Philosophy and the Climate Crisis
June 11-12, 2021
Proposals welcome until October 31, 2020 (see below)
Registration will open by April 1st
Climate change presents a major challenge for our time. It is expected to greatly increase global temperatures, “natural” disasters, political instability, war, disease, drought, and famine in this century. Its impacts are far-reaching and distributed unequally. In this conference, we aim to make progress toward addressing climate change, both by addressing the philosophical challenges it raises, and by working together to encourage sustainable practices in teaching, research, administration, advocacy, and community engagement.
Our main themes are:
(I) Moral and political responses to climate change: challenges pertaining to climate justice, inequality, indigenous rights, migration, individual responsibility, responses to disaster and emergency
(II) The role and responsibility of philosophers in research, teaching and course design, service, and in the public domain: effective teaching about climate change, sustainable practices within philosophy, public philosophy, and the role of philosophers in on- and off-campus advocacy
To keep the conference sustainable, accessible, and low cost, the conference will be held virtually via Zoom. We will have keynote sessions with Marion Hourdequin and Kyle Whyte with live Q&A. Other talks will be organized into live panels of three speakers each. These panels will include a pre-read (5000 word maximum) and/or pre-watched talk (20 minute maximum) in advance of the live panel. Each live panel will include a separate Q&A for each talk, followed by time for general discussion. The conference will also include additional informal discussion time as well as moderated forum discussions without presenters.
Selected speakers:
Colorado College
Georgetown University
Michigan State University
Yale-NUS College
Organizers:
Harvard University
Temple University
Call for Proposals:
If you would like to be one of our speakers, please submit an anonymized abstract of no more than 1000 words to philosophersforsustainabili
Acceptance decisions will be made by December 1. All accepted participants will be required to submit their talk and/or paper by April 1, and then attend their live panel during the conference dates.
We especially welcome submissions from indigenous philosophers, philosophers of color, women, younger philosophers, philosophers outside North America and Europe, and members of other frontline populations disproportionately impacted by climate change.