International Summer School in Affective Sciences

Website: https://www.unige.ch/cisa/education/summer-school-issas/issas-2026/

Dates: 30-Jun-2026 - 07-Jul-2026
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

We are delighted to announce the 11th edition of our International Summer School in Affective Sciences (ISSAS 2026), which will take place from June 30th to July 7th 2026 at the Château de Bossey, an 18th century manor house located in an outstanding natural environment overlooking Lake Geneva and the French Alps.

This year the topic of the summer school, which is organized by the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, is “Emotions and Sustainability”. Some of the world's leading experts and a selected group of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers working on the topic will explore together how emotions shape and are shaped by the current environmental crises, and how emotions intersect with environmental action at the individual and at the systemic level.

The topic will be addressed in a highly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary manner, with plenary lectures by internationally renowned scholars from psychology, philosophy, communication sciences, political science, and innovation studies. In addition, the summer school will leverage the strong existing collaboration between the CISA and the UN Geneva. A number of workshops will be organized jointly with the UN Beyond Lab to explore how insights from the affective sciences can be implemented in the context of concrete sustainability problems, and we will have the opportunity to visit the UN premises in Geneva. Finally, students will work on hands-on student group projects that will be presented at the end of the summer school.

Confirmed speakers include:
1. Kristina Bogner (Utrecht University)
2. Susan Clayton (Wooster College)
3. Victor Galaz Rodriguez (Stockholm University)
4. Matthew Goldberg (Yale University)
5. Simon Koschut (Zeppelin University)
6. Edward Mishaud (Beyond Lab Geneva)
7. Darrel Moellendorf (University of Frankfurt)
8. Panu Pihkala (University of Helsinki)
9. Claudia Schneider (University of Canterbury)

The wide-ranging program, timely topic, and hands-on orientation make ISSAS 2026 a highly attractive event for young researchers from different disciplines. They will have the opportunity to form strong professional ties with each other as well as with the invited faculty members, building a robust scientific network even at an early stage in their career.

We would be grateful if you could inform the students and collaborators in your group, as well as interested colleagues elsewhere, of this event. Applications are now open (deadline March 1, 2026). More information and application link on our ISSAS site.

Tobias Brosch & Disa Sauter – scientific coordinators of ISSAS 2026
Didier Grandjean – director of the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences
On behalf of the ISSAS 2026 Scientific and Organizing Committees

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Registration Open until 01-Mar-2026

Contact Person: Cristina Soriano
Email: [email protected]