Philosophers' Carnival

The 72nd Philosophers' Carnival is at The Brooks Blog.

Academia.edu

Just a quick note about another website useful for academics and graduate students alike - I hadn't come across it previously, but a comment on my previous post highlighted it to me. It's a useful facility where academics can create their own webpage detailing their research interests and the like - very helpful for those of us lacking technical skills! Find it at academic.edu. My (new) page on the site can be found here.

New Features on Graduate Junction

A while ago I posted about a new site for graduate research students - Graduate Junction. In response to user comments they've now added a new group feature, and a conference diary and careers advice section is in the pipeline. Check it out here.

Hiatus

Apologies for the recent lack of posting, and apologies in advance for the fact that this lack of output is likely to last until July - I've been away a fair amount recently and will be moving house at the end of this week. Normal service will be resumed once all the IKEA flat pack assembly is complete!

Also, Beyond Borders will be hosting the next but one Philosophers' Carnival on July 14th, I'll post a call for submissions next week.

Philosophers' Carnival

The 71st Philosophers' Carnival is here

Conference: Oxford Political Thought 2009

The Oxford Political Thought Conference 2009 will take place at St Catherine's College, Oxford from 8th-10th January 2009.

The official website can be found here.

Confirmed speakers include:

Thom Brooks (Newcastle) - Why save the planet?
Terrell Carver (Bristol) - The German Ideology did not take place
Clare Chambers (Cambridge) - Marriage
Jason Frank (Cornell) - Promiscuous citizenship
Bonnie Honig (Northwestern) - Antigone's anachronism? Mourning and membership in democratic Athens
Kimberly Hutchings (LSE) - What is orientation in thinking? The question of time and timeliness in international political theory
Duncan Kelly (Cambridge) - tbc
Jonathan Wolff (UCL) - Risk, disadvantage, and the evolution of health systems

CFP: Online Symposium at Public Reason

The future of conferencing?

The political philosophy group blog, Public Reason, invites submissions for a semester-long online symposium of papers in political philosophy during Fall 2008. Each week a paper will be podcasted on the website by the author and receive comments in response. Symposium submissions will be subject to a process of blind review by a committee of members of the website. The aim of the symposium is to utilise the tools of the internet to create a peer-reviewed conference experience accessible to every academic in the world, both as a presenter and as a participant. Participation in professional conferences is an important part of any academic’s research activities, but logistical difficulties and expenses can make conference travel very difficult. This is especially the case for academics who wish to collaborate with others at an international level. The function of the symposium is to create an online conference in a format designed to elicit as much feedback from fellow academics as possible whilst creating no significant financial or logistical difficulties for participants
whatsoever. Those selected will be able to present their papers to an unlimited number of colleagues without having to leave their offices. The papers will be presented on a weekly basis to allow a reasonable time period for comments. The papers will be podcasted to make them as accessible as possible to a wide audience.

Selected participants will be expected to do the following:

1. Complete a full draft of the paper by 5 September 2008.

2. Download and use a podcasting application to create an mp3 recording of the paper. (One such application is Audacity, which can be downloaded and used without charge.)

3. Use an ftp application to transfer the mp3 file to the website.

4. Join the site as a member and publish a post on the website for their assigned day containing both the mp3 podcast and a pdf file of the full draft of the paper.

Although most academics may be unfamiliar with podcasting and blogging software such as Audacity and WordPress, they are in fact remarkably user-friendly. As such, no-one should be inhibited from submitting a proposal because of any inexperience
with the technology. We will also be able to provide some assistance to those who may encounter difficulties in learning how to podcast.

Public Reason is a group blog that has a membership of over one hundred political philosophers and theorists in more than a dozen countries around the world. Any bona fide professional political philosopher or theorist who has completed a doctorate is invited to join the site as a full member. In addition students of political philosophy may join the site as participants. The website welcomes posts from members containing any manner of discussing or engaging in political philosophy. These include conference announcements, calls for papers, working papers, and reading groups, in addition to the podcast symposium. No member is expected to post regularly.

