American Philosophical Association (APA)
TagRecent APA Election Winners
The American Philosophical Association (APA) reports the results of its elections over the past few months in a post at its blog. All newly elected members will serve three-year terms beginning on July 1st. They are: (more…)
New Funding Source for Public Philosophy Projects
PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization) is a national network devoted to promoting pre-college philosophy education. It just created the PLATO Philosophy Fund (PPF), “which will provide funding for a wide range of innovative philosophy programs with the aim of broadening philosophy’s reach,” according to a post by PLATO founding president and PPF chair..
Brunero (Nebraska) Wins APA Article Prize
John Brunero, the Robert R. Chambers Distinguished Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Moral Sciences at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, has won the 2016 American Philosophical Association (APA) Article Prize. The prize, which is awarded every other year, includes $2000.
Brunero won the prize for his “Cognitivism about Practical Rationality,” which was..
Sosa and Stich Win Lebowitz Prizes for Philosophical Achievement
Ernest Sosa and Stephen Stich, both professors of philosophy at Rutgers University, have been awarded the 2016 Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prizes for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution.
The prizes—$26,500 to each winner—are awarded by the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the American Philosophical Association (APA). They go to two philo..
Central APA Open Thread
The Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA) is taking place in Chicago. Are you there? Consider this an open space for comments, reports, news, feedback, etc., about the meeting.
Funds Available for Public Philosophy Projects
Working on a project in public philosophy? Need some money to help do it? You can apply for funding from the American Philosophical Association’s Berry Fund, administered by the APA’s Committee on Public Philosophy. From a post at the Committee’s blog:
Grants are generally under $1000. Some sample projects that The Berry Fund is supporting:
(1) a philosophy and sc..
APA Issues Job Market Calendar Guidelines
It used to be that the timing of the job market in philosophy was anchored by the publication schedule of Jobs for Philosophers and the practice of holding first-round interviews at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA). Now that the ads are posted continuously over the year, and video interviews, which can be scheduled anytime..
APA Issues Letter In Response to Mount St. Mary’s Firings
The officers of the American Philosophical Association (APA) today sent the following letter to the president and Board of Trustees of Mount St. Mary’s University regarding the recent firing and demotion of faculty there:
Dear President Simon Newman and Members of the Board of Trustees:
The APA board of officers is deeply troubled by reports that two Mount St…
The APA’s Free-Rider Problem
American Philosophical Association (APA) Chairperson Cheshire Calhoun (ASU), at the Blog of the APA, writes:
What the APA does for philosophy and philosophers gets done in virtue of the hard work of hundreds of members. All told, more than 200 individuals graciously volunteer their time and expertise in serving on APA committees and task forces, on divisional pro..
Help With Philosophy Teaching
The editors of the Blog of the American Philosophical Association have begun a new series to help members of the profession with questions, challenges, and problems, about teaching philosophy. Jennifer Morton (CUNY) writes:
The Teaching Workshop is a new, regular feature on the Blog of the APA, run by the APA’s committee on the teaching of philosophy. Every other..
NEH Grants Supporting Public Philosophy
At the recent Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA), in a session organized by the APA’s Committee on Public Philosophy, Peter Fristedt and Mark Silver of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) described various grant programs available to philosophers interested in obtaining support for work in public philosophy. Mr. Fris..
Internet Abuse of Philosophers (2 updates)
A few weeks ago, George Yancy (Emory) published an essay in The New York Times philosophy column, The Stone, called “Dear White America.” In it, he calls for white Americans to acknowledge their racism and their complicity with racist institutions. Yancy asks his readers to “listen with love” to what he has to say. But he knows that what he is saying is bound to pro..
Philosophy and the Internet Public
Though the internet is, in a number of ways, good for philosophy, it isn’t always good to philosophers. The needless hostility, harassment and scary threats, personal insults, bullheadedness, impatient demands, etc., widely broadcast for all to see (and discussed a bit here) can be a deterrent to participation and a nasty “reward” for engaging with the public.
Ex..
Welcome the APA’s New Blog
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has launched its new blog. Though I had urged as a possible name “APAplexy” (during a particularly turbulent time here, comments-wise), and others had chimed in with other options such as “APAcalypse,” “APAria,” “APAdosis,” etc., the blog is called “Blog of the APA” (BAPA? BOT-APA?). Lead editor Lewis Powell (Buffalo), in..
