It might seem as if New York City is a great place for early-career philosophers—the New Athens. After all, in Manhattan alone there are several PhD programs, such as NYU, Columbia, CUNY Graduate Center, and the New School. Unfortunately, appearances are deceiving in this case. As a matter of fact, opportunities in NYC for early-career philosophers to present their work are scarce. Of course, many PhD programs have their philosophy colloquia but early-career philosophers rarely, if ever, get invited to present work at these colloquia. Similarly, many of the conferences organized by these PhD programs are by invitation only (to present, that is, not to attend).
So, NYC is a great place to attend talks by big names in philosophy. If you are an early-career philosopher, however, your options for presenting your work are very limited. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, the only regular conference in the NY area that is truly open to early-career philosophers, including adjuncts, contingent faculty, and the like, is the Long Island Philosophical Society (LIPS). As a contingent faculty member, without a research budget or travel funds, I often have papers accepted to conferences I cannot afford to attend. So I go to LIPS because it is a local conference. Another great thing about LIPS is that it is a conference that is truly pluralistic in terms of both speakers and content.
If you are in the NY area on April 26, then, please consider attending and showing your support for the LIPS conference. It’s the only one we (early-career philosophers and contingent faculty) have got!
Leave a Reply