2022 will mark the 100th anniversary of Juri Lotman’s birth
On 28 February, 99 years passed since the birth of the world-famous semiotician, literary and cultural scientist Juri Lotman. Exactly one year later, Juri Lotman's 100th birthday will culminate with an international congress. Jubilee year events will continue throughout the year both in Estonia and abroad.
Juri Lotman was one of the most influential Estonian scientists of the 20th century. He was an internationally recognized semiotician and literary scholar who worked at the University of Tartu for almost 40 years. The Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics, founded by Juri Lotman, significantly shaped the development of the humanities in the world.
In the occasion of Juri Lotman’s centenary, The Estonian Semiotics Society, the Juri Lotman Semiotics Repository of Tallinn University, the Department of Semiotics and Russian Philology of the University of Tartu and the School of Humanities of Tallinn University have joined forces.
An exhibition dedicated to Lotman's life and research will be opened at the Estonian National Museum (ENM) in January next year. The exhibition is open for three months at the ENM and then travels to Europe, including Paris, St. Petersburg, Bologna, Budapest and Vilnius.
The highlight of the jubilee year is the 25th-28th International Congress "Juri Lotman's Semiosphere", which will be held both, in Tallinn and Tartu until February. The main speakers of the Congress are Aleida Assmann from the University of Konstanz, Mieke Bal from the School of Cultural Analysis of the University of Amsterdam, Sergei Nekljudov from the Russian State Humanities University, Yuri Tsivian from the University of Chicago and Boris Uspenski from the Russian State University of Economics.
In February, the digital environment "Digital Lotman" will be launched, which introduces Juri Lotman's diverse scientific heritage. The website jurilotman.ee brings together archival materials concerning him, his biography and information about published works, and introduces Lotman's main ideas in semiotics, philology and cultural history.
Lotman's birthday is not celebrated only in Estonia. The jubilee year is presented in the UNESCO anniversaries programme. In addition, a number of research events in various countries are dedicated to the anniversary, such as a session at the World Congress of Semiotics in Thessaloniki, an international conference on the scientific heritage of Umberto Eco and at the University of Bologna and in the Russian State Humanities University in Moscow.
You can find out more about the anniversary year and the ever-expanding programme of events on the website jurilotman.ee.
Additional information: Merit Rickberg, Member of the Board of the Estonian Semiotics Society and Director of the Juri Lotman Semiotics Repository, 5564 0957, merit.rickberg@jurilotman.ee