I don't know how many of you are planning to attend the Pacific meetings of the American Philosophical Association that will happen early April in San Francisco, CA.  Those of you who are will likely know about the boycott of the conference hotel.  With Sharon Meagher, I helped organize a pair of sessions on "Practicing Public Philosophy," cosponsored by the Committee on Public Philosophy, to be held April 2.  With the boycott, we are holding these meetings off site, at a hotel in Union Square.  These will not be typical sessions, with papers given and question-and-answer, but are designed around group discussion provoked by the invited speakers, including John Lachs, Eduardo Mendieta, Nancy Tuana, Linda Alcoff, Bill Sullivan, Noelle McAfee and Elizabeth Minnich.  Space is somewhat limited, and we are asking everyone to preregister, but we are able, with the help of the CPP and George Mason's Center for Global Ethics, to provide everyone lunch and snacks.

For those of you who are interested, here is the panel description:

Despite the public perception that continues to share Aristophanes’ view that philosophers remain “in the clouds,” incapable of doing publicly relevant work, at least some philosophers have remained committed to a Socratic model of philosophy that is engaged with public life.   These sessions invite philosophers who do publicly engaged work (assuming multiple publics and multiple types of engagement) to come together to both share their work and to reflect philosophically on the concept of “public philosophy.”

Please note that both sessions will focus on dialogue and discussion, and audience members are invited and expected to participate.   Speakers featured below are “catalyst speakers,” whose aim is to draw all of us into discussion.  Interested participants who require a letter of invitation in order to secure travel funding from their institution should pre-register.

You will find the more detailed announcement and registration here:
http://philosophyandthecity.org/publicphilconference.html

I would be happy to answer any questions you have.  I hope to see some of you there!


--
Ellen K. Feder
Associate Professor and Acting Chair
Department of Philosophy and Religion
American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC  20018-8056
202-885-2931
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