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On Saturday, April 18, 2026, Vice-Rector for Research Benoît Champagne and Professor Anne-Catherine Heuskin, a Télévie project sponsor, represented the UNamur community on the set of the Télévie gala. On this occasion, they presented a check for 20,000 euros to support this FRS-FNRS initiative, which raises funds to finance numerous research projects at universities in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, with one goal: to improve treatments for this disease, which now affects nearly 80,000 new patients and claims nearly 30,000 lives each year in Belgium. 

A plant does not seem to have much in common with animals. Yet naturalists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries attempted to study plants as if they were animals: they set out, for example, to find an equivalent to the circulatory or respiratory systems. Why did they feel the need to resort to analogical reasoning? What results did they obtain? And more generally, what is the value of this type of reasoning?On the agendaTuesday, May 5, 202612:15 PM – Welcome and light lunch1:30 PM – Introductory remarksThibault De Meyer (University of Namur): Why Analogy?2:15 PM – Session 1: Theory and Practice - Cristiana Oghina-Pavie (University of Angers): The analogy of pragmatic knowledge: actions and transactions in 19th-century horticulture and Quentin Hiernaux (FNRS / Free University of Brussels): The plant-animal analogy employed by A.-P. de Candolle’s physiology in addressing the issue of the sensitivity of living beings3:45 PM – Coffee break4:15 PM – Plenary Session 1 - Thierry Hoquet (University of Paris Nanterre): Is the plant/animal analogy valid?5:45 PM – End of the first day7:00 PM – Conference dinnerWednesday, May 6, 20269:00 AM – Welcome9:15 AM – Session 2: Relationships and Boundaries of the Living - Dario Galvão (University of Namur): Analogy and the Faculties of the Living: Animal Reason and Plant Sensibility in the Enlightenment and Ugo Batini (University of Poitiers): Understanding Humanity Through Plants: Analogy and the Metaphysics of the Living in Schopenhauer10:45 AM – Coffee break11:15 AM – Plenary Lecture 2 – Pascal Duris (University of Bordeaux): Plants as Humans. Analogy in Linnaeus and the Linneans12:45 PM – Lunch break2:00 PM – Toward New Disciplines - Vera Staetmanns (Ruhr University Bochum): Do Plants Think? Analogy in the Plant Psychology of Raoul Heinrich Francé (1874–1943) and Matthieu Amat (University of Rouen Normandy): Analogy and Homology: Transfers from the Life Sciences to the Cultural Sciences in the 19th Century3:30 PM – Coffee break4:00 PM – Plenary Session 3 - Aliènor Bertrand (CNRS / ENS de Lyon): “Les œufs du vent” and Their Descendants5:30 PM – Closing of the conference5:45 PM – End of the dayContact: Dario Galvao - dario.galvao@unamur.be

