APA Awards Grants to Seven Projects for 2018–2019

The American Philosophical Association is pleased to announce that it will provide grants to seven philosophy-related projects in the 2018–2019 fiscal year. For more information on these programs, visit the previously funded projects page of our website.

Small Grant Program

Each fiscal year, the APA Eastern Division provides $25,000 for the APA’s Small Grant Program. This year’s grant application process was quite competitive, with twenty-four proposals requesting a total of $102,494 from our $25,000 grant fund. The following six programs will receive funding:

AAPT Workshop on Inclusive Pedagogy 2019 ($5,000)

The American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT) Workshop on Inclusive Pedagogy offers free, regional, evidence-based training to philosophers who are interested in learning more about inclusive teaching. Workshop facilitators are award-winning experts in the scholarship of teaching and learning who have led the AAPT’s broader Teaching and Learning Seminars and conducted additional research on inclusive pedagogy.

Demographic Factors in Intended Major and Completed Major: A Comparison of Philosophy and Other Disciplines ($2,850)

This program will provide a comparative analysis of the demographics of freshman students who express interest in a philosophy major using the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) data and the demographic data on completed bachelor’s degrees from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Researchers will investigate at what point in their education women and traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic groups become less interested in a philosophy major. They will also explore the recent sharp decline in completed degrees in philosophy.

MSU Denver’s Fourth Annual Undergraduate Women’s Philosophy Conference ($4,500)

MSU Denver’s Undergraduate Women’s Philosophy Conference provides a supportive space for undergraduate female-identified students to present and comment on philosophy papers and build community. The conference also provides a workshop on the climate for women in philosophy, and two keynote lectures. Supporting female-identified undergraduate students’ ability to participate in this conference is a central and essential way to support the American Philosophical Association’s longstanding commitment to diversity in the profession.

PGSO Conference 2019: Non-Western Perspectives ($2,700)

This conference aims to give voice to philosophical traditions that have largely been excluded from the Western canon. The conference organizers will accept papers dealing with topics in any of the major fields of philosophy. The focus is on broadening and diversifying the notion of philosophy so that those contributions which have been overlooked in the academy of the US and Europe can be heard.

