CFP: online undergrad ethics conference

I'm organizing an online ethics conference for undergrads. I'm very excited about this project—I don't think that an online undergrad conference has ever been done before. (If you know of a previous case, please let me know in the comments.) I asked our Head Pupa, Marcus, whether it would be all right if I share this with the Cocoon, and he graciously agreed. So, here goes!

The deadline for paper submissions is Feb. 1 2013. The CFP is here:

http://www.coastalethics.org/

Please share the CFP with your undergrad students, if you think that any of them might be interested! (Eventually, the above link will go to the conference itself. For now, it's just the CFP.)

We are hoping that many or all of the commentators will be full-time philosophers (faculty or grad students). We want this conference to be an opportunity for exceptional undergrads to receive commentary from professionals in the field. So, if you're interested in serving as a commentator, please drop me an email (dkilloren@coastal.edu). Note that serving as a commentator involves recording a short (max. 10 min.) video. We will match commentators with papers based on areas of interest. I know that there is an abundance of excellent philosophers and bright teachers here at the Philosopher's Cocoon, so I hope that lots of cocooners will consider getting involved in this project.

Comments

[Marcus Arvan]

David: count me in! Sounds like a great opportunity for students.

[David Killoren]

Thanks, Marcus! It will be great to have you on board.

[elisa freschi]

This is a very interesting idea. May I ask you how you will make it into a "conference"? In other words, each presenter will get the feedback of his or her commentator and of people who might watch his/her video and read his/her paper? Or are all the other participants invited/forced to read the other papers? (I would recommend the latter option). I am going to drop you a line in case you need a further commentator.

[David Killoren]

Thanks, Elisa! It will be great to have you involved in this project (especially given that you have expertise in some areas of Philosophy that are too often neglected in some circles).

The basic set-up is this: Each presenter will present her paper via video, and each presenter will be assigned a commentator, who will deliver her comments via video. These videos will be made available on the conference website. There will also be a comments section associated with each presentation/commentary, so that conference participants (i.e., viewers) can ask questions of the presenter and/or commentator, and can engage in discussion with one another (via text). (The conference website will not go live until the Spring semester; we're in the process of building it now.)

[elisa freschi]

I have experienced something like that only once and part of the problem was the fact that ---knowing that the videos would have been online forever--- one did not really take the time to engage simultaneously. Comments were quite apart from each other and this is frustrating for the presenters, since they feel their work will need re-working endlessly. How will you deal with that? Perhaps announcing a "conference date" during which the presenters will be online and commit themselves to answer as soon as possible to all comments they might receive?

[David Killoren]

Many thanks for sharing your ideas and experience, Elisa. Yes, the conference will have official start and end dates. During that span of time, all of the conference presentations will be posted. (The length of the conference will be perhaps 7-14 days--this will depend partly on the number of papers that we accept for the main program.) We will ask presenters and commenters to be available to respond to questions and comments during that period. Once the conference is over, we might want to close the comment boxes.

[elisa freschi]

Thanks a lot for answering! I look forward to see how it works!

[Richard Brown]

Great idea David! I wrote my diss in metaethics (even though I don't really work in that area any more) and I would be happy to be a commenter should you have the need.

[David Killoren]

Many thanks, Richard! It'll be awesome to have you involved--especially since you've already demonstrated that you're good on video!