Category Archives: Associations and Conferences

CFP: Diversity in Philosophy conference

The American Philosophical Association’s Committee on the Status of Women is hosting a conference on diversity in Philosophy, May 29-31, 2013, at the University of Dayton in Ohio. The following description is from the conference’s website (http://www.apaonlinecsw.org/diversity-in-philosophy-conference), where you can also find information on submitting proposals. I very much wish I could go, just to glean information; but I’m in Australia until July 2013, and Dayton is just too far away and too expensive to get to from here!

This conference examines and addresses the underrepresentation of women and other marginalized groups in Philosophy. Participants will focus on hurdles and best practices associated with the inclusion of underrepresented groups. It will focus on such questions as:

Why do white males continue to be over-represented among Philosophy majors, graduate students, and faculty members, especially given that most other fields in the sciences and humanities are increasingly diverse?
What are some effective ways to improve the recruitment, retention and advancement of women and other underrepresented groups?
What roles do implicit bias and stereotyping play in who advances in Philosophy?
How can the climate for women and other marginalized groups be improved?
What role can philosophers who study marginalized groups play in advancing underrepresented groups in Philosophy?
What can Philosophy learn from National Science Foundation ADVANCE initiatives that address how to recruit and advance women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields?
How can we improve the climate for all underrepresented groups in Philosophy, including those who are LGBTQ, disabled, first generation in college, or economically disadvantaged?

CFP: teaching philosophy in high schools

I got this call for papers via email earlier this week. I am very happy to see the issue of pre-college philosophy getting attention in this way!

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The journal Teaching Philosophy (http://secure.pdcnet.org/teachphil) solicits contributions for a special issue devoted to philosophical inquiry at the high school level (including its non-U.S. equivalent, such as Gymnasium, Bachillerato, Sixth Form, etc.), with guest editors Jana Mohr Lone (University of Washington) and Mitchell Green (University of Virginia).

Articles on topics such as (but not limited to) the following are welcome:
· general methodological issues related to teaching philosophy at the high school level
· the challenges and rewards of introducing particular philosophical topics to this age group
· the value of preparing students for humanistic inquiry in college by reaching them during their time before college
· the contribution of philosophy to the cultivation of students’ critical reasoning skills
· the issues involved in creating entirely new, philosophically-based high schools
· the potential value of service learning college courses or internships that involve outreach to high schools through the medium of philosophy
· case studies (including either quantitative or qualitative assessment) of initiatives that have incorporated philosophy into the high school curriculum
· discussion of strategies that may be efficacious in overcoming institutional barriers to supporting philosophy classes in high schools.

Submissions from high school, college, and university faculty as well as independent scholars are welcome and should be prepared for blind refereeing. Submitted manuscripts should be no more than 8,000 words.

Deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012. Accepted papers will be published in mid-2013. Submissions should be made via the journal’s online submission system, at http://www.teaching-philosophy.com/. Please indicate that your submission is for the Special Issue on High School Philosophy.

Making the Reading Worth Doing

The title of this post was the title of a presentation by William J. Melanson (from University of Nebraska at Oklahoma) at the recent American Association of Philosophy Teacher‘s biannual conference at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. The problem he addressed is: how can we encourage students to do the reading, when it is often very difficult (especially for those new to philosophy)? One thing that keeps them from doing the reading is teaching in a way that makes it such that they don’t have to do it. For example, some of us (myself included) have taken the strategy of telling students they should do the reading before class, and then spending class time outlining what is in it.This makes some sense, of course, when the reading is complex and the argumentation requires careful analysis in order to make it clear. But it can also send the message that it’s not necessary to do the reading before class, because after all, the professor will just go over it in detail in class anyway. What other options are there? Continue reading →