Summary

Monday 24 – Thursday 27 June 2013
‌Venue: University of Glasgow,
 Department of Philosophy, 
67-69 Oakfield Avenue 
Glasgow, G12 8QQ (Map)

Monday 24 June 2013: Wine Reception

Tuesday 25 June 2013: Conference Day 1
Wednesday 26 June 2013: Conference Day 2
Thursday 27 June 2013: Careers Day

The BPPA Annual Conference began in 1997 and will reach its 17th successive year in 2013. Our conference has the dual aim of showcasing the highest quality postgraduate work in philosophy and finding creative ways to meet the needs of current graduate students. Our format combines a traditional two-day postgraduate philosophy conference with an entire day devoted to career preparation. To our knowledge, this is a combination offered by no other graduate philosophy conference in the world.

As part of the Careers Day, Glasgow will be providing the opportunity for up to ten postgraduates to experience mock interviews and to receive feedback on their performance. We will also conduct an original piece of research aimed at capturing a snapshot of the publication history of new hires in UK departments. We feel that this will be of wide ranging benefit to the postgraduate community in particular, and the broader philosophical community in general, by supplementing the anecdotal evidence concerning required levels of publication. We intend to analyse the data against age and gender demographics to discover whether any patterns emerge along these variables.

Keynote speakers: Professor Helen Beebee (University of Manchester) and Professor Ernest Sosa (Rutgers).

Participation

The conference is open to all.

Call for Mock Interviewees

We invite applications from graduates to take part in Academic Job Mock Interviews, to be held at the University of Glasgow on the 24th of June. Interviews will be conducted by an experienced panel of philosophy staff from the University of Glasgow.

Participants will:

1. gain invaluable experience of an academic job interview.
2. receive feedback on their performance.
3. have their conference fee waived.
4. Receive a £50 Analysis Trust student bursary.

In return, participants are asked to discuss their experiences with their fellow postgraduates in an informal roundtable discussion at the academic career preparation day (27th of June). There are 10 slots available for this unique opportunity. Applicants are asked to write a short statement justifying their inclusion at this exciting event. Application emails should be sent by the 3rd of May to bppaglasgow@gmail.com.

Call for Research Participation (forthcoming)

Call for Papers

We invite papers in all areas of philosophy. Speakers must be postgraduates, or have been recently (within 6 months) awarded their PhD. Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words to bppaglasgow@gmail.com by 25th April 2013.

Funding

We hope to be able to make a significant contribution to speaker costs (travel and accommodation). Final amounts are to be confirmed.

We also have TWO bursaries from the Society for Applied Philosophy available to support accepted papers in Applied Philosophy. If you believe that your paper is in this area, please indicate this on your abstract.

*New* Furthermore we have TWO bursaries from the British Logic Colloquium, available to support accepted papers in Philosophical Logic. If you believe that your paper is in this area, please indicate this on your abstract.

Registration

Conference fee: £20.00
Careers Day fee: £10.00

Please email bppaglasgow@gmail.com to register.

Conference dinners are planned at a local restaurant on the evenings of Tuesday 26 March and Wednesday 27 March 2013. Please e-mail bppaglasgow@gmail.com if you would like your name to be added to the group booking, indicating any dietry requirements. There will be an additional charge (to be determined) for this.

Funding and Organisation

The conference is organised by Umut Baysan, Robert Cowan, Neil McDonnell and Stephanie Rennick under the auspices of the Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience at the University of Glasgow.

Sponsors

1. The conference is funded by Analysis Trust
2. Mind Association
3. British Logic Colloquium
4. Scots Philosophical Association
5. Society for Applied Philosophy
6. University of Glasgow Graduate School
7. University of Glasgow Philosophy

The charity 'Reverence for Life' invites submissions for an essay prize on the theme of reverence for life. For full details, see http://reverenceforlife.org.uk/2012/11/reverence-for-life-essay-prize-2013-launch/.

The NUS are now running a UK-wide subject-wide survey of Graduate Teaching Assistant Pay. Please take the survey if you can. You can find it here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NUSPGteach

A report on the 2011 BPPA Annual Conference, very successfully hosted by the University of Reading, has now been published in Discourse, the Journal of the Higher Education Academy. It's available online at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/subjects/prs/Discourse-11-2-... .

In the article published on this site regarding our Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) pay survey we said that according to our survey several universities failed to pay their GTAs the minimum wage in real terms. Three of the universities listed were University College London, the University of Manchester, and Kings College London.

Professor Jonathan Wolff (UCL) has brought UCL's rates of pay to our attention. UCL pays GTAs for 6 hours work a week if they are teaching 1 seminar a week at a rate of £12 per hour. So, UCL pays its GTAs over the minimum wage in real terms.

The British Postgraduate Philosophy Association invites applications to organize and host our Annual Conference and Careers Day in 2013.

The BPPA Annual Conference began in 1997 and will reach its 17th successive year in 2013. Our conference has the dual aim of showcasing the highest quality postgraduate work in philosophy and finding creative ways to meet the needs of current graduate students. Our current preferred format combines a traditional two day postgraduate philosophy conference with an entire day devoted to career preparation. To our knowledge, this is a combination offered by no other graduate philosophy conference in the world, and there is flexibility for further innovation in the format.

