diversity
TagPhilosophy of Science Summer Program for Underrepresented Groups
The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh will be hosting a summer program in philosophy of science for undergraduate students from underrepresented groups this July. (more…)
Haslanger Issues Diversity Fund Challenge
Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s & Gender Studies at MIT and former President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association (APA) has issues a challenge to fellow philosophers in a public post on Facebook. Here’s an excerpt: (more…)
Penn State Philosophy Wins $800,000 Grant For Diversity Initiatives
The Department of Philosophy at Penn State will receive an $800,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to continue and expand upon its previous work to promote diversity in philosophy. (more…)
Philosophy In An Inclusive Key
Philosophy In An Inclusive Key, or PIKSI, is a philosophy summer program “designed to encourage undergraduates from underrepresented groups to consider future study in the field of philosophy.” (more…)
APA Issues Statement on 2016 US Presidential Election
The board of officers of the American Philosophical Association (APA) today issued the following statement on the 2016 U.S. presidential election:
Leading up to the United States presidential election one month ago and in the weeks since, the nation has experienced increasingly divisive rhetoric and a rise in bias-based attacks on members of vulnerable groups. In..
APA Awards Nine Project Grants
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced that it has awarded grants to nine projects—seven under its Small Grant Program and two under its Diversity and Inclusiveness Program. (more…)
Diversity in Philosophy: Is the Problem Lack of Pre-College Exposure?
Recall these figures from “What is the State of Blacks in Philosophy?” by Tina Fernandes Botts, Liam Kofi Bright, Myisha Cherry, Guntur Mallarangeng, and Quayshawn Spencer: though blacks in the U.S. make up over 13% of the general population, they make up just 1.32 percent of the total number of people professionally affiliated (as grad students or faculty) with U.S..
Friendly Fire & Fiery Friendship: the Tenor of Philosophy Conversation (guest post by Joshua A. Miller)
The following is a guest post* by Joshua A. Miller (Loyola University Maryland). It is slightly edited version of a post originally published at his blog, Another Panacea, partly in response to the post here by Nomy Arpaly (Brown), “Is Polite Philosophical Conversation Possible?“
Philosophy For Children on the US/Mexico Border
Local school teachers, professors and students of philosophy at the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP), and several community organizations have teamed up for a bilingual project called Philosophy for Children in the Borderlands: (more…)
Prestige Bias in Philosophy
In this paper, I argue that prestige bias is both the first and the final hurdle to make academic philosophy more inclusive…. Prestige bias is a first hurdle to diversity, because countering it provides a wide-reaching way to make philosophy more diverse even if we did not increase our efforts to increase diversity specifically. By actively working against presti..
Philosophical Gentrification
That the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy recently added five entries on Latin American philosophy is one indication of growing recognition of the area, writes Axel Arturo Barceló Aspeitia (National Autonomous University of Mexico) in a post at PhilPercs entitled “Against Latin American Philosophy Going Mainstream.” But, he asks, is that increased attention an un..
Diversifying Your Syllabus Made Easier (guest post by Simon Fokt)
The following is a guest post* by Simon Fokt (Edinburgh), who, among other things, created the Diversity Reading List, a resource for those interested in including in their teaching works by authors from groups traditionally underrepresented in philosophy.
Penn State’s Efforts at Diversifying Philosophy
Five black women earned Ph.D.s in philosophy from Penn State this year, according to an article at The Chronicle of Higher Education (currently paywalled) that looks at the efforts the philosophy department there has been making to diversify philosophy.
The Chronicle reports that:
According to the latest federal data, of the 370 American citizens and permanent..
Deeper Diversity and the Game of Professional Philosophy
On one understanding of diversity—perhaps an understanding that was once the dominant one—making professional philosophy more diverse means making it the case that it is not exclusively the province of just a few kinds of people (with “kind” understood in terms of sex, race, culture, ethnicity, class, sexuality, physical ability, education, experiences). Th..
Summer Workshops Supporting Diversity in Philosophy
Athena in Action, a networking and mentoring workshop for graduate student women in philosophy, has posted a call for applicants to its 2016 workshop. Helpfully, the workshop website has a page that lists other summer diversity initiatives for philosophy:
For graduate women interested in mathematical philosophy:
King Award Recipient: “Neither thrilled nor honored”
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports (may be paywalled) this morning that Naomi Zack, professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon, is the recipient of an award from her university in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. The story made the Chronicle for Zack’s reaction, in which she expresses gratitude for the award but is “neither thrilled nor honored” to r..
Reaching Under-Represented Job Candidates
Job search committees are asking the American Philosophical Association (APA) for help in reaching potential job candidates who are members of under-represented groups in philosophy, according to Teresa Blankmeyer Burke (Gallaudet), the acting chair of the Committee on Inclusiveness in the Profession. Of particular interest are email distribution lists (listservs) t..
Political Bias in Philosophy
Philosophers may be lovers of truth, but that doesn’t mean they are exempt from the cognitive biases that bedevil humans generally. Given that philosophers often have strongly-held political opinions, it’s worth asking: To what extent are their opinions conveyed in their academic writings? If political bias is present, then how does it influence the discipline? To t..
Diversity Reading List for Philosophy
A new website sponsored by the School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science at the University of Leeds offers philosophers a way to find “high-quality texts in philosophy, written by authors from under-represented groups. Its aim is to promote the work of such authors and facilitate finding and using their texts in teaching.” It’s called Diversity Reading ..
Philosophy, Real People, and the Real World
What are the boundaries of philosophy? Why are they there and what is their nature? How do such boundaries structure the way philosophers approach understanding people, events, relationships, institutions, and so on? A few recent pieces around the Internet explore versions of these questions.
Justin E.H. Smith (Université Paris Diderot) argues at Berfrois that th..
Inclusive Philosophy Classroom Best Practices Site
A new website, Best Practices for the Inclusive Philosophy Classroom, has launched. It is an interdepartmental project, started by Minorities and Philosophy (MAP), which aims to be “an easily accessible launching pad for teachers who want to make their philosophy classrooms more inclusive.”
The site includes anthologies and other resources for diverse syllabi, ad..
APA Wins $600,000 Grant for Undergraduate Diversity
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has won a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The grant will provide $600,000 over three years to support undergraduate diversity institutes in philosophy, including the expansion of the Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute (PIKSI) program and the development of infrastructure to support it and other..
The History of Racism in Philosophy
Christoph Meiners (1747-1810), a philosophy professor at the University of Göttingen and prolific scholar, initiated “a successful campaign to exclude Africa and Asia from the history of philosophy.” In turn, Wilhelm Tennemann (1761-1819), the most important Kantian historian at the turn of the 19th century, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (who observed that “real..
Alcoff, Leiter, and Pluralism Revisited
Regan Penaluna recounts the controversy over the Pluralist Guide to Philosophy in “A Latina Takes On the ‘Philosopher King-Maker‘” at Talking Philosophy. (via Ben Hale)
UPDATE: There have been concerns expressed about the accuracy and completeness of this report. Comments are open.