Trust & Cooperation – Vienna Summer School 2026

Accepting applications until April 14!

Confirmed instructors:

Leah Henderson (University of Groningen),
Benjamin McMyler (University of Minnesota),
Kieran Oberman (The London School of Economics and Political Science),

Guest speakers:
Keith Harris (University of Vienna)
more to be confirmed!

dates: July 13–July 17, 2026

deadline: April 14, 2026 (see below for further details)

location: Neues Institutsgebäude (NIG), Universitätstrasse 7, 1010 Wien, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, Austria

Call for Participation

Over the course of five days participants will have the opportunity to engage with renowned experts in discussions on the topic of trust and cooperation on the interpersonal and institutional level, as well as within the contexts of climate change and immigration. Trust and cooperation have become front and center issues in today's world. The nature of global challenges - from refugees seeking asylum to the ecological crises of climate change and biodiversity loss - renders cooperation ever more crucial to overcoming them. Key questions revolve around the nature of trust and the nature of cooperation respectively, as well as around the relationship between trust and cooperation, intersecting the fields of social and political philosophy, as well as applied ethics and political epistemology.

We welcome applications from PhD students (prioritized), advanced MA students and postdoctoral researchers in philosophy and related disciplines.

Participants will explore current research in these fields, attend keynote lectures, thematic discussions and interactive workshops, as well as present their own work, and receive valuable feedback from invited scholars. The goal of this Summer School is to provide doctoral students with direct access to leading researchers whose work—whether directly or indirectly—relates to these themes.

Application & Fees
We welcome applications from PhD students (prioritized), advanced MA students and postdoctoral researchers in philosophy and related disciplines. Two modes of participation are possible: 1) attendance, 2) presentation – if they would also like to give a presentation.

To apply for participation, please send the following documents to Joachim Raich (joachim.raich@univie.ac.at):

Curriculum Vitae (max. 2 pages)
Statement of Purpose (no longer than 1 page), explaining the relevance of the summer school to your study, research, teaching and/or other professional work.
Statement of Financial Aid (optional). We can offer limited partial financial support (including the coverage of the school fees) to the participants whose home institutions cannot cover their expenses. We therefore ask the applicants who wish to be considered for funding to briefly describe their situation in the statement.
Abstract (optional; max. 250 words). If you would like to present your work at the summer school, please send us a short abstract of your presentation. The presentations should be related in a significant manner to the themes of trust and/or cooperation (from any philosophical perspective) and should be about 20 minutes long to leave enough time for discussions. Since the number of slots for student presentations is limited, this will help us decide on how to allocate them.

The maximum number of participants at the summer school will be 25. Full attendance is worth 4 ECTS.

The summer school fee is 75 Euros. The fee includes the student union fee of 25 Euros, which is required by Austrian law to register at the University of Vienna and to receive a certificate of completion of the summer school.

Please, submit your application by April 14, 23.59 CET.
Contact Email: joachim.raich@univie.ac.at
We will notify you of the decision by end of April.

Diversity Statement
We strongly encourage applications from members of disadvantaged and underrepresented groups.

Organizing Committee
Chiara Dankl
Ali Emre Benli
Eva Hijlkema
Joachim Raich

The VDP Summer School 2026 is funded by the Vienna Doctoral School of Philosophy (University of Vienna).

Visit the website for more information!