Constitutionalism, understood as a means of establishing a political autonomous from society, is seen as having constructed the opposition between the State and society. At the same time, the concept of constitutionalism is increasingly being used to describe other forms of social power and normativity – such as the economy, finance, digital, technologies, media, environment – even though the concrete and theoretical implications of these shifts have not always been fully clarified. More recent trends have emerged within the framework of socio-constitutionalism or societal constitutionalism to challenge the reduction of constitutional issues to state-individual relations, acknowledging the complexity of power. Despite their heterogeneity in assumptions, as well as in their descriptive, normative, and theoretical dimensions, these approaches have contributed to renewing the inquiry into the relationship between constitution and society. The purpose of the conference is to assess the current boundaries of constitutionalism and to explore theoretical proposals seeking to overcome them. These approaches raise several fundamental questions: What role should be granted to social actors and sectors within constitutionalism? How can their normative autonomy be acknowledged while also regulating their private power and expansionist tendencies? To what extent do these transformations challenge traditional forms of politics? At what cost might the relationship between constitution and society be reconsidered today?  Program January 299:00 a.m. Welcome9:30-10:00 Introduction: Manon Altwegg-Boussac (Paris-Est Creteil University/IUF) and Sabina Tortorella (MSCA/University of Namur)From State to Society: New Challenges for ConstitutionalismChair: Isabelle Aubert (Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne University)10:00-10:30 Thomas Boccon-Gibod (Grenoble Alpes University): Relationships between Constitution and Society10:30-11:00 Simone Mao Zhenting (Harvard University): Constitutionalizing Society in an Age of Fragmented Authority: From State-Centrism to Social Constitutional Norms11:00-11:30 Discussion11:30-12:00 Coffee Break12:00-12:30 Angelo Jr Golia (Luiss Guido Carli): Societal Constitutionalism and General Theory of Law (beyond the State): Norm, Order, Interpretation12:30-12:45 Discussion12:45-14:30 LunchMoving Beyond the Nation-State: Theoretical PerspectivesChair: Eleonora Bottini (Sciences Po)2:30-3:00 p.m. Jean-François Kervégan (Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne University): Politics below and beyond the State: Schmitt and Kojève in Comparative Perspective3:00-3:30 p.m. Paul Linden-Retek (University at Buffalo School of Law): Postnational Society and its Law3:30-4:00 Discussion4:00-4:30 p.m. Coffee BreakNew Conceptual Tools: Alterity and DerogationChair: Eleonora Bottini (Sciences Po)4:30-5:00 p.m. Horatia Muir Watt (Sciences Po): On the Borderline (and beyond the State): Ontologizing Alterity on the Terms of the Law5:00-5:30 p.m. Raffaele Bifulco (Luiss Guido Carli): Derogation as Legal Response to Social Differentiation5:30-6:00 p.m. Discussion6:00 p.m. DinnerJanuary 309:00 a.m. WelcomeMapping Sectoral Constitutions: Case StudiesChair: Sabina Tortorella (MSCA/University of Namur)9:30-10:00 Francesco Martucci (Panthéon-Assas University): Trust and Distrust. State, Society, and Money in the Digital Era10:00-10:30 Nefeli Lefkopoulou (Sciences Po): Exploring Constitutional Narratives in Meta’s Oversight Board: Replicating or Renewing Traditional Constitutionalism?10:30-11:00 Discussion11:00-11:30 Coffee Break11:30-12:00 Manuela Niehaus (University of Administrative Sciences Speyer): Global Climate Constitutionalism beyond the State?12:00-12:30 Mathilde Laporte (Pau University): The Debated Protection of Constitutional Rights within Social Orders beyond the State. The Example of Gated Communities12:30-1:00 p.m. Discussion1:00-2:30 p.m. LunchCritical Insights: Take the Leap?Chair: Manon Altwegg-Boussac (Paris-Est Creteil University/IUF)2:30-3:00 p.m. Chris Thornhill (University of Birmingham): The Military in Sociological Constitutionalism3:00-3:15 Discussion3:15-3:45 p.m. Coffee Break3:45-4:15 p.m. Jörn Reinhardt (Fulda University of Applied Sciences): Regression and Progress in Constitutionalism beyond the State4:15-4:45 p.m. Martin Loughlin (LSE): The Concept of Constitution4:45-5:15 Discussion5:15 p.m. Cocktail 

After a presentation of the book, Déborah V. Brosteaux will be interviewed by Thibault De Meyer and Vivien Giet.Free admission. Everyone is welcome.Book presentationFaced with the wars in which European countries are involved, we constantly oscillate between numbness and frenzy. Some war situations give rise to emotional heatedness, a "renewed" psychic and social energy, while others are barely mentioned, relegated to the background. This philosophical investigation delves into the ambivalence of our relationship to war, which is at the heart of the sensitive history of modernity.Inspired by the writings of Walter Benjamin, W. G. Sebald, and Klaus Theweleit, the book explores these warlike emotions throughout the 20th century and questions their legacy: the coldness of distancing, the denial of the ruins after 1945, the desire to intensify the experience of self, which mobilized the imagination in 1914-1918 and was swallowed up in the trenches... even mutating into fascist passions that actively fed on the devastation.Déborah V. Brosteaux takes these desires seriously, including their appeal. And she asks: what emotional transformations can be activated to resist the mobilization of war?  More information about the ARCADIE Center

For about a decade, a disease has been attracting the attention of the medical community. Its name: sarcopenia. This condition affects more than 10% of people over the age of 65 and is characterized by a significant loss of muscle mass and strength. Charlotte Beaudart, a member of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and the NARILIS Research Institute, has made a name for herself on the international stage in recent years by contributing to a better understanding of this disease and raising awareness about it.

