Research Diaries

As part of the assessment for the political philosophy course that I will be teaching in the Autumn, we will be asking the students to complete a research project instead of an exam. This project will be based around a case study relevant to a particular problem or issue covered during the course. Because this will be a new form of assessment for many of the students, and also because we want them to actively reflect on their learning methods, we are going to ask them to keep research diaries during the module, and then to submit a sample or summary of the diary to be marked along with the project.
We will most likely be using the Blackboard system for our online content, and within this there is the capability to set up a diary for each student. These can be completely private, be only viewable by the student and us as course lecturers, or visible to all members of the module. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to each of these options - privacy encourages honesty, and some students will be less productive on a public forum than they will be when they are not worrying about other people's views. On the other hand, the module is trying to encourage collaborative learning, and allowing students to read and comment on each other's diaries would be one route toward this. I am however sceptical whether many level three students would take the time to do this productively.
In order to puzzle some of these issues out I've set up an online research diary for myself as a trial. I'm using Blogger at first because it is so simple to use and I already have an account. I'm going to keep it private to begin with, but I might change this later on depending on how it goes. I do already keep a research diary of sorts, in that I write dated notes to myself when I'm reading or working, and also through my record of supervision meetings. But this will be a way to keep all of these things in one place, that is accessible from both home and University (and on the move via my mobile). Hopefully it will therefore not only help with some of the teaching issues that I'm looking into but benefit my research as well!
If anyone has any thoughts about the usefullness of research diaries and the best format or location for them I'd be interested to hear them.

CFP: Pavia Graduate Political Philosophy Conference

CALLFOR PAPERS
7th Pavia Graduate Conference in Political Philosophy
24TH and 25TH September 2009

On the24th and 25th of September 2009, the Human Development, Capability and Poverty International Research Centre at the Institute for Advanced Study of Pavia (Italy), under the joint patronage of the Italian Society for Political Philosophy and the Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy, will host the seventh edition of the Pavia Graduate Conference in Political Philosophy. This two-day conference is meant to offer graduate students an opportunity to present papers, get helpful feedback in a friendly atmosphere, and exchange ideas both with peers and with leading academics in the field of political philosophy. In addition to parallel sessions devoted to students' presentations, there will also be two plenary sessions. Plenary speakers in past editions have been: Hillel Steiner, Anna Elisabetta Galeotti, Peter Jones, Gianfrancesco Zanetti, Jonathan Wolff, Michele Nicoletti, Philippe Van Parijs, Sebastiano Maffettone, Giovanni Giorgini, Andrew Williams, David Miller and Alessandro Ferrara.

This year's keynote speakers will be:
Nadia Urbinati (Columbia University), speaking on 'Unpolitical Democracy'
Michael Otsuka ( niversity College of London), speaking on 'Risking Life and Limb'

Graduate students interested in giving papers should send their contributions (max 2500/3000 words in English) accompaniedby a short abstract (max 300 words in English), by Sunday 24th May 2009. Papers may focus on any area within political philosophy, and presentations should take no longer than twenty minutes to allow at least another twenty minutes of discussion. Please note that the 24th of May is also the deadline for registration for anyone who wishes to attend the conference without presenting a paper. Conference registration is free of charge. Paper givers will be offered accommodation in local university colleges. Accommodation fees and details will be arranged individually. Anyone who wishes to attend the conference without presenting a paper can write to check availability. Details about meal arrangements and conference programme to follow. Please address all correspondence (including paper submissions and additional inquiries) to the conference email address: graduate.conference@iuss.unipv.it
Updated information will shortly be available on the conference website: www.iusspavia.it/hdcp

CFP: York Postgrad Political Philosophy Conference

University of York Political Philosophy
Postgraduate Conference
29-30
May 2009
Legal, Political and Moral Rights: What are the Limits?