Papers in all areas of political philosophy or political theory are welcome. Although papers should be in English, Public Reason welcomes submissions from academics based in non-Anglophone countries. Submissions from graduate students are also welcome. There is no strict word limit on the length of the final papers, but they should ideally be presentable within roughly an hour. Participants are also free to include powerpoint presentations, or similar media, in their posts.

Please submit a pdf file of an abstract of your paper of no more than 300 words, excluding references, to admin@publicreason.net by 31 July 2008. Please submit only one proposal. Abstracts must be prepared for blind review. If you would be willing to comment on a paper, please indicate as such in your email and submit a pdf file of your curriculum vitae, including research interests and publications in political philosophy. Notifications of selections should be made by the end of August and the symposium should start at the end of September. As the symposium is experimental, we may make changes to the format prior to the Fall. Please direct any queries to Simon May (Philosophy, Virginia Tech) at admin@publicreason.net.

Upcoming Postgraduate Course on Rawls

For any German-speaking Rawls scholars...

From June 23rd to 28th you are invited to a course for advanced students and postgaduates on Rawls' Political Philosophy at Humboldt University Berlin with Michael Rosen, Professor of Government, Harvard University. Course syllabus and detailed descritption are to be found here. For further questions and registration please write toherzogan@cms.hu-berlin.de. Registration deadline is June 10th.

Henry Shue Conference

Oxford are hosting a one-day conference on the work of Henry Shue, details below...

'Ethics and International Affairs: Rights, Climate Change and War - Themes from the Work of Professor Henry Shue'

1 July 2008

The Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford, is hosting a one day conference to celebrate the work of Professor Henry Shue.
The conference will be held in Seminar Room G, Manor Road Building, Manor Road, Oxford.

9.30-10.00 Welcome
10.00-11.15 Charles Beitz (Princeton) 'Henry Shue on Basic Rights' (provisional title)
11.15- 11.45 Coffee
11.45-12.45 John Tasioulas (Oxford) 'Deontic Pluralism and Cultural Dialogue: two Themes in Shue's Theory of Rights'
12.45-13.45 lunch
13.45-15.00 Simon Caney (Oxford) 'Human Rights, Responsibilities and Henry Shue's Analysis of Climate Change'
15.00-15.30 coffee
15.30-16.45 David Rodin (Oxford) 'Henry Shue's Ethics of War'
16.50-18.05 Tony Coady (Melbourne) 'Shue on War'
18.05 Closing Remarks and Reception

*Please note*: Attendance is free but places are limited and attendees must register. To register please visit http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/research/conferences/
*Further information: *http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/contact.asp?m=staff&ref=340

What to do about climate change

There's an interesting article in today's Guardian newspaper urging us not to give up our efforts to combat climate change, however pointless and tokenistic they may seem. Read it here.

Raz on Partiality

Over at Ethics Etc. Joseph Raz has provided a link to a draft of a new paper on the 'Possibility of Partiality'. It's well worth a look for a fresh take on an old (but still very interesting problem).

'Questioning Cosmopolitanism' Conference

The programme for the Second Biennial Conference of the International Global Ethics Association - 'Questioning Cosmopolitanism', being held at the University of Melbourne, Australia, later this month, has been released. Obviously it's a long way for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere, but if anyone is going to be in that part of the world it would be very much worth a detour. Keynote speakers include Andrew Linklater, Tom Campbell, Carol Gould, Jiwei Ci, Nigel Dower, and Christien van den Anker. Further details and the full draft programme can be found here.

BSET website

The new BSET website is up and running (it's been down due to technical problems for the last few months). Since they've had to start from stratch it's still in the early stages of development but contains all the details for the annual conference, being held this year in Edinburgh.

Philosopher's Carnival

The 70th Philosopher's Carnival can be found here.