Souleymane Bachir Diagne and Guéorgui Gospodinov, Honorary Doctors at Inalco

A look back at the ceremony on March 30, 2026

Each honorary doctorate ceremony, through the authors and thinkers it honors, is an opportunity to recall strong institutional values and commitments. This year, Inalco wanted to place this moment under the sign of universalism: in a world increasingly fragmented and prone to division, where intimidation and violence are presented as a legitimate way of thinking about the relationship with the other, the works of Souleymane Bachir Diagne and Georgy Gospodinov each resonate as vibrant calls to resist, by reinvesting in particular the values of empathy and benevolence.

In the round table "Thinking and writing about the human today", Souleymane Bachir Diagne and Guéorgui Gospodinov thus lead us to question what it means to be human in the contemporary world, beyond identitarisms and nationalisms.

Recipients' biographies

Souleymane Bachir Diagne

An internationally renowned Senegalese philosopher, Souleymane Bachir Diagne is Professor of Philosophy and French at Columbia University in New York. A specialist in the history of science, logic and Islamic philosophy, his thought is deeply influenced by the dialogue between African, Islamic and Western philosophical traditions. His work, translated and discussed worldwide, questions the languages of thought, the circulation of ideas and the conditions of a universal humanism. Committed to intellectual and civic life, he has been working for several decades for a philosophy of dialogue, hospitality and cultural plurality.

Georgui Gospodinov

The most widely read and translated Bulgarian writer, poet and playwright of his generation, Georgi Gospodinov is the author of a major body of work in contemporary European literature. His novels, poems and essays, acclaimed by numerous international prizes including the International Booker Prize (2023), explore individual and collective memory, and empathy for fragile, marginalized existences. Her writing, at once intimate and universal, renews narrative forms and questions the human condition in an era of major historical, social and political upheaval.