Lotman Days 2026
"The End: Finality and Renewal in Culture"
Tallinn, Estonia, June 10–12, 2026
The updated conference program can be DOWNLOADED HERE (last version 06.06.2026).
The 16th Annual Lotman Days invites participants to reflect on endings as semiotic, cultural, and existential phenomena, not only as closures, but as thresholds of renewal. How do artistic movements, political systems, religions, scientific disciplines or societies come to an end or imagine their own limits? How might we understand “the end” as a creative mechanism rather than merely a point of disappearance? What is the function and semiotic potential of narratives of “the end” in periods when endings are no longer perceived as distant, but rather as ongoing?
Registration for the 16th Lotman Days Conference is open till 30.05.2026!
150 € early bird (March 1 to April 15, 2026)
200 € late bird (April 16 to May 30, 2026)
The registration fee includes access to the full conference programme, lunches on all days, coffee breaks, a digital abstract book, and the conference reception.
Confirmed plenary speakers:
- Stef Craps, Ghent University, Belgium
- Dolly Jørgensen, University of Stavanger, Norway
- Eelco Runia, Independent researcher, Netherlands
Important dates:
- February 28, 2026 – Extended deadline for proposals
- March 1, 2026 – Notification of acceptance
- March 1 to April 15, 2026 – Early bird registration
- April 16 to May 30, 2026 – Late bird registration
- June 10 to June 12, 2026 – The conference
Organizing team at Tallinn University: Merit Maran, Tatjana Kuzovkina, Anna Simagina, Jekaterina Jablokova, Marek Tamm, Daniele Monticelli, Timur Guzairov.
About Lotman Days
The Lotman Days are an annual conference series held at Tallinn University since 2009. The aim of the the Lotman Days is to provide an interdisciplinary platform for scholars who wish to examine the dynamics of our semiotic world from different perspectives and to explore together questions that were central to Juri Lotman's scholarship. The conference is organized by the Juri Lotman Semiotics Repository in collaboration with the School of Humanities.