About us

The Society was founded in 1984 under the name “Canadian Society for Hermeneutics and Postmodern Thought”. Its broad purpose was to promote scholarship in several traditions of Continental philosophy by means of an annual conference and other activities. The Society's founders were Gary Madison, Anthony Kerby, John van Buren, John King, Michael Yeo and Jeff Mitscherling. Former presidents are Gary Madison, Jeff Mitscherling, Linda Fisher, Marty Fairbairn and Diane Enns. The current president is Iain Macdonald.

In 1997 the Society began publication of Symposium: Journal of the Canadian Society for Hermeneutics and Postmodern Thought, a peer-reviewed journal with an international editorial board. Its founding editor was Donald Ipperciel, who served in that capacity until 2001. Since then, the journal's editors have been Paul Fairfield and Antonio Calcagno.

The membership of the Society voted in 2004 to change its name to the “Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy” in recognition of the increasingly broad range of interests among its members. The journal was subsequently renamed Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy.

Current members include scholars and graduate students working in such fields as German Idealism, existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, critical theory, feminism, postmodernism, poststructuralism, and deconstruction, from various disciplinary approaches within the humanities, social sciences and fine arts. The Society's mission continues to be to promote original research and education in these fields through both its annual conference and its journal.