Thursday, January 31, 2008

Paper posted!

The papers are up on the conference website -- you can see them here, if you'd like. It's called "Care and the Pedagogical Relationship: A Teleological Approach."

The abstract of my paper is:

The tension between discipline and care, fairness and nurturance, is central to issues in pedagogical philosophy. This dichotomy is echoed in psychology by the the justice/care distinction in moral thinking drawn by Gilligan (1982). Yet philosophical reactions to Gilligan’s work have varied dramatically. Even those who take seriously her claim that the so-called “care perspective” deserves attention in ethical theory often differ in their application of this idea, taking ‘caring’ as a principle of right action, as a virtue or character trait, or as constituting a new ethical theory entirely. This paper will expand upon the suggestion made by Little (1998) that the justice and care orientations represent different standpoints from which to do ethical theory rather than constituting ready-made theories themselves, arguing that a teleological understanding of the “normative essences” of certain relationships can incorporate some of Gilligan’s most crucial insights. The application of this idea to pedagogical ethics – one field in which the concept of ‘care’ has been taken quite seriously – will serve as a lens to focus attention on the benefits and potential flaws of such an approach.

Accommodation and other details still in the works... will keep you posted!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Hello again!



I never thought I'd be back in the travel-blogging business so soon, but life has a way of surprising you, doesn't it? This one of life's surprises came in the shape of an invitation -- my first ever -- to present a paper at a philosophy conference at the University of the West Indies. This is incredibly exciting for a number of reasons:

1. Professional validation - the first paper I ever submitted to a professional conference was accepted, and I'm going to have the opportunity to present my work to a body of interdisciplinary peers for feedback and suggestions. Naturally I'm crazy-nervous, but I was crazy-nervous before my first lecture too, and I survived that. It's all part of gradually joining the world of professional academia. So exciting!!

2. Conference funding - the Graduate School has grants available to graduate students who will be presenting at conferences to cover some (or all) of their travel and accommodation expenses. Life for graduate students is characterized by a general aura of destitution (especially when one hears from one's friends at BCG or on Wall Street), but travel money for academic purposes is a huge perk.

3. The University of the West Indies - I know almost nothing about Caribbean and Afro-Caribbean philosophy (or history, or anything else for that matter -- in fact, it's only within about the last 10 minutes that I first recognized and then corrected my tendency to spell 'Caribbean' with two R's and not enough B's), so this will be an incredible learning opportunity. The university also has a strong interdisciplinary focus, which I am so on board with. Also, did I mention that it's in BARBADOS??

So here I am once again, filling out forms, submitting budget proposals, and researching like crazy in anticipation of another international adventure on academia's dime. I'll post links to the conference, as well as updated travel plans and perhaps some information on Barbadian history in the coming weeks. Oh, and I guess I should write that paper I'm supposed to be presenting, too...