Notices

Call for Papers: “Sexual Selves”

The Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love invites papers for the upcoming conference “Sexual Selves” to be held on May 1-3, 2009
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Keynote Speakers will be:

Martha Nussbaum
(Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics
University of Chicago)

&

Cressida Heyes
(Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality
University of Alberta)

Invited speakers include:

Scott Anderson
Ellen Feder
Deirdre Golash
Richard Mohr
Johanna Oksala
Melissa Orlie
Laurie Shrage
Anita Superson
Ludger Viefhues-Bailey
The theme of the conference (“Sexual Selves”) is sexuality and sexual identity. Papers will consider themes of sexuality and sexual identity understood from epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical perspectives. We encourage both continental and analytic approaches to these issues.

Papers should not exceed 4000 words in length.
Abstracts should not exceed 150 words.
Send your document as an email attachment to Helga Varden at hvarden@illinois.edu

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2008

Orange Beach, Alabama: 26-27 September 2008 | CFP: 7 August 2008

Submissions in any area of philosophy are welcome. More info here. There’s also an undergraduate essay contest (same deadline).

Oxford: 1 July 2008 

Via Simon Caney, there are some places left for a conference in Oxford on 1 July on the work of Henry Shue. Those interested can sign up here, and have a look at the programme too. Speakers include Charles Beitz, John Tasioulas, Simon Caney, David Rodin, and Tony Coady.

Aarhus: 13-15 March 2009 | CFP: 1 December 2008

The University of Aarhus, Denmark, is hosting an international conference on Rousseau and Revolution from 13-15 March 2009. From their CFP:

Fidel Castro once told a journalist that one of his masters was Jean-Jacques Rousseau and that he fought Batista with a copy of the Social Contract in his pocket. This anecdote, true or false, calls attention to an aspect of Rousseau’s philosophy which is often ignored or forgotten in academic discussions, namely that his philosophy has often been used, for good or bad, to inspire and legitimize revolutions and rebellions, beginning with the French Revolution.

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Lisbon: 23-24 October 2008 | CFP: 30 June 2008

The New University of Lisbon is hosting a conference on current research on global justice and the nation state on 23-24 October 2008. From the CFP:

Within philosophy and the social sciences, global justice, the nation, and the state are among the most discussed topics in recent years. Despite the considerable amount of scholarly work devoted to the topic, we still lack consolidated views with regard to the evolution of legal and political institutions beyond the boundaries of the nation-state as well as to their capacity of tackling matters of global justice. Recent international debate focused on the “new international order” set out in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the US reaction, which led scholars to focus their attention on legal international institutions, political unilateralism, multilateralism, etc.

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ISME San Diego: 29-30 January 2009 | CFP: 19 September 2008

Those of you with an interest in the morality of war (of that are looking for an excuse to visit San Diego in January) might be interested in giving a talk at the ISME’s 2009 Symposium. I’ve pasted their call for papers below; as you can see, the conference themes are broad enough that even those that do not typically write on war may find it a congenial place to present some of their work. I really enjoyed last year’s symposium - the participants included not only philosophers but also political scientists, legal scholars, historians and serving and retired military officers of varying ranks (many of whom had, or were working toward, advanced degrees in philosophy or political science). The non-philosophers’ knowledge of other domains (e.g. the law of armed conflict or the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice), and especially the military personnel’s experience in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and elsewhere, more than compensates for the frustration that sometimes results from sharing one’s philosophical work with those not trained in philosophy.

I particularly want to encourage those that participated in or followed the discussion of David Estlund’s book on democratic authority to submit papers on the (possible) tensions between the morality and legality of war - not least because I’m partly to blame for the conference adopting this theme. As some of you probably know, Estlund has already written on this topic; see “On Following Orders in an Unjust War,” Journal of Political Philosophy 15:2 (June 2007).

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This is just a reminder that the registration deadline for the Society for Applied Philosophy’s annual conference in Manchester (July 4-6, 2008) is June 13.  We have a terrific line-up of speakers, and I hope to see many of you there!

Institute for Advanced Study: 2-4 June 2008

Via Jacob T. Levy, a conference on Walzer at the IAS in Princeton:

To recognize Michael Walzer’s contributions to the ethical and political philosophy of the twentieth century, a conference titled Justice, Culture and Tradition will take place June 2-4, 2008 at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, New Jersey.

