“How is this conference philosophy?”: Women of Color and Philosophy
Michigan State University
March 17th-19th, 2017

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Mariana Ortega (John Carroll University)
Faculty Roundtable: Dr. Kristie Dotson, Dr. Xhercis Mendez, and Dr. Elena Ruíz
18th Annual Graduate Philosophy Conference

Call For Papers & Creative Works
The 18th Annual Graduate Philosophy Conference borrows its name and theme from Kristie Dotson’s “How is this paper philosophy?” Building on Dr. Dotson's paper, we hope to host a conference that celebrates and complicates the relationships between women of color and philosophy. We are interested in work of women of color in and out of professional philosophy and on the status of women of color in philosophy. Women of color theorists and theorizing have traditionally been excluded from the academic philosophy cannon and many of us have encountered gatekeeping in the form of questions like those spotlighted by Dotson. We aim to create a space where women of color graduate students and advanced undergraduates can come together to think critically, communally, and poetically about the state of philosophy as a discipline. We encourage contributions that are working with feminist, critical race, decolonial, transnational, disability, queer, trans, and Indigenous theories. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

● Metaphilosophical models and interrogations of the practices and climate of academic philosophy
● Philosophical pedagogy, social justice oriented pedagogy
● Uses and abuses of intersectionality
● Epistemologies of resistance and/or epistemic oppression
● Identity politics
● Epistemic oppression
● Transnationalism, migration, and/or refugee status
● Climate change and vulnerable populations
● Activism, political protest, and demonstration
● Coalition-building
● Respectability politics, politics of legitimization, academic gatekeeping.
● Embodied knowledges, affective knowledges, felt theory
● Incarceration, the carceral state, prison abolition
● Tensions with white feminisms
● Decolonial praxis, Indigenous Survivance, revitalization.
● Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherrie Moraga, Angela Davis, Maria Lugones, Kristie Dotson

In addition to paper presentations, we invite women of color philosophers to bring art, poetry, spoken word, dance, and/or song to share during presentation, to display at gatherings, or to perform during our Conference Open Mic.

Submission Guidelines:
Submissions should be sent to [email protected]. Please submit the following:
1. Cover Letter (1 page):
In this letter, we ask that you address:
i. A short biography
ii. How your paper or planned paper coheres with the themes of the conference?
iii. If applicable, please describe the creative work you are interested in sharing at the Open Mic and what, if any, relationship it has to your research interests.

2. Paper Abstract:
The paper abstract may be up to 500 words. Note that the final conference paper should not exceed 4,000 words.

3. Working-bibliography:
Please provide a working-bibliography of the sources you intend to use in your project.

Submission Deadline:
Please submit the cover letter, abstract, and working bibliography by Sunday, January 22nd, 2017. You will receive a notification of acceptance on Friday, January 27th, 2017.

If you have questions, please email [email protected].

​Philosophical Perspectives on Disability: A Postgraduate Conference
Tuesday 9th May 2017, University of Leeds

The University of Leeds Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) chapter would like to cordially invite you to attend its second conference, to be held on Tuesday 9th May 2017. Our theme will be the philosophy of disability. Given that the interest in the philosophical aspects of disability is fairly new, there still are a lot of issues which need to be explored, including but not limited to:

•          Definitions, models, and ways to think about disability
•          The metaphysics of disability
•          Phenomenologies of disability
•          Identity and disability
•          The similarities and differences between philosophies of disability and philosophies of race and gender
•          Discrimination, stigmatisation and disability
•          Disability and social (in)visibleness
•          The ethics of causing and preventing disabilities
•          Disability and its political aspects
•          Directions for analytic philosophy of disability

Call for Abstracts: Students who are currently undertaking or have recently completed a Master’s or a Doctoral programme are invited to submit abstracts ranging from between 400 to 600 words. They should be prepared for blind review, and should have an anticipated presentation length of 30 minutes (which will be followed by a 20-minute Q&A session). Submissions are to be sent to [email protected] by March 20th, 2017. We ask that submissions be in a standard file format (no cloud services please). The selected presenters will be notified of their acceptance by April 9th, 2017. It should go without saying, but we highly encourage submissions from those who are traditionally under-represented.
 
Keynote Speaker: We are delighted to announce that the conference will end with a talk on disability, ethics, and epistemology, given by professor Jackie Leach Scully, from Newcastle University.

Funding: We are able to offer the presenters optional free accommodation with the current postgraduate students from the philosophy department of the University of Leeds and, depending of the funding we will secure, we can hopefully also cover some of their travel costs (details to come on our conference website).
 
We are dedicated to running an inclusive and accessible event. Should you have any specific requirements, please contact the conference organizers and we will do our very best to accommodate your needs. This event will be run in accordance with the BPA/SWIP-UK Good Practice Scheme.
 
More details about funding, schedule, venue, and the facilities will become available soon on the conference website: http://ppod2017.weebly.com/.
 
Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the MAP@Leeds Team:
Email: [email protected]
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/300942200096306/
Conference website: http://ppod2017.weebly.com/