INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: “EXPANDING THE CANON: TRANSITIONS & TRANSFORMATIONS IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY”

July 1-6, Schloss Neuhaus (Gais, Italy)

Organizers: Dr. Amber L. Griffioen (University of Konstanz); Dr. Marius Backmann (University of Konstanz)

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: 

• Andrew Arlig (Brooklyn College)

• Abdulrahman Bajodah (Central European University)

• Alejandro Viveros Espinosa (University of Chile)

• Eirik Lang Harris (Hong Kong Baptist University)

• Aminah Hasan-Birdwell (Furman University)

• Jill Graper Hernandez (University of Texas at San Antonio)

• Lacey Hudspeth (Harvard Divinity School)

• Seth Jones (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

• Karin Kuchler (University of Vienna)

• Julia Lerius (University of Paderborn)

• Christia Mercer (Columbia University)

• Gary Ostertag (City University of New York)

• Elizabeth M. Cruz Petersen (Florida Atlantic University)

• Kristopher G. Phillips (Southern Utah University)

• Christina Van Dyke (Calvin College)

• Mohammad Sadegh Zahedi (IKIU Qazvin)

SPECIAL GUEST: Rachel Kadish, Novelist and Author of The Weight of Ink

The Call for Abstracts is closed, but you can find an archived copy here.

There has been much discussion in academia regarding the lack of diversity and inclusiveness at Anglo-American and European institutions of higher education. This problem is particularly dire in the discipline of Philosophy, especially when compared with other disciplines in the Humanities. At the same time, there is some reason to believe that one reason for low retention and hiring rates of underrepresented groups is the presence of certain biases in the discipline – biases that may be shaped, in part, through the way the history of philosophy in Western academia is conceptualized by scholars and taught to students.

Indeed, much of what drives many intuitions and assessments about what counts as “philosophical”, which philosophical figures, traditions, and problems are “worth” discussing, and what constitutes the “proper” way of doing philosophy has to do with the kinds of philosophy one encounters and the historical philosophical narrative with which one is typically presented in academic contexts. Unfortunately, the traditional Western narrative both displays and perpetuates strong implicit (and sometimes explicit) biases in terms of gender, ethnicity, ability, geography, and religion, to name just a few. It is a narrative divided into epochs that are themselves often the result of a Western reframing in later periods. 

The conference, “Expanding the Canon: Transitions and Transformations in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy”, to be held at Castle Neuhaus (Gais, IT) from July 1-6, 2018, aims to discuss ways of expanding and revising the historical philosophical canon and the way it is taught in the university. Daytime sessions will involve participant presentations on relevant topics, as well as interdisciplinary approaches, while the evenings will be organized into smaller roundtables and group brainstorming sessions, as well as dramatic readings and other activities.