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Harvard: 31 October - 1 November 2008 | CFP: 1 August 2008

Via Jacob T. Levy:

The Department of Government (FAS) at Harvard University will host its second conference for graduate students in political theory and political philosophy from October 31 - November 1, 2008. Papers on any theme or topic within political theory—from the history of political thought to contemporary normative and conceptual theory—will be considered. Between seven and twelve papers will be accepted.

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Bucharest: 14-15 November 2008 | CFP: 1 October 2008

The Philosophy Faculty at the University of Bucharest is hosting a conference on Reason in Contemporary Public Space on 14-15 November 2008. From their website:

Is there a place for reason in contemporary public space? Has the Kantian “public use of reason” lost its appeal for our societies, being demoted to the status of a mere philosophical abstraction? The ever-rising importance of marketing (both commercial and political) in setting the public agenda, the growing impact of new media and the increasing tendency of clustering in relatively isolated, and often virtual, communities, might be regarded as justifying the dramatic overtones of the questions above. If elections, customers, debates, fans or friends are to be won by appeal to rhetoric, imagery and emotions rather than argument, isn’t one of the most venerable philosophical traditions to be held guilty of over-rating a specific faculty which might be, after all, just a “slave of passions”?

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Political Philosophy Podcast Symposium: Fall 2008 | CFP: 31 July 2008

I’d like to invite submissions for a semester-long online symposium of papers in political philosophy during Fall 2008 that I would like to host on the website. The idea is that each week a paper will be podcasted on the website by the author and receive comments in response. Symposium submissions will be subject to a process of blind review by a committee of members of the website. Papers in all areas of political philosophy and theory are welcome.

The aim of the symposium is to utilise the resources at our disposal to create a conference experience accessible to every academic in the world, both as a presenter and as a participant. Conference participation is an important part of our research activities as academics, but logistical difficulties and expenses can sometimes make conference travel impossible, especially at the international level. The function of the symposium is to create an online conference in a format designed to elicit as much feedback from fellow academics as possible whilst creating no significant financial or logistical difficulties for participants whatsoever. Those selected will be able to present their papers to an unlimited number of colleagues without having to leave their offices. The papers will be presented on a weekly basis to allow a reasonable time period for comments. The papers will be podcasted to make them as accessible as possible to a wide audience.

I’ve included a little podcast of my own to demonstrate that it can actually be a fairly easy thing to do. Just click the button below. Granted, few of us will ever sound like a professional radio announcer but the medium should be functional enough for our purposes.

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 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

University of York: 17-18 July 2008

A two-day conference on the nature and significance of death, organised by the philosophy departments of the Open University and the University of York, is to be held on the Heslington campus of the latter on 17-18 July 2009.

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Episteme: 26-27 June 2009 | CFP: 15 January 2009

Something that may be of interest to political philosophers working on the significance of disagreement:

Episteme will holds its sixth annual conference at Northwestern University on 26-27 June 2009. The 2009 meeting will focus on the epistemological significance of disagreement. Confirmed participants include Michael Bergman (Purdue), Stewart Cohen (Arizona State), Sherrilyn Roush (Berkeley) and Roger White (MIT).

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Via the University of Chicago Law Faculty Blog:

The website for the UC Conference on Torture, Law, and War now has audio and video of conference presentations available. Participants include the philosophers Nancy Sherman, Marcia Baron, Claudia Card, David Sussman, Scott Anderson, and Jeff McMahan, amongst others. Albie Sachs (South African Constitutional Court) gave the keynote address, “Four Tales of Terrorism.”

Via Thom Brooks and Brian Leiter, Martha Nussbaum in conversation with Bill Moyers here on liberty of conscience. Given Moyers’ other recent associations, this clearly makes Nussbaum unelectable.

