Top Events in October 2026

"The Animal
": 2026–2027 Opening Symposium

More than ever, animals have become an issue —ecological (health and environmental crises), social, economic, and political (agriculture and livestock farming), as well as legal and philosophical. In recent years, the field of animal studies has expanded considerably.

The Collège de France’s 2026 opening symposium aims to offer an in-depth exploration of some of these issues through an interdisciplinary approach combining the life and natural sciences, the humanities, literature, the history of religions, and law.

October 14–16, 2026, Collège de France (Marcelin Berthelot campus).

Michel Foucault at the Collège de France

A series of lectures accompanying the exhibition “Foucault: An Intellectual Adventure at the Collège de France.”

From September 30, 2026, to January 15, 2027, the Collège de France exhibition, in partnership with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, “Foucault: An Intellectual Adventure at the Collège de France,” invites visitors to explore Michel Foucault’s time at an institution he profoundly shaped.

The lecture series “Michel Foucault at the Collège de France,” organized by Aurèle Méthivier (Collège de France) in collaboration with Philippe Chevallier (National Library of France), aims to further this exploration by featuring both contemporaries who worked alongside Michel Foucault and scholars specializing in his work and the intellectual life of the 1970s and 1980s.

September 22 , October 13 , November 3 , November 24 , and December 15, 2026, at the Collège de France (Marcelin Berthelot campus).

Why and How Should We Innovate Today?

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Technological Innovation Liliane Bettencourt Annual Chair —created to address the challenges of innovation in scientific research—the Collège de France and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation are organizing a major symposium on the theme “Why and How to Innovate Today?”

October 8, 2026, from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Collège de France (Marcelin Berthelot campus); registration is required.

The Quest for Atmospheric
Water: Historical, Philosophical, Theological, Political, and Legal Issues

This resolutely multidisciplinary conference brings together international law, ethnography, philosophy, history, religious studies, and theology to explore a crucial question: How has humanity, both in the past and today, sought to harness this volatile resource?

October 8 and 9, 2026, at the Collège de France (Marcelin Berthelot campus).

The Cultures of Tintin: Toward the Centennial

Three years before Tintin’s centennial, this international conference—centered on Hergé’s body of work and viewed through the rigorous lens of the most recent scholarly analysis—aims to explore the prominent place and significance of his work in the 21^st century as a visual construct of social imaginaries. The Cultures of Tintin : a contemporary approach to revisiting Hergé’s work, placing it in the context of its aesthetic uses, its sociocultural reappropriations, and its centrality in the world of comics.

October 7 and 8, 2026, in Brussels (Collège Belgique-ULB) and October 12 and 13, 2026, in Paris at the Collège de France (Marcelin Berthelot campus).