Society for European Philosophy

The Winner of the SEP-FEP 2010 Graduate Essay Prize, awarded by the SEP executive at SEP-FEP Rome 2010 is Colin McQuillan of Emory University, for his essay, Philosphical Archeology in Kant Foucault and Agamben.

The conference will be held at, Loyola University, Chicago Rome Centre,
Via Massimi 114/A, on Monte Mario in the Balduina district of Rome
It is not well served with public transport links. To get there from
Fiumicino airport take the train to Rome Termini Station.

(From Ciampino Airport there is a bus shuttle to Termini Station as well.)

From Rome Termini Station,take the A Line subway (underground) to
Lepanto (direction Battistini)

From Lepanto take bus 913 to Monte Mario, 14 stops to
Camilluccia/Trionfale.

At Camilluccia/Trionfale bus stop take via Fillipponi southwest and then
turn right up Via Massimi. 700 meters up Via Massimi (past the crossing with “Via della Balduina”) there is cross road with a tree in the middle, where the
driveway and entrance to Loyola University is (walk to the end of the
driveway on Via Massimi 114).

Here is a street map of the area.

It might be advisable for those who can to take a taxi from Rome Termini.

The conference will be held at, Loyola University, Chicago Rome Centre,
Via Massimi 114/A, on Monte Mario in the Balduina district of Rome
It is not well served with public transport links. To get there from
Fiumicino airport take the train to Rome Termini Station.

(From Ciampino Airport there is a bus shuttle to Termini Station as well.) From here simply take a taxi if you can.

Or, from Rome Termini Station,take the A Line subway (underground) to
Lepanto (direction Battistini)

From Lepanto take bus 913 to Monte Mario, 14 stops to
Camilluccia/Trionfale.

At Camilluccia/Trionfale bus stop take via Fillipponi southwest and then
turn right up Via Massimi. 700 meters up Via Massimi (past the crossing with “Via della Balduina”) there is cross road with a tree in the middle, where the
driveway and entrance to Loyola University is (walk to the end of the
driveway on Via Massimi 114).

Here is a street map of the area.

UPDATES:

- The conference Proper begins on the 7th, however there is a reception at 7 pm at the Loyola Campus on the Evening of the 6th.

- The conference dinner will take place Friday, July 9 at 8.30pm at the restaurant “Capperi” in Via Damiano Chiesa 10; you can pay the dinner fee (40 Euro) at the registration desk of the conference by July 7.

- All available rooms at Loyola have been taken; we no longer take reservations for staying on campus. For those who reserved a room on campus, please remember that rooms should be paid cash on site (78 Euro for a double room and 60 Euro for a single per night).

Here is the full programme for SEP-FEP 2010.

Registration is now open for the SEP-FEP Joint Conference 2010 in Rome. To register, download and complete the sep-fep-2010-registration-form and send with payment (cheque or international money order, in pounds sterling or euros) to:

Prof. Stefano Giacchetti
Loyola University Chicago, Rome Center
Via Massimi 114/A
00136 Rome, Italy 

Full payment must be made at the time of registration. Registration form and fee do not include accommodation. For information about accommodation, click here.

Cancellation charges: If conference places are cancelled on or before 30 June, a full refund will be made, minus a €25.00 administration fee. No refund will be given if a place is cancelled after 30 June.

An open letter to Michael Driscoll (Vice-chancellor), Waqar Ahmad, (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Enterprise), and Margaret House (Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic), University of Middlesex.

We believe you are responsible for taking the decision to close down all the Philosophy Programmes at Middlesex and the renowned Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy. We are dismayed to hear about this decision, which is not only regrettable, but unwarranted and misconceived.

We understand that the Dean, Professor Esche, told staff that the Department’s high research reputation makes no ‘measurable’ contribution to the University. This is untrue. In financial terms, the Department’s QR funding amounted (according to HEFCE’s own figures) to £173,260 in 09-10. 42 new MA students were recruited in 2009, a figure that is the envy of most philosophy departments in the UK. This itself represents an appreciable stream of income and it makes the decision to close down philosophy at Middlesex all the more perverse.

The reason why Middlesex did so well in the RAE, and that it recruits so well, is the outstanding reputation of CRMEP both within the UK and internationally. It is one of the leading centres for continental philosophy in the UK, achieving a 5 in the 2001 RAE and a GPA of 2.8 in the 2008 RAE – the same as Leeds, Nottingham and Edinburgh and above Warwick, Durham and Glasgow. Professors Eric Alliez, Peter Hallward and Peter Osborne, along with Dr Stella Stanford, and Dr Christian Kerslake are all outstanding researchers who are respected in the profession and beyond. Moreover, they have produced academic progeny who have established excellent reputations of their own and are helping other Universities to thrive. This is a sure indication of the good health of Philosophy at Middlesex and of the high quality of its teaching.

Of course not all contributions to a University are “measurable” in financial terms. This does not make them less important or mean that they do not bring substantial benefits (including economic ones) to the University. Philosophy’s contribution to the national and international esteem, reputation and good standing of the University should be valued very highly. Such things are hard won, and once the department is closed down, not recuperable.

We ask you to consider the immense damage that will be done to Middlesex by closing a department with such an impressive research reputation. Already there has been a national and international outcry, both within the discipline and beyond. Prospective students – both undergraduate and postgraduate – will be put off, and prospective and current staff will not regard Middlesex as a safe place of employment. It will certainly weaken the loyalty of the best academics at Middlesex working in other areas.

Good management practice in circumstances where the closure of a department is being considered is to have a full-scale external review of the department, with both internal and external expert panel members. Middlesex does not appear to have conducted such a review. Maybe this is because they can anticipate that it would quickly find that the department has all the hallmarks of long-term viability: an excellent research reputation, astonishingly good PG recruitment, and increasing undergraduate applications. Not holding a review reflects extremely poorly on the management team and again damages its institutional reputation.

In closing down its highest-ranking department for reasons of short-term financial expediency, in the face of such powerful countervailing considerations, Middlesex is betraying its own academic values. We urge you rethink this decision.

Dr. Gordon Finlayson

Professor Brian O’Connor

Dr. Beth Lord

Dr. John Mullarkey

and the Executive Committee of the Society for European Philosophy

CALL FOR PAPERS
6th Annual Joint Conference of the Society for European Philosophy and the Forum for European Philosophy
July 6-10, 2010, Loyola University Chicago, John Felice Rome Center – Rome, Italy.

For details please see our Events Page.

See also the latest information about Conference Accommodation.

The SEP Executive awards a prize for the best paper by a postgraduate student at the annual SEP-FEP conference.

The winner of the 2009 prize was Andreas Vrahimis, for his paper “Nonsense and Absurdity: Carnap’s use of Husserl’s Theory of Meaning”.  PDF Vrahimis Nonsense and Absurdity

Ulrich Muehe was highly commended for his paper, “Whose Empire? Which Multitude?”  PDF Muehe Whose Empire

Welcome the new website of the Society for European Philosophy. This contains information about our organisation, the members of the SEP executive committee, and also about our events, the chief one being the yearly conference we organise. We hope that soon this site will become a hub for all those interested in research in any area of European and Continental philosophy.

Yours sincerely

(James) Gordon Finlayson

on behalf of all the members of the SEP executive committee of the