University of Kent: 3-5 July 2009 | CFP: 2 February 2009

Via Simon Kirchin at Ethics Etc., something that may be of interest to political philosophers:

Many philosophers are familiar with the distinction between thin and thick concepts. Canonical examples of thin concepts include goodness and badness, rightness and wrongness. There are supposedly many examples of thick concepts, including cruelty, kindness, beauty, elegance, and curiosity. A number of issues arise in relation to thin and thick concepts. Many might be familiar with a key debate, namely how one should construe the relationship between thick concepts’ supposed descriptive aspects and their supposed evaluative aspects. Do we have here two separable elements, or are they best characterized as essentially inseparable, resulting in a form of evaluation that is more specific than that found in thin concepts?

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NPSA: 13-15 November 2008 | CFP: 15 June 2008

Via Fritz Allhoff at the Philosophy Google Group:

The Northeastern Political Science Association will hold its 40th annual meeting on November 13-15, 2008 at the Omni Parker House Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. Proposals for papers, panels, or to serve as a chair and/or discussant must be submitted before June 15, 2008 through the NPSA submission website. (Once on the submission website, create a username and password and follow the instructions.)

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Here is the June JPP:

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The March issue of JPP has been available for a while, and the June issue has just come out, so I thought I would post both. There are many people who use these links to access the articles, but unfortunately I cannot be relied upon to post them timeously. If anyone would like to “take over” a journal and post a notice when a new issue comes out, please feel free to volunteer. It is one way to keep on top of new articles coming out in the journals one may wish to be reading anyway.

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The Winter 2008 issue of P&PA has been available for a while now:

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Montreal, May 1-3 2008

In collaboration with McGill University, The Centre de recherche en éthique de l’Université de Montréal (CRÉUM) is proud to invite everyone to attend its international conference on “Liberal Neutrality : A Re-evaluation”. The conference is open to the general public and no registration is required.

You will find here a Poster and a Programme.

Invited speakers:

Anthony Appiah; Richard Arneson; Arash Abizadeh; George Crowder; Charles Larmore; Jacob Levy; Stephen Macedo; Peter de Marneffe; Ruwen Ogien; Alan Patten; George Sher; Christine Sypnowich; Steven Wall and Daniel Weinstock.

+ Student session on Saturday.

Where and when ?

May 1 - 3, 2008
McGill University
Leacock Building
Room 232
855 Sherbrooke Street West

See http://www.creum.umontreal.ca/spip.php?article765 for details.

In order to ensure that there is sufficient time to discuss chapter 11, we’re going to delay the other scheduled posts for the reading group by one week. The revised schedule is as follows:

Chapter 12 ‘The Irrelevance of the Jury Theorem’

Apr. 7, 2008, Loren King

Chapter 13 ‘Rejecting the Democracy/Contractualism Analogy’

Apr. 14, 2008, Jonathan Quong

Chapter 14 ‘Utopophobia: Concession and Aspiration in Democratic Theory’

Apr. 21, 2008, Zofia Stemplowska

‘Author’s Comments’

Apr. 28, 2008, David Estlund

As a few readers of Public Reason may know, I am in the very early stages of an intellectual biography of John Rawls. A good deal of Rawls’s correspondence is archived at Harvard, but not all. And so I am posting this request. If anyone has correspondence with Rawls that may prove relevant to my project, I would very much appreciate the opportunity to acquire or examine a copy. I will be happy to reimburse associated costs. I can be reached at dreidy (at) utk.edu. Thanks in advance for any and all assistance.  Finally, please consider passing word of this request along to others (especially senior scholars) who may have corresponded with Rawls but may not be Public Reason readers.

I have the unenviable task of drafting an encyclopedia article on Rawls for the IVR’s online encyclopedia. I’ve posted the most recent version, titled John Rawls, to my SSRN page — http://ssrn.com/author=382674. As with all online encyclopedias, the entry is nearly endlessly revisable. So I welcome critical comment. Bear in mind that the entry is meant to inform and report, not to take a particular position on Rawls’s work. (The entry was uploaded to SSRN on Tuesday, March 11; it sometimes takes a day or two for it to clear the SSRN procedures and become downloadable. — It’s now downloadable, March 14.)

From 2008 Representation will have new editors - Dr. Andrew Russell and Dr. Stephen de Wijze. Both work in Politics, at the University of Manchester.

