The Collegium Phaenomenologicum began in 1976, with a meeting of approximately 15 scholars gathered in a Franciscan monastery near Perugia. The group founded the Collegium Phaenomenologicum that summer with the intent ultimately to “fill a glaring professional lacuna” by introducing students in philosophy and related disciplines to phenomenology. Over the next few decades, the Collegium would meet in a number of different places in Umbria, for varying lengths of time—sometimes up to as long as 6 weeks! It has been host to luminaries in Continental philosophy: Levinas, Gadamer, Schürmann, Taminiaux, Vattimo, Cornell, Derrida, Agamben, Nancy, Stambaugh, Dastur, Schuwer, Caputo, Peperzak, Sallis, and many others. [See: The First Ten Years] In the late 90s, the Collegium solidified into the form it bears today: three weeks of advanced study of a theme, intended for advanced graduate students and faculty in philosophy and related fields.

In its nearly 50 years of meeting, the Collegium has contributed significantly to the reception, development, and expansion of the phenomenological tradition, including the reception and development of philosophical hermeneutics and deconstruction. It continues to be a meeting place for leading edge scholarship in philosophical discourses that draw from, enhance, and critically engage work in phenomenology and related strands of the Continental tradition, as well as its methodological approach to philosophical texts and topics in the history of philosophy.

Each year the Collegium has a director who chooses the theme, invites lecturers and text-seminar leaders, and evaluates the applications from students and faculty who apply as participants. Directors are chosen by former directors who remain active contributors to the life of the Collegium. Directors are usually chosen a few years in advance in order to allow time for them adequately to prepare the extensive program.

Everyone involved in the Collegium—the director, the lecturers, and the text seminar leaders, as well as the participants—funds their own travel, room, and board. All faculty on the program are there in virtue of their commitment to carrying on the Collegium’s tradition as a place for faculty and advanced graduate students to convene for a few weeks every summer to discuss a topic in the history and current developments of phenomenology, broadly construed.

Everyone involved in the Collegium is also expected to follow the APA guidelines for appropriate conduct:
https://www.apaonline.org/page/codeofconduct