I am pleased to announce this call-for-papers for the first annual Philosophers' Cocoon Philosophy Conference (PCPC), which will be held at the University of Tampa from Friday October 18th-Sunday October 20th, 2013. This conference will be unique in several respects:
- Although attendance at the conference and participating as session chairs or commentators will be open to all members of the profession, paper presenters must be early-career philosophers -- basically, anyone who doesn't have tenure (e.g. graduate students, post-docs, VAP, TT Assistant Profs, independent scholars, etc.)
- Due to the kinds of travel-funding issues that early-career philosophers often face, several paper sessions (the exact number of which will be determined later) will be reserved for Skype presentations in which the author will be projected, and field audience questions, in real time over the internet.
- Although commentators and audience members are encouraged to present objections to papers, a guiding aim of the conference will beconstructive criticism, i.e. helping authors to improve problems (e.g. by not only raising objections, but offering and discussing possible solutions).
- Because successfully navigating the publishing world is one of the most difficult capacities for early-career philosophers to develop, and typical conference-length papers are too short (3,000 words) to publish, we will welcome submissions the length of any typical journal article (20-30 pages double-spaced) -- the aim being to help early-career philosophers develop full-length papers into publishable quality. As a rule of thumb, the longer the paper, the higher the standards for acceptance to the conference. Extremely long papers are discouraged.
- In order to defray costs of attendance (once again out of concern for the needs of early-career scholars), there will be no registration fee, and consequently no official banquet, snacks, etc. Tampa is awesome, and there are many affordable places to meet, eat, and congregate around the university.
- We hope to stream all talks live via the internet and, if time permits, take some audience questions from internet viewers by email.
To submit a paper to present at the PCPC, please email the following to marvan@ut.edu by July 1, 2013: (1) a blinded (i.e. anonymized) paper, (2) a separate title page with the author's name, contract information, and brief paper abstract, and (3) a statement concerning whether you intend to attend the conference in person or only via Skype. Decision emails indicating whether your paper has been accepted will be sent out around August 1, 2013. Finally, please bear the following in mind:
- In order to ensure that the conference is well-attended, there will be relatively few Skype sessions -- so the probability that your paper will be accepted is higher should you state in your submission email that you can attend in person.
- Submission of a paper comprises a tacit agreement to serve as a commentator or session chair should your paper be accepted and you accept the invitation to present.
This is awesome, Marcus! Looking forward to the conference. I will gladly serve as a reviewer as well.
Posted by: Moti Mizrahi | 05/15/2013 at 03:15 PM
Very cool!
Posted by: Michael J. Augustin | 05/15/2013 at 04:33 PM
How do we send our papers anonymously? Wouldn't you just see our name in our email address?
Posted by: Jason Chen | 05/16/2013 at 01:32 PM
Jason: just blind the actual paper so that anyone who reviews it (besides me) won't know your identity. It's always the case that *someone* has to know your identity, otherwise how would we ever know how to contact you if your paper is accepted!
Posted by: Marcus Arvan | 05/16/2013 at 01:35 PM
Moti and Michael: Thanks! And Moti, thanks so much for offering to serve as a referee. I'll probably take you up on it!
Posted by: Marcus Arvan | 05/16/2013 at 02:32 PM
No problem, Marcus. By the way, a few weeks before the conference, I think it would be useful to post information about affordable accommodations in Tampa, for those of us coming from out of town.
Posted by: Moti Mizrahi | 05/16/2013 at 02:38 PM
Moti: on it. I already have plans to put together a *lot* of stuff for people so that they have a great experience. I want this conference to be awesome! :)
Posted by: Marcus Arvan | 05/16/2013 at 02:42 PM