Tribute to René Girard

This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the birth of René Girard — philosopher, anthropologist, literary critic, and renowned Stanford French professor, who emigrated to the United States in 1947 from Avignon, France. On September 13^th, 2023, we’ll honor this anniversary and the return of his ashes to his native land with a special memorial concert in San Francisco.  

One of the 40 “immortels” of the prestigious Académie Française, Girard was dubbed “the new Darwin of the human sciences.” His fascinations were limitless, and he was particularly interested in the causes of conflict and violence and the role of imitation in human behavior, which formed his influential mimetic theory of desire. Girard wrote nearly 30 books spanning many academic domains, and his theories and impact stretch beyond philosophy and social science, and have been applied to studies in economics, literature and theology.  

Join us and the Quatuor Girard, a string quartet made up of his grand nephews and nieces from Avignon for an homage featuring some of Girard’s favorite string quartet works and interludes that commemorate him and his work.