Plenary Speakers:
Professor Attracta Ingram (UCD)
Professor Simon Caney (Oxford)

In legal, political and moral spheres rights serve as a justification for actions and institutions. In each of these spheres, to claim the existence of a right is to claim the existence of something that we should value and respect. Rights, consequently, shape theway we conceive our relationships with others, the way we build our institutions and also the manner we direct our own lives. However, what are the limits, if any, of what we call rights? This question becomes especially relevant when we notice the emergence of an extraordinary number of right-claims in increasingly diverse forms: rights to silence, rights to disobey, rights not to be punished, rights to be punished, rights to life, rights to die, rights to be left alone, and so on.
The York Political Philosophy Conference 2009 invites research students in Politics, Law and Philosophy to present papers on rights and their limits.
Each paper will have a discussant and will be followed by an open floor discussion.
The deadline for abstract submission (400 words) is the 1st of March (please refer to the guidelines in the website).
The Conference Fee (including lunches and conference dinner is £30)
For further details please visit:
http://yorkpoliticalphilosophy2009.googlepages.com/home
Or e-mail: ad546@york.ac.uk

Aspiring Academics Event

Details of an interesting free event for postgrads and early career academics...

Tuesday 19th May 2009, Woburn House, London(http://prs.heacademy.ac.uk/view.html/prsevents/429)

This one day event is aimed at those who are relatively new to teaching, or those who are planning to begin a career in academia in the UK, working in philosophy, HPS and theology and religious studies. Speakers will include: Professor Jonathan Wolff, Dr Joe Cain, Dr Mathew Guest and Dr David Mossley

This workshop offers an opportunity for aspiring academics to gather and share information and advice, and to develop the skills necessary for a successful academic career. The event will be useful both for those already teaching and researching in departments, and those hoping to start their academic careers soon. It will also provide a chance to meet fellow academics from all over the country. Topics covered will include:
* Views of the 21st century research landscape
* Subject specific approaches to curriculum design
* Career planning

The event, including lunch and refreshments, is provided at no charge. The sessions will begin at 11:00 and finish by 16:00. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. For more information and to register, please visit the event webpage

Danielle Lamb
Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies
School of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
0113 343 8756
http://prs.heacademy.ac.uk

CFP: Brave New World 2009

I've been asked to post this CFP for the upcoming Brave New World conference hosted by MANCEPT. BNW is a well-established annual postgraduate conference in political theory which always manages to attract high-profile keynote speakers (this year being no exception):

CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline for submission of abstract: March 31st 2009

Brave New World 2009, the Fourteenth Annual Postgraduate Conference organised under the auspices of the Manchester Centre for Political Theory(MANCEPT), will take place on Tuesday 23rd and Wednesday 24th June 2009 at the University of Manchester.

We are pleased to announce that our guest speakers this year are:
Professor Chandran Kukathas (London School of Economics)
Dr Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen)

The Brave New World conference series is now established as a leading international forum exclusively dedicated to the discussion of postgraduate research in political theory. The conference offers a great opportunity for postgraduates from many different countries and universities to share experiences, concerns and research interests, to exchange stimulating ideas and to make new friends - all in a financially accessible and highly informal setting. Participants will also have the chance to meet and talk about their work with eminent academics, including members of faculty from the University of Manchester as well as our guest speakers, who will deliver keynote addresses at the event.
Guest speakers in previous years have included Brian Barry, Simon Caney, G.A. Cohen, Cecile Fabre, Jerry Gaus, Peter Jones, Susan Mendus, David Miller, Onora O'Neill, Michael Otsuka, Bhikhu Parekh, Carole Pateman, Anne Philips, Thomas Pogge, Henry Shue, Quentin Skinner, Adam Swift, Philippe Van Parijs, Andrew Williams, and Jonathan Wolff. Papers focusing on any area of political theory or political philosophy are welcome. If you would like to present a paper, please send a 300-word, anonymised abstract, including the title of the paper, to Brave.New.World@manchester.ac.uk, no later than 31st March 2009. Please also include in your email your name and institutional affiliation. Please note that the conference is self-financed and participants are responsible for seeking their own funding. For further details please contact David Birks at Brave.New.World@manchester.ac.uk. Further details to follow here.

