Field education and research is an important part of public philosophy. Helena and its residents are a huge source of inspiration for us. We learn and grow from you. We also get to share how amazing you are with people outside of Helena! As part of our commitment to living the philosophical life and enriching and fine-tuning our craft, we regularly participate in several conferences and workshops throughout the year. This is also where we get to brag about you, Helena!
2019 “Goings On’s” (Highlights)
In 2019, we attended the inaugural PLATO Conference at Rollins College in Florida and Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Network and Summer Institute at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. We also presented alongside colleagues at the American Philosophical Association central division conference in Denver — where we got to share a bit about our philosophy walks here in Helena and design a Plato’s Apology and way of life inspired walk. (Our participation with the way of life crew originally began in 2018 with our participation as a scholar in the NEH “Reviving Philosophy as a Way of Life” Summer Institute program at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.)
2020 “Goings On’s”
We also have several things in queue for 2020, the first of which just took place in Philadelphia in January where we had the privilege of presenting alongside our way of life colleagues again during the AAPT Teaching Hub Session at the American Philosophical Association eastern division conference. One exciting result of this endeavor was the refinement and articulation of several way of life principles and design implementation tools (which, for us, will further translate into our philosophy in the community activities here!). You can check these out here, as well as learn more about philosophy as a way of life.
On the radar for February, Spring and Summer of this year — an ethics initiative project in Atlanta (thank you to the Squire Family Foundation for selecting us to be part of this; we are extremely honored and very excited!!); a PLATO Conference in San Diego (we learned so much at the inaugural conference in 2019 and are chomping at the bit for this year’s gathering!); reconnecting and working with our way of life family for year 2 of the Mellon Network & Summer Institute in Indiana (viva la stoa!); and a very exciting philosophy abroad endeavor in Greece with friend, colleague, and Associate Professor of Honors & Philosophy at George Washington University, Mark Ralkowski (thank you for inviting me to assist you on this amazing program and bring some of our way of life activities to life overseas together!!!)
We will keep you posted on these happenings as the year progresses…and what new sorts of things we learn and will be bringing to the Helena (and surrounding) communities. Thank you for being such an inspiration, Helena!