Overview | Panels | Keynote |
cfp
Registration Information | Final Schedule
The Summer Institute in American Philosophy is designed for faculty members and advanced graduate and postdoctoral students in philosophy and related disciplines interested in research and study of Pragmatist and American philosophy. The program is centered around discussion-intensive plenary panels concerning central problems, figures, and themes in the tradition. These are led by a panel of distinguished experts and spans multiple sessions over two or three days. In addition, we will enjoy a pair of keynote addresses by Patricia Hill Collins. There will also be a broad number of traditional conference-style sessions which will include paper presentations and works-in-progress meetings.
The program includes time away from campus to visit the Oregon coast, hike in the nearby Cascade mountains, or enjoy a tasting at Willamette Valley wineries. Participants typically gather each night at nearby restaurants and pubs to continue the day's discussions. Housing is available at local inns as well as (at a very affordable rate) in one of the UO residence halls.
Patricia Hill Collins, Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, former President of the American Sociological Association (the first African-American woman to hold the position), and author of the groundbreaking text Black Feminist Thought (1990) and numerous other books including Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice (1998), Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism (2004), From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism (2006), Another Kind of Public Education: Race, Schools, the Media and Democratic Possibilities (2009), and On Intellectual Activism (2012).
Hill Collins will deliver two keynote addresses at SIAP 2016 scheduled for Monday evening and Thursday morning. Please seee the finalized schedule (above) for details.
This panel will feature Christopher Voparil (of Union Institute and University, co-editor with Richard Bernstein of The Rorty Reader 
and author of Richard Rorty: Politics and Vision), Marianne Janack (of Hamilton College, editor of Feminist Interpretations of Richard Rorty and author of What We Mean By Experience), Michael Bacon (of Royal Holloway University in the UK, author of Richard Rorty: Pragmatism and Political Libralism and Pragmatism: An Introduction), Neil Gascoigne (of Royal Holloway University in the UK, author of Richard Rorty: Liberalism, Irony, and the Ends of Philosophy), and Ramón del Castillo (of Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in Spain, and author of Richard Rorty y el giro pragmático and more).
For more information about Rorty's work and events leading up to and following SIAP please visit the website of the newly-formed Richard Rorty Society.
The focus of this panel will be explorations of the implications of black feminism (including Patricia Hill Collins' important Black Feminist Thought) for philosophy, both as a motion of thought and as an academic discipline embedded in contemporary social realities. Panelists will explore black feminism from epistemological, metaphysical, political, and ethical angles. This panel will feature presentations by Denise James (University of Dayton), Brad Stone (Loyola Marymount University), and Camisha Russell (Colorado College).
These events, another in our ongoing series of 'Crossing Disciplines' inquiries, will explore how boundaries of disciplinarity, genre, and the social location of academia are transformed by the work of public scholarship in different disciplines. We will hear from Jerry Rosiek (of the Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education Program in the University of Oregon College of Education), discussing themes of his new book Resegregation as Curriculum: The Meaning of the New Racial Segregation in U.S. Public Schools.
Later in the week we will be joined by Andrew Light (of George Mason University and the U.S. Department of State) discussing discussing the progression of his work from theory to practice, starting with the development of “environmental pragmatism” as a new field of academic environmental ethics in the mid-1990s, to actively participating in the creation of the new 2015 global Paris Agreement on climate change as one of the lead climate negotiators for the Obama administration. In recognition of this work Andrew was awarded SAAP’s inaugural Alain Locke Award for Public Philosophy in 2016.
Each afternoon (with the exception of our excursion day on Thursday) we enjoy regular conference-style presentations of a variety of formats: traditional papers, books-in-progress, and dissertations-in-progress.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS. A call for proposal abstracts was posted with a deadline of Friday March 18, 2016 and is now closed. For details on the call, see the cfp. Please email Colin Koopman with any questions.
REGISTRATION. Please fill out and mail by post (not email) the SIAP Registration Form (and include your check).
LODGING. Lodging and housing information (including on-campus dorm room options that are very inexpensive at around $50/night, plus moderately priced nearby hotels in walking distance from our conference venue). More information is available on the registration form.
TRAVEL INFORMATION. Travel information is available on the registration form. Additional information is available via the University of Oregon website.
GRADUATE HOUSING/REGISTRATION GRANTS. We have a limited number of travel grants available to graduates at the conference. Priority will be given to graduates who are presenting their work for the first time at an SIAP conference, although all attendees who request funding assistance will be considered. These grants cover the entire cost of housing and registration (or the equivalent). If you would like to be considered for a grant, please indicate so on your submission. Graduate Travel Grant Application Deadline: March 18, 2016. These grants are generously funded by the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy.
FURTHER TRAVEL INFORMATION. For more information about Eugene and Lane County, Oregon, see Travel Lane County. The Oregon Bach Festival typically runs from late June through early July. The world-famous hippie-fest The Oregon Country Fair is typically held in early July.
For more information about the conference please contact Colin Koopman (Assoc. Prof., Philosophy, University of Oregon).
The Summer Institute in American Philosophy at the University of Oregon in 2016 is made possible by generous sponsorship from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon, the Wayne Morse Center for Law & Politics at the University of Oregon, the Oregon Humanities Center, the UO Department of Sociology, the UO Department of Women's and Gender Studies, the UO Center for the Study of Women in Society, and the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy.