CFP: Warwick Annual Grad Conference in Political Theory

Warwick 11th Annual Graduate Conference in Political Theory
14th February 2009

On Saturday 14th February 2009 from 10.00am to 6.30pm, the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick will host its eleventh annual conference for postgraduate students working in political theory or political philosophy. Previous events have been very successful, attracting a wide range of high quality papers, and participants from many countries. Past participants have reported that the conference provides a useful opportunity for graduate students to gain experience and receive feedback on work in progress. As well as postgraduate papers, there will be two plenary sessions:

Mathew Humphrey, University of Nottingham: 'Ideal Democratic Theory and Citizen Behaviour'
Leif Wenar, King's College London: 'Property Rights and the Resource Curse'

Postgraduates interested in giving papers should send abstracts (400-500 words) by no later than 21st January 2009. Papers may deal with any area within contemporary political theory, political philosophy, or the history of political thought, but should take no more than twenty minutes to present. It would be appreciated if those wanting to attend the conference would reserve a place no later than 6th February 2009. Attendance is free of charge and the Department will provide lunch.

All correspondence and further inquiries should be addressed to Matthew Clayton.

Postrad CFP: Northern Political Theory Association Conference

The annual conference of the Northern Political Theory Association will be held at the University of Stirling on 20 February 2009 .

Programme:
Elizabeth Ashford (University of St Andrews) , Title to be confirmed
Dudley Knowles (University of Glasgow), 'Good Citizens and Good Samaritans'
Cillian McBride (Queen's University, Belfast), 'Rethinking the Politics of Recognition'
Fabienne Peter (University of Warwick) , 'Democratic Legitimacy'

Postgraduate Paper Competition:

One fully-funded place is reserved for the presenter of a postgraduate paper. Postgraduates who wish to enter the competition should submit a 500 word abstract by Monday 12 January to Rowan.Cruft@stir.ac.uk and Andrea.Baumeister@stir.ac.uk .

Graduate Journals

The comments are fairly unanimous in response to this question on the merits of publishing in graduate journals - basically, 'don't do it'. Reading the comments, I ended up wondering why graduate journals are published in the first place - that's presumably a fair amount of time and effort going to waste if the comments are correct. It seems like there are at least some potential benefits to publishing in such a forum - peer feedback and experience of the publishing process are two that come to mind. Perhaps these journals would be appreciated slightly more if these aims were stated more clearly? If they are distinguished from 'proper' (I'd prefer 'professional') journals as serving different purposes then I'd hope people would not be held to account for articles published in such a way before their career had even begun. 

New BPPA website launched

The new British Postgraduate Philosophy Association website has been launched. Check it out here. 

Stirling Graduate Conference

Interesting postgraduate conference to be held at Stirling in December...

Conference Announcement

"Global Justice and Political Obligation"
2nd Law and Philosophy Postgraduate Conference
Department of Philosophy, University of Stirling
Stirling, Scotland (UK)
11-12 December 2008
__________________________________________________

Following the success of last year's Law and Philosophy Postgraduate Conference, this year the Department of Philosophy of University of Stirling is holding the 2nd Law and Philosophy Postgraduate Conference titled Law and Philosophy 2008: Global Justice and Political Obligation. Continuing on with the aim of last year's conference, this year's conference will bring together postgraduate students from a variety of disciplines working within the multiple intersections of Law and Philosophy. The focus of this year is global justice and political obligation.

We are honored to have the following two keynote speakers:
Professor John Horton (Keele University)
Professor Matt Matravers (University of York)

Contact:

Ambrose Lee and Piero Moraro
Department of Philosophy
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
UK
Tel: +44 (0)1786 467555
Fax: +44 (0)1786 466233
Email: a.y.lee@stir.ac.uk
         pm32@stir.ac.uk
Web: http://lawphil2008.50webs.com/

Brooks' 5 tips for getting published

Thom Brooks has written a very helpful and readable article on publication for early-career academics which can be found here. It develops some of the ideas from his previous advice for graduates on getting published, which can be found here. 

BPPA Conference

I'm sure that the BPPA won't mind me sharing the news that next year's British Postgraduate Philosophy Conference will be hosted by King's College, London. I'm disappointed that Sheffield has missed out on the opportunity to host the conference, but wish to congratulate King's on their success - I'm sure it will be a great event.

