Thoughts on SPEP
Here are a few things that I thought were notable about SPEP this year:
1. Selfishly, I will mention first that I thought that the von Trier panel (with Joshua Ramey and myself) went well. The panel was buoyed by the presence of the University of Colorado-Denver undergrad philosophy club, who were fairly enthusiastic.
2. The other Nova-related panels that I attended also went well. Adriel Trott's paper on Plato and Irigaray generated a good deal of discussion, as did Farhang and Greg's panel.
3. Notably, there were a number of Nova-related people who had new books out in the book display area. Continuum had Jamie's Derrida Live Theory book out, Jennifer Gossetti (I forget the second part of her last name) had a book out with Fordham, and Matthias Fritsch had a book out with SUNY. Also in the SUNY display was Walter Brogan's long-anticipated book on Aristotle and Heidegger, and Paul Livingston had a book on display as well.
4. I don't know that I have a good answer as to what is "hot" now, exactly, but it was notable that after a few years without any papers on Sartre, there was a panel commemorating his 100th Birthday (with Bill Martin, Tom Flynn, and Robert Bernasconi, which Tom Busch moderated) that drew a really big crowd.
5. Otherwise, the conference seemed pretty pluralistic in the issues discussed. There was a lot of stuff on Derrida, as one might imagine. There was also, however, a panel on Husserl and Robert Brandom, which has to be pretty noteworthy for SPEP (it was a very enjoyable panel, as well).
6. I also got the sense that it was sort of a small turnout for SPEP, possibly because it was in Salt Lake City. SLC lacks hustle and bustle (and it is really difficult to find a place to eat on Sunday), but is overall an enjoyable place. All in all I thought the conference went really well. Props to our Shannon Mussett (and her colleague at UVSC, Pierre Lamarche), for a job really well done. It will be fun to see how Nova matches up when they host in Philly next year.
1. Selfishly, I will mention first that I thought that the von Trier panel (with Joshua Ramey and myself) went well. The panel was buoyed by the presence of the University of Colorado-Denver undergrad philosophy club, who were fairly enthusiastic.
2. The other Nova-related panels that I attended also went well. Adriel Trott's paper on Plato and Irigaray generated a good deal of discussion, as did Farhang and Greg's panel.
3. Notably, there were a number of Nova-related people who had new books out in the book display area. Continuum had Jamie's Derrida Live Theory book out, Jennifer Gossetti (I forget the second part of her last name) had a book out with Fordham, and Matthias Fritsch had a book out with SUNY. Also in the SUNY display was Walter Brogan's long-anticipated book on Aristotle and Heidegger, and Paul Livingston had a book on display as well.
4. I don't know that I have a good answer as to what is "hot" now, exactly, but it was notable that after a few years without any papers on Sartre, there was a panel commemorating his 100th Birthday (with Bill Martin, Tom Flynn, and Robert Bernasconi, which Tom Busch moderated) that drew a really big crowd.
5. Otherwise, the conference seemed pretty pluralistic in the issues discussed. There was a lot of stuff on Derrida, as one might imagine. There was also, however, a panel on Husserl and Robert Brandom, which has to be pretty noteworthy for SPEP (it was a very enjoyable panel, as well).
6. I also got the sense that it was sort of a small turnout for SPEP, possibly because it was in Salt Lake City. SLC lacks hustle and bustle (and it is really difficult to find a place to eat on Sunday), but is overall an enjoyable place. All in all I thought the conference went really well. Props to our Shannon Mussett (and her colleague at UVSC, Pierre Lamarche), for a job really well done. It will be fun to see how Nova matches up when they host in Philly next year.
Posted by J.C. Berendzen on
Tuesday November 1, 2005 at 12:19pm