---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joan Callahan <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 10:27 PM
Subject: Re: Diversity in Philosophy Conference, just some more thoughts
To: Ann Garry <[log in to unmask]>


Healthy, but comfortably retired as a, mostly, farmer and animal caretaker, I haven't had much to say lately.  So let me say a few things by way of catch up and addressing the current wave of criticism of the recent disability conference.

First, it is wonderful to see both FEAST and the FEAST list continuing to thrive.  Maybe someone with a memory better than mine can remind of exactly when all this took shape.

Second, the University of Dayton BENT OVER BACKWARDS to get this conference to go and be the very best it could be.  As usual, Peggy did all that she could to make the best of what is often VERY hard going.  She, and her College are to be commended for this really unique contribution.

That said, I would really like to hear (a lot) more about the group currently being most discussed as left out of consideration of disability and, in particular, among philosophers, namely, the psychologically disabled.  I find this a really compelling question.  But it might not be appropriate for an extended discussion on the FEAST list.  Given that, and even though I no longer have any institutional support for professional activities,  I am more than willing to figure out how to open a discussion list to think through this issue.

If you are interested in such a discussion, please email me at [log in to unmask] and let me know.  We can report back to the FEAST list what we learn together.

Joan


On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 9:52 PM, Ann Garry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi everyone,

I would like to add an observation about the excellent Diversity in Philosophy Conference.   One theme running through many presentations concerned how important it is to be an ally to our colleagues – faculty, students, and staff -- who are marginalized in ways other than the ways we are ourselves.  We often give lip service to this, but it can be uncomfortable when we don’t know exactly what to say or how to act.  The message I came away with is that in spite of these feelings, it’s important to push ahead, ask for advice and suggestions, and do what we can.  This facet of the conference, coupled with the opportunity to talk informally and socialize with people we didn't know before, produced feelings of shared goodwill that have been hard to obtain in this discipline!  This carried over well into the post-conference workshop for site-visit training. 

As usual at (good) conferences, we learned so much from each other – empirical studies, life stories, pedagogical innovations, and lots of other philosophical stuff. It was often very difficult to choose among the diverse group of talks at any given time.  People have been quite good so far about emailing their talks or surveys (or data or whatever) when asked for them.  If you weren’t at the conference, but see something on the program that you really need to look at, why not email the person?  Peggy can tell us, I hope, what we can expect to see online in the future from the conference.

If I don’t stop now, I fear I won’t get it posted ever!  I echo others’ many thanks to the planners and organizers.

Ann

--
Ann Garry

http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/agarry/
############################

To unsubscribe from the FEAST-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the following link: https://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=FEAST-L&A=1



############################

To unsubscribe from the FEAST-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the following link: https://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=FEAST-L&A=1