Organizing our conference is an opportunity to advertise your department, gain valuable wider experience of the philosophical world, and put your creativity to good use! We're confident that our organizers will find it a rewarding experience. Details of our most recent conference at the University of Reading in 2011 can be found on our website at http://www.bppa-online.org/bppc2011 . Our conference in 2012 will be hosted by the University of Edinburgh.

To apply to host and organize the conference in 2013, you will need to supply the following:

- A conference team of at least three people, and confirmation of your team's willingness to work with the BPPA Committee (our expectations are set out in our constitution here http://www.bppa-online.org/constitution - see section 15)

- A letter from your Head of Department acknowledging (i) your department's support for your application to host the conference, (ii) your department's full financial responsibility for the organization of the conference, if awarded, and (iii) confirmation of any conference funding which would be offered by your department in the event of a successful application.

- A proposed schedule and format for the conference, including the proposed dates and intended number of postgraduate and keynote speakers. Please note that the conference should take place within the period from June to September 2013.

- An estimated conference budget based on 60 participants (including postgraduate speakers) plus keynote speakers. The budget should detail in particular the likely costs for accommodation, meals, hire of conference facilities such as conference halls, and conference refreshments.

In addition, we would be delighted to hear why your department should host our conference and to hear your ideas for improvements to the format. We aim to provide an enjoyable and useful conference for all participants, and we welcome creative ideas on how best this can be achieved. The organizing team will have the full support of the BPPA committee, many of whom are previous organizers themselves, for all aspects of the conference.

Applications should be sent by email in any widely used electronic format (pdf, Open Office, MS Word and Excel, or even plain text!) to

events@bppa-online.org

The deadline for receipt of applications is 31st September 2012. We'll also be very happy to answer any informal questions sent to the same address.

Careers Day

Introduction by Chair Professor Michael Ridge (University of Edinburgh)

An mp3 of Professor Ridge's Introduction is available here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/bppa2012/ridge.mp3

Applying for Academic Jobs - Dr Dave Ward (University of Edinburgh)

An mp3 of Dave Ward's talk is available here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/bppa2012/dave1.mp3

Applying for Post-docs - Dr Guy Fletcher (University of Edinburgh)

An mp3 of Guy Fletcher's talk is available here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/bppa2012/guy.mp3

Q&A on Job Applications with Dave Ward and Guy Fletcher: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/bppa2012/guydaveq...

The North American Job Market - Professor Brad Hooker (University of Reading)

An mp3 of Professor Hooker's's talk is available here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/bppa2012/brad.mp3

Publishing - Professor Duncan Pritchard (University of Edinburgh)

An mp3 of Professor Pritchard's talk is available here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/bppa2012/pritchar...

The Hiring Process - Dr Michael Brady (University of Glasgow), Dr Jesper Kallestrup (University of Edinburgh), and Professor Brad Hooker (University of Reading)

An mp3 of this roundtable discussion is available here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/bppa2012/hiringhe...

Work Life Balance - Dr Komarine Romdenh-Romluc (University of Nottingham)

An mp3 of Dr Romdenh-Romluc's talk is available here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/bppa2012/worklife...

Jobs for Philosophers Outside of Philosophy - Dr Thom Brooks (Durham University)

An mp3 of Dr Brooks' talk is available here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/bppa2012/brooks.mp3

Postgraduate Conference

Keynote Speakers

Sarah Broadie (Professor of Moral Philosophy & Wardlaw Professor, University of St. Andrews)
Brad Hooker (University of Reading)
Christopher Peacocke (Columbia & UCL)
Duncan Pritchard (Chair of Epistemology, University of Edinburgh & Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh)

18 postgraduate papers were given at the 2012 conference accompanied by 18 responses. For a full list of the papers, presenters and respondents see the conference website at http://www.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/bppa2012/.

Acknowledgements

The BPPA Conference 2012 was sponsored by:

• The Analysis Trust
• The Aristotelian Society
• The British Logic Colloquium
• The British Society for the Philosophy of Science (BSPS)
• The Mind Association
• Cambridge University Press
• The Society for Applied Philosophy (SAP)
• The Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP)
• The Scots Philosophical Association
• The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies (PRS)
• The University of Edinburgh Department of Philosophy
• The University of Edinburgh School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Conference Committee

• Cameron Boult (Secretary)
• Hasse Hamalainen (Treasurer)
• Sebastian Kohler (Funding Coordinator)
• Robin McKenna (Event Coordinator)
• Selina Sadat (Committee Chair & Funding Coordinator)
• Richard Stoeckle-Schobel (Funding Coordinator)
• Lauren Ware (Event Coordinator)
• Sam Wilkinson (Publicity & Advertising Coordinator)

Disposition-ascriptions are claims such as ‘the glass is fragile’, ‘you are irascible’, ‘that substance is poisonous’, and so on. ‘Fragile’, ‘irascible’ and ‘poisonous’ seem to tell us something about how the object is disposed to behave in certain circumstances. For instance, a fragile glass is disposed to break, an irascible person is disposed to get angry, and a poisonous substance is disposed to kill.

The full podcast of Simona's paper is here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/symposium/Aimar.mp3

A pdf version of Simona's paper is here: http://www.bppa-online.org/sites/bppa-online.org/files/symposium/Aimar.pdf

See the comments for Professor Barbara Vetter's response