“Love of the Individual”
July 21, 2021 – Ulrika Carlsson, Athens
Recording —“You are what you love”
July 28, 2021 – Matias Tapia Wende, Universidad de Los Andes
Recording – “‘Hazlo en el nombre de Dios’: El asunto de conciencia en Kierkegaard“ / “‘In God’s Name Do So’: Kierkegaard on Matters of Conscience”
During the summer and fall of 2020, the Kierkegaard Library hosted the online Poul Lübcke Memorial Lecture series in honor of the Danish philosopher and Kierkegaard scholar Poul Lübcke (1951-2020).
June 10, 2020 – Gordon Marino, Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, Minnesota
“Danish Lessons”
June 17, 2020 – Vanessa Rumble, Boston College, Massachusetts
“Kierkegaard’s Vendepunkt: Reflections on Shame and the Categories of Crisis”
June 24, 2020 – Sergia Hay, Andover College, Massachusetts
“Ethical Purposes of Silence”
July 1, 2020 – Troy Wellington Smith, University of California, Berkeley
“The Blotting Paper on a Heavenly Letter: Johannes Climacus on the Hegelian Paratext”
July 15, 2020 – Charles Djordevic, St. Olaf College, Minnesota
“Description as a Doing: Wittgenstein, Kierkegaard, and the Impossibility of Disinterested Depiction”
July 22, 2020 – Deidre Green, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California
“Transforming Love”
July 29, 2020 – J. Aaron Simmons, Furman University, South Carolina
“Militant Liturgies: Practicing Christianity with Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and Weil”
September 29, 2020 – Patrick Stokes, Deakin University, Melbourne
Recording—”To Eternity by Telegram: Time and Judgment in The Sickness unto Death”
October 22, 2020 – Nigel Hatton, University of California, Merced
Recording—Kierkegaard and the Ethics of Advocating on Behalf of Others
The first International Kierkegaard Conference hosted by the Hong Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf College was held in 1985. Since then, we have welcomed the International Kierkegaard community to Northfield, Minnesota about every four years for a multi-day conference, usually in summer, with a series of papers, panels, workshop, banquets, and other events. Information on past conferences can be found below. For the upcoming conference in June 2026, find more information here.
2022 – Ninth International Kierkegaard Conference
“Kierkegaardian Perspectives and Prescriptions on Mental Health Issues”
More information here.
2018 – Eighth International Kierkegaard Conference
“The Wisdom of Kierkegaard: What Existential Lessons have you Learned from Him?”
More information here and here.
2013 – Seventh International Kierkegaard Conference
“In honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Søren Kierkegaard”
More information here. The Plenary address can be viewed here.
2010 – Sixth International Kierkegaard Conference
“Why Kierkegaard Still Matters”
More information here and here.
2005 – Fifth International Kierkegaard Conference
“Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks”
More information here.
2001 – Fourth International Kierkegaard Conference
“Continental (or deconstructive) readings of Kierkegaard”
More information here and here.
1997 – Third International Kierkegaard Conference
“Kierkegaard’s Concept of Authority and Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Anthropology”
More information here.
1988 – Second International Kierkegaard Conference
“Kierkegaard as a Religious Thinker”
More information here.
1985 – International Kierkegaard Conference
“Kierkegaard and Contemporary Philosophy”
More information here.
The Kierkegaard Library regularly hosts lectures, conferences, seminars, and workshops that help foster dialogue and advance Kierkegaard studies. Below is a selection of recent events. Click on the links (where applicable) to see abstracts or programs, or the recordings (where available) to view the talks.
March 17-18, 2025 – “Kierkegaard in Brazil: A Fragment,” Online Conference
Hosted by the Kierkegaard Library, organized by Victor Fernandes and Presley Martins
More information here.
October 20, 2024 – “The Daemon of Negativity in Kierkegaard”
Co-hosted by the Kierkegaard Library and the Enduring Questions Program
Guest lecture by Visiting Scholar, Lucas Lazzaretti, Brazil
More information here.
October 16, 2024 – “Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky on Heaven and Earth”
Plenary Lecture at Annual Friends of the Kierkegaard Library Banquet
Guest lecture by Visiting Scholar, Maxwell Parlin
March 13-15, 2024 – “Kierkegaard & the Negative: Re-Examining the Dialectical,” Online Conference
Co-hosted by the Kierkegaard Library and the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, organized by Anna Strelis Söderquist, K. Brian Söderquist, and René Rosfort
More information here.
Spring 2024 – “Kierkegaard and Vocation Lecture Series”
Co-hosted by the Kierkegaard Library and the Lutheran Center for Faith and Values, sponsored by the NetVUE – Life on Purpose Grant
Guest speaker: Deidre Green, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California
More information here.
January 21, 2021 – Online Conference
Recording – “Taking Kierkegaard Personally”
July 25, 2017 – Paul Houe
Recording – “Liberal Democracy between Liberalism and Absolutism”
Summer 2017 – David Lappanno
Recording – Talk on book, Søren Kierkegaard’s Theology of Encounter
Past News & Announcements
The Kierkegaard Library is pleased to announce the publication of the first issue of our journal, The International Journal of Kierkegaard Research (IJKR).
This issue features peer-reviewed articles, a selected student submission, book reviews, and an invited contribution. We are thrilled to work with such a wide range of contributors, from graduate students to senior scholars.
Please take a look at our website to learn about our mission and read this issue. We thank you for your support!
We are delighted to share a new resource – “Kierkegaard in Copenhagen: A Walking Tour.”
This guide allows you to explore Kierkegaard’s Denmark from your home, or you can use it to lead an exploration throughout beautiful Copenhagen, as well as Northern Zealand.
K. Brian Söderquist solicited the help of St. Olaf student, Madeline Altman ’25, to develop an interactive map of Kierkegaard’s life. “Kierkegaard in Copenhagen” consists of 31 sites that contextualize the life and work of the Danish thinker. Each map location includes photos and background information, as well as quotes and references to Kierkegaard’s related work.
Explore this resource for yourself:
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1a8a28d1d78b41dba284f29683e82d00