In the coming months, the University of Namur will participate in an exceptional space mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), alongside Belgian astronaut Raphaël Liégeois. The BeBlob project, led by researchers Boris Hespeels (ILEE Institute) and Anne-Catherine Heuskin (NARILIS Institute), aims to study the DNA repair capabilities of a fascinating organism: the blob (Physarum polycephalum).

Alison Forrester is a F.R.S.-FNRS Qualified Researcher (CQ). Her research focuses on studying compounds that can modify the efficiency of protein production processes within our cells, and thus open up new therapeutic avenues. Together with a group of top international researchers, she has published a road map article in the prestigious journal Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology.

Created on the initiative of the Belgian Nuclear Research Center SCK CEN, this Chair is awarded every two years by the F.R.S.-FNRS and the FWO to recognize a leading researcher in the field of nuclear sciences and their applications. In 2025, the Chair will pay tribute to Carine Michiels' brilliant career and her outstanding contributions to radiobiology and cancer research. 

Are we prisoners of our genetic heritage? Can filiation be reduced to genes alone? Can we escape our destiny? Existential questions we all ask ourselves, and to which Gaëlle Pontarotti, lecturer and researcher in the Department of Sciences, Philosophies and Societies at UNamur, sheds new light in her book Par-delà les gènes. Une autre histoire de l'hérédité, published last October by Gallimard.

At UNamur, research is not confined to laboratories. From physics to political science, robotics, biodiversity, law, AI, and health, researchers collaborate daily with numerous stakeholders in society. The goal? To transform ideas into concrete solutions to address current challenges. 

At UNamur, parchments are much more than objects of curiosity: they are at the heart of an interdisciplinary scientific adventure. Starting with historical sciences and conservation, the research has gradually incorporated the disciplines of physics, biology, chemistry, and archaeology.  This convergence has given rise to research in heritage sciences, driving innovative projects such as Marine Appart's doctoral work, supervised by Professor Olivier Deparis. This research has now been recognized with a publication in the prestigious journal Heritage Science (Nature Publishing Group).

For its inaugural conference, the SPiN (Science & Philosophy in Namur) center will be joined by Claire Rommelaere, a lawyer and researcher at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Namur, and Aude Bandini, a philosopher of science at the University of Montreal, to take a critical look at the theme of "distrust of science." The urgency of addressing this issue is clear in our era, where, despite an overall stable level of trust in science, the parameters of public debate are frequently blurred by misinformation.Having had the opportunity to observe philosophers of science in their natural habitat for nearly fifteen years, Claire Rommelaere will share her thoughts on whether or not we should trust those who think about science.For her part, Aude Bandini will address a major problem that we all face at a time when the mass of available knowledge is such that it is impossible to acquire it on our own. Indeed, the socially distributed nature of knowledge generally leaves us no choice but to rely on the authority of experts, even on very important issues (such as health). However, when we rely on others in this way and follow recommendations that, due to our ignorance, we have no means of evaluating, we place ourselves in a relationship of "epistemic dependence" that conflicts with our aspirations for intellectual autonomy and forces us to ask ourselves a question whose answer may prove unbearable: is intellectual autonomy nothing more than a myth?Conference hosted by journalist Maïté Warland.Program:5:30-6:30 p.m. | Drinks at Quai 22 (Rue du Séminaire 22, 5000 Namur)6:30 p.m. | Claire RommelaereDistrust of philosophers of science7:00 p.m. | Aude Bandini Intellectualautonomy in the face of scientific authority: a headache for social epistemologyRegistration deadline: April 16.Free of charge. Register