CFP: Australian Society for Continental Philosophy 2024 Conference, Deakin University Waterfront Campus

The Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy provides a broad intellectual forum for scholars working within or in communication with continental philosophy and European philosophical traditions. We welcome proposals for papers, panels and streams from scholars working in any discipline, from diverse backgrounds, and at any stage of their career. 

The 2024 annual conference will be held at Deakin University (Geelong Waterfront) from the 2nd to the 4th of December. There will also be options for online participation.

Keynote Speakers:

  • Camisha Russell (University of Oregon)
  • Laura Roberts (Flinders University)
  • Massimiliano Tomba (UC Santa Cruz)
There will also be a plenary panel on the work of Andrew Benjamin.
 

Deadline for abstract submissions: 1 July

Conference fees, including Registration and Conference Dinner tickets are listed here
Registrations will open in the coming months.

For more details, as well as submission guidelines, please go to www.ascp.org.au/conference

All queries about the conference should be sent to conference@ascp.org.au

Deakin Women in Philosophy Network

Episode #089 - Simone De Beauvoir — Philosophize This!
A network is being built for women at Deakin University who wish to explore some women-centred philosophy discussions, talks and related events.
(Here ‘woman’ is defined as anyone who identifies as a woman for purposes of daily living.)
We are currently organising through a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1589166327934421
On requesting to join, you’ll be asked: “Which female philosopher would you like to learn more about?”
Enquiries: Cathy Legg: c.legg@deakin.edu.au

New Radio Program: “Getting Past Post-Truth”

Deakin’s Dr Cathy Legg, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, recently sat down with David Rutledge from ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone for a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion of the post-truth condition, epistemology in the modern context, getting people to care about the truth, and how the tradition of American Pragmatism can help us get past the ‘post-truth moment.’

You can listen to the program here, on the ABC Listen App, or wherever you get your podcasts.

New Radio Program: “Rediscovering Wilfred Sellars”

 

Wilfrid Sellars (Wikimedia Commons)

In  December 2024, Deakin hosted the Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference at  our Waterfront campus in Geelong. Deakin’s Dr Cathy Legg, along with Deakin graduate Dr Vincent Le, organised a stream on Wilfrid Sellars and the renewed interest in his work among continental philosophers.

This became the subject of a new episode of ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone, featuring Cathy, Vince, and several other excellent philosophers from Australia, the US, and Greece. The episode is presented and produced by Deakin’s A/Prof Patrick Stokes.

You can listen to the program here or via the ABC Listen App, or wherever you get your podcasts.

New Deakinstruction Episode: Deleuze, Digital Media & Thought

In Episode 10 of Deakinstruction, Tim Deane-Freeman talks to Meg McCamley and Tim Neal about his new book , which places Deleuze’s philosophy in dialogue with both cinema and the concept of information. In this context, they discuss philosophy, film, TV and social control, and the broader challenge of embracing a kind of thought which eschews recognition in order to confront the radically new. Tim Deane-Freeman is a sessional lecturer in philosophy at Deakin, and Meg McCamley and Tim Neal are both Deakin PhD candidates.

Sharing a Reality with Different Species: Cathy Legg in The Conversation

Deakin Philosophy’s Dr Cathy Legg has just published a piece in The Conversation, titled “Your world is different from a pigeon’s – but a new theory explains how we can still live in the same reality“:

As we explain it, reality is grasped through pragmatic agreement. This means individuals align their expectations about what others will do in similar lived situations. […] This highlights a key characteristic of pragmatist philosophy. It does not define cognition as a kind of consciousness, an idea that has led to apparently insoluble philosophical problems. Rather, pragmatists view knowledge of reality as implicit in what we can do, most especially what we can do with others.

The article is based on Dr Legg and André Sant’Anna’s newly-published paper in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, “Pragmatic Realism: Towards a Reconciliation of Enactivism and Realism” (Open Access), which argues for a Peircean model of inquiry-based enactivist realism, which makes the investigation of other species’ minds possible. 

Keynote videos from 47th International Merleau-Ponty Circle conference

In December 2023 Deakin University hosted the 47th annual conference of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle. This conference featured 33 presentations, 3 invited lectures and 2 keynote addresses, and brought together some 90 scholars from around the world (both in-person and online) for some rich and lively discussion. Thanks to support from the Australasian Association of Philosophy, we’re pleased to be able to share the recordings for the conference’s two keynote lectures in the links below.

  • Prof. Shaun Gallagher: Caught in the Fabric of the world: Between embryology and the tapestry of autopoietic nature

  • Prof. Alia Al-Saji: Opacity, Sociality, and Colonial Duration: Is it time to think critical phenomenology through Palestine?


 

Congratulations Philosophy PhD Graduates!

Warm congratulations to three Deakin philosophy PhD students who graduated at a ceremony held at the Waterfront Campus on Wednesday 14th February 2023: 

  • Dr Danica Janse van Vuuren, for her thesis “A Phenomenology of Feelings of Worthlessness and Suicidality in Some Cases of Depression” supervised by Prof. Jack Reynolds and A/Prof. Patrick Stokes, with Dr. Tamara Kayali Browne
  • Dr Brian Macallan, for his thesis “Freedom as a Centralising Motif in the Work
    of Henri Bergson” supervised by Dr Sean Bowden with Prof. Jack Reynolds
  • [in absentia] Dr Max Lowdin, for his thesis “Sign and Idea: Spinoza and Deleuze” supervised by Dr Sean Bowden with Prof. Jack Reynolds

Dr Danica Janse van Vuuren (centre) with Prof. Jack Reynolds (left) and A/Prof. Patrick Stokes (right) after the ceremony (photo courtesy of Tim Neal)

Dr Brian Macallan celebrating his PhD conferral (photo courtesy of Brian)

 

Journal of Bioethical Inquiry: Rural Bioethics

Danielle Couch (Monash University) and Christopher Mayes (Deakin University) co-edited a symposium issue of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry on Rural Bioethics.

From their introductory essay they write:

Bioethics seeks to highlight and address inequalities and injustice in the clinical encounter as well as in the healthcare system as a whole. Yet to date, the bioethics literature on the inequalities associated with rural and regional health and the unique ethical issues that arise in these contexts has been limited. To deepen our understanding of issues and place within rural contexts we need bioethical interrogation and reflection on rural issues, experiences, and practices which impact rural people and their health and well-being.

This symposium brings together health researchers and practitioners, sociologists, science and technology studies scholars, social workers, psychologists, rural health workforce experts, and bioethicists from Australia, Canada, China, Sweden, and the United States to consider how rurality and experiences of rural places impacts on health and health outcomes and the role of bioethics.

You can access the issue here. A number of the articles are open access including