WebsterPhilosophy

(For other conference information, go to the main page.)

When? Friday, March 24, 2023.

Where? Sunnen Lounge, University Center, 175 Edgar Rd., Webster Groves (parking in Lot H next to the building)

This year’s conference features the philosophical work of twenty students in three formats:

Panels (30 minutes per panel of two — five minutes or so per person at the start, discussion between the two presenters, and finally questions/discussion with the whole room)

Individual presentations (30 minutes each — 15-20 presentation, remainder Q&A/discussion)

Zine Gallery (concurrent sessions in which attendees circulate around the conference venue prior to and during lunch to read and discuss participants’ zines or other handouts with them)   9:00     Coffee and baked goods available

9:15     Presentation 1:

Brett Fabregas (Washington University in St. Louis), ”Two Kinds of Aesthetic Value”

9:45     Panel A:

Aidan Brown (Webster), “Rosa Luxemburg’s Defense of the Marxist Principle of the Socialist Party” Luke Adams (Webster), “Gen-Z Must R.I.S.E. To The Existential Crisis” (CW: suicide)

10:15   Panel B:

James Cameron Smith (Kentucky), “An Ethical Egoist's Guide to Fictional Worlds” (CW: rape and sexual violence) Karlee M. Colby (Northern Iowa), “Neglect of the Gloved Hand: How epistemic infringement highlights a need for legal attention on mental autonomy” (CW: sexual violence)

10:45 Presentation 2:

Shae Parsons (Webster), “Global Impacts of Psychedelic Tourism”

11:15 Zine Gallery opens Zines: • Valentin Davis (Webster), “valentine,” (chapbook)

• Kieron Kessler (Webster), “An investigation into methods of mass incarceration in genocide”

• Jess Holmes (Webster) “What We Really Want You to Know”

• Kate McCracken (Webster), “The Illegitimacy and Impossibility of A Priori Knowledge”

• Luke Adams (Webster) . . .   11:30-12 noon Lunch (Bombay Food Junkies, all vegan), continue Zine Gallery

12:00 Keynote address

Karim Dharamsi (Mt. Royal University) “Diversity and Illusions of Pluralism in Liberal Education”

Abstract:

Colleges and universities profess commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and most see themselves as actively engaged in diversity projects. However, if colleges are enrolling diverse groups of students, but not changing what they experience in college or the outcomes they are meant to achieve, then they are not engaged in diversity projects. Rather, they are engaged in assimilation projects — akin to the residential schools for First Nations youth in Canada.

More specifically, classes and general education programs overwhelmingly make two assumptions: there is a coherent narrative from Mediterranean Antiquity through European Enlightenment to contemporary “post Enlightenment,” and there is an intractable conceptual border between the so called Non-Western and Western intellectual traditions. Together, these assumptions make significant barriers to professed DEI aims.

This presentation considers those assumptions and articulates the value in better aligning general education and the liberal arts and sciences with institutional commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

1:30 Presentation 3:

Maximus Amadeus Glamour (Webster), “Niceness as a Tool of Oppression”

2:00     Panel C:

Pat Clover (University of Missouri St. Louis), “Sports Stadiums: Taxes for the Win?” Jess Holmes (Webster), “Big Alcohol and The Government: An Anarchist Perspective”

2:30 Panel D:

Clarissa Emanuel (Saint Louis University), “One, Holy, Catholic Integral Human Person” Agatha Gutierrez (William Jewell College), “The Refutation of Protagoras in Theaetetus 169d-187a and its Implications for Relativism”

3:00 Presentation 4:

Eleanor Grissom (St. Louis Community College), “Utility, Imperatives, and Virtue: Exploring the Ethics of Voluntary Active Euthanasia”

3:30 Panel E:

Syare Burnett (STLCC, Florissant Valley), “Masculinity is a Trap” Alexander Goode (Webster), “Heterosexual MSM and the Maintenance of Hegemonic, Straight Masculinity”

4:00 Presentation 5:

Yessenia Rodriguez (Northern Iowa), “Epistemic Injustice: The Lack of Diversity in the Field of Philosophy and the Treatment  Many Minority Groups Face”

4:30  Panel F:

Maria Walls (Webster), “The Bio-Anthro Affiliation Approach to Ecological Crises”

Molly Austell (Jefferson College), “Love is A Chemical Change”

Conference concludes

5:30 Dinner for presenters and organizers