NEH & APA Collaboration on Public Philosophy
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Philosophical Association (APA) are collaborating for two events at the APA’s upcoming Eastern Division Meeting next month in Washington, DC. The first is a plenary address by the chairman of the NEH, William “Bro” Adams, at noon on January 7th. Following that, there will be a session “Philosophy for t..
Winners of the APA’s Routledge, Taylor & Francis Prize
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced the winners of the 2015 Routledge, Taylor & Francis Prize. The prize is for the two best published philosophy articles written by adjunct professors, and includes $1000.
This year’s winners are Ben Bramble (Lund University) for “Whole-Life Welfarism“, published in American Philosophical Quarterly, and Mar..
Columbia Philosophy Outreach Program Wins Award for Excellence & Innovation (updated)
Rethink: A Philosophy Community Outreach Program at Columbia University, has been awarded the 2015 APA/PDC Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs. The aim of the prize, which has been jointly sponsored by the American Philosophical Association and the Philosophy Documentation Center since 1999, is “to recognize philosophy departments, research ce..
Nussbaum Wins Quinn Prize (updated)
Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, has won the American Philosophical Association’s Quinn Prize. The prize, named for Philip L. Quinn, is “awarded in recognition of service to philosophy and philosophers, broadly construed.” The award includes $2500 and an engraved plaque.
UPDATE ..
Women’s Participation At APAs Has Doubled over 40 Years
Over at the Splintered Mind, Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside) reports on research he has conducted into the participation of women on the main programs of the meetings of the American Philosophical Association (APA). His findings reveal an upward trend: women’s participation in the 2014-15 meetings, at 32%, was twice that of 40 years ago. He also broke down the sess..
APA Book Prize Results Announced
The winner of the 2015 American Philosophical Association’s Book Prize is Manuel Vargas (University of San Francisco) for his Building Better Beings: A Theory of Moral Responsibility (Oxford University Press).
Honorable mentions went to Adrienne Martin (Claremont McKenna) for her How We Hope: A Moral Psychology (Princeton University Press) and Michael Titelbaum f..
Where Philosophy Is Missing
Some colleges have no philosophers. Some colleges have philosophers, but not many, yielding a very low philosopher-to-student ratio, particularly when compared to elite institutions or flagship state schools. Such colleges—which include many community colleges, state branch campuses, and historically black colleges and universities—seem to turn out very few stud..
How to Encourage Service to the Profession?
A professor writes in:
We hear a lot of complaints about how the APA and about how journals are run from folks who don’t volunteer for the APA or serve (and have never served) in leadership positions at journals (e.g. as those responsible for finding referees and ensuring to the best of their limited abilities that referees are doing their jobs). Suggestions for..
Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest Winners
The American Philosophical Association’s Committee on Public Philosophy has announced the winners of the latest round of its Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest, for op-eds written in 2014. The winners are:
- Mariana Alessandri (University of Texas Pan American / Rio Grande Valley), “Companions in Misery”, The Stone (The New York Times)
- Adam Hosein (Colorado), “Pro..
APA Division Election Winners 2015
The American Philosophical Association (APA) recently conducted its division elections. The newly elected officers are listed below. Unless otherwise noted, terms of service begin on July 1, 2015.
Eastern Division
Vice President (2015-2016)
Eva Feder Kittay
Executive Committee Representatives (2015-2018)
Noëlle McAfee
Amie L. Thomasson
Nominating C..
Overheard at the Pacific
You know what to do.
New APA Travel Fund for Philosophers of Color (updated)
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced that it is creating a travel fund for philosophers of color. According an APA press release, the fund is aimed at supporting “philosophers of color who would otherwise find it challenging to participate in APA divisional meetngs and other APA-sponsored conferences. The fund is supported exclusively by donati..
Peter Railton’s Dewey Lecture (updated)
A number of people have remarked (here and elsewhere) on the Dewey Lecture delivered by Peter Railton (Michigan) at the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division Meeting this past week. Professor Railton has been kind enough to provide me with a copy of the lecture, which he emphasizes is a draft. I have posted it here (UPDATE 2/27/15: this is a link to..