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.

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.

e-IR

I've just received some information on a great site that I had previosuly not come across. Called 'e-International Relations', it's a resource designed for people interested in international politics, and is run by students at universities across the world.

e-IR is an online resource for students of international relations. Established in November 2007, the site aims to collect, in one digital repository, a wide variety of resources helpful to students of international politics, diplomacy and global governance. e-IR is non-profit and is unaffiliated with any institution. The objects of e-IR are to:
Publish regular editorials by staff and guest writers; collate important news from politics and international relations departments in UK universities; publish high-quality student essays in international relations (citing the author and the course for which the essay was submitted); actively encourage the discussion and commentary of articles, editorials, essays and issues in international politics.
As the site grows we hope to:
Publish an online peer-reviewed journal of international relations, accepting unsolicited submissions from students; review courses in international relations, and the departments within which they fall, to provide guidance to students for future study and research; and review books, academic journals, and events (conferences, seminars etc.) to highlight key issues in international relations and any emerging research that may be of benefit or interest to students.

The site is really well designed and definitely worth a look. I hope to be submitting a comment piece to them in the next month or so.

New Website: Graduate Junction

I've just been sent some information about a new website that's been set up by some students in Durham. It's a good idea, and if it works could be really helpful.

Graduate Junction is designed to help graduate researchers make contact with other researchers interested in their work. The idea is to connect people who would otherwise not be aware of each other, perhaps in different groups, departments or institutions. Increasing communication can prevent duplication of effort and help the spread of new ideas.

Res Publica Postgraduate Essay Prize

For any eligible students:

For the fourth year running, Res Publica (the journal of the Association for Legal and Social Philosophy) will be awarding a prize for the best paper submitted by a current postgraduate student in 2008. This may be in any area of moral, legal or social philosophy, and should conform to the normal requirements for submissions - please see the website address below for details.
All entries must be received by 1 October 2008, with the winner to be announced in December 2008. The winner will receive £100 and a year's subscription to the journal. The winning essay will be published in Volume 15 (2009). The prize will be judged by a panel of referees, along with the journal editors.
For more information please contact:
Gideon Calder gideon.calder@newport.ac.uk
Jonathan Seglow j.seglow@rhul.ac.uk
Co-editors, Res Publica

Past Prize Winners:
Alexandra Couto, 'Privacy and Justification' 12.3 (2006)
Alasdair Cochcrane, 'Animal Rights and Animal Experiments: An Interest-Based Approach' 13.3 (2007)
Göran Duus-Otterström, 'Betting Against Hard Determinism' (forthcoming, 2008)

BPPA University Rep

As a result of working on our BPPC bid, I've volunteered to be the Sheffield University rep for the BPPA. University reps are there to provide a local source of information about the BPPA and its activites. Hopefully I'll be able to promote the work that they do to students here at Sheffield over the next year or so. More information on the BPPA and how to get in touch can be found here.

BPPA Conference Bid

A few of us at Sheffield have decided to put together a bid to host next year's British Postgraduate Philosophy Conference, which is the BPPA's annual conference. Despite being one of the largest philosophy departments in the UK, Sheffield doesn't seem to host that many conferences (in contrast with, say, Manchester). The BPPC was orginally established at Sheffield (it was known then as the National Postgraduate Analytic Philosophy Conference) in 1997, and it would be nice for it to come back to where it originally started!

The blurb from the BPPA:

"The BPPA Annual Conference (BPPC) is one of the longest running and most prestigious postgraduate philosophy conferences in the land, known to many as the Joint Session for Postgrads. The conference has a reputation for showcasing high quality postgrad philosophy, providing useful postgrad careers advice, and simultaneously enabling postgrad philosophers to socialise and have fun in a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere."

It's quite a lot of work, but hopefully should be fun, and is really good experience - it's also nice to have other projects on the go apart from thesis writing! The bid is due by 13th June, and if successful, we'd be putting the conference on over the weekend 17th-19th July 2009.