Representation is a journal of longstanding repute. It has been publishing since 1960 and has a general interest in all matters relating to the theme of representative democracy. To this end it has established itself as a recognised journal of record and comment both in the UK and internationally. While building on its present strengths, the new editors wish to expand the journal’s remit and introduce normative concepts of democracy and representation, to consider more than parliamentary versions of representation and to broaden the geographic scope of the journal.

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Copenhagen: 20-21 November 2008 | CFP: 15 August 2008

Via Jon Kvanvig at Certain Doubts:

The University of Copenhagen is hosting a conference on “The Epistemology of Liberal Democracy: Free Speech, Disagreement, and Common Belief” from 20-21 November, 2008. Abstracts of no more than 1000 words, and prepared for blind review, should be emailed to the organising committee by 15 August 2008. Notifications of acceptance will be made by 15 September 2008.

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UNCG: 29 February - 2 March 2008

The UNCG Philosophy Department will be hosting a conference on ethics and risk February 29th to March 2nd. Details - including titles for the papers to be presented and a list of participants - are available at http://www.uncg.edu/phi/2008symp.html. I realize that this notice is likely too late for anyone with an interest in ethics and risk to make arrangements to attend the conference, and I apologize for not publicizing it here sooner. Nevertheless, I thought some might find it useful to learn of work currently being done on this subject. If you would like to attend and are able to do so, however, please let me know.

Foucault at UCSC: 1-2 March 2008

Announcing ‘Foucault Across the Disciplines’

An interdisciplinary conference on the work of Michel Foucault, this
event will be held on March 1-2, 2008 at the University of California,
Santa Cruz in the New Humanities Lecture Hall. Confirmed conference
presenters include: Ian Hacking, Paul Rabinow, Arnold Davidson,
Hayden White, Martin Jay, Jana Sawicki, Amy Allen, Mark Poster,
David Hoy and many others.

A complete list of speakers is available on our conference webpage.

This event will be free and open to the public.

For more information please visit our webpage or contact the conference
organizer, Colin Koopman (Humanities Research Fellow, Dept. of
Philosophy, UCSC) at cwkoopman@gmail.com.

Please distribute this announcement to interested colleagues and
students working in any discipline.

BSD: 5 April 2008 | CFP: 1 February 2008

The Berkeley-Stanford-Davis Graduate Student Philosophy Conference will be held in Wellman Hall at Davis on 5 April 2008. Papers from graduate students at California universities in all areas of philosophy are invited. Papers of about 35 minutes in length (4500 words) should be prepared for blind review and submitted (as MS Word or pdf documents) by 1 February to the organisers. Include your name, affiliation, contact information, paper title, and 100-200 word abstract in the body of the email. Follow the link for more details or contact Brad Morris. This is one of the best opportunities for grad students on the west coast to meet and present their work.

Over the years, I have offered what is now an annual ’speech’ on publishing advice aimed at graduate students and junior academics. I recorded much of my early talks in a paper, first posted on the Political Studies Association’s postgraduate website, and later on the Social Science Research Network expecting little to follow beyond, hopefully, helping a few understand publishing better. The response was extraordinary. The essay fast became the most downloaded document on the PSA postgraduate site and the paper has now been downloaded 2,119 times since December 2005. This original essay (’The Postgraduate’s Guide to Getting Published‘) can be downloaded here.

Since originally posting that paper, I have received much advice since and I have developed my speech far more than before to include book contracts, in addition to articles. At long last, I have written a far more substantial essay ‘Publishing Advice for Graduate Students‘ that is available on SSRN here. The paper’s abstract is:

===================
“Graduate students often lack concrete advice on publishing. This essay is an attempt to fill this important gap. Advice is given on how to publish everything from book reviews to articles, replies to book chapters, and how to secure both edited book contracts and authored monograph contracts, along with plenty of helpful tips and advice on the publishing world (and how it works) along the way in what is meant to be a comprehensive, concrete guide to publishing that should be of tremendous value to graduate students working in any area of the humanities and social sciences.”
===================

I have tried to provide what is-I hope-excellent advice on virtually all areas of publishing: book reviews, replies/discussions/research notes, articles, book chapters, edited books, and monographs. I am constantly updating my publishing advice and I would greatly welcome any feedback readers might have to offer.

Please do feel free to forward the link to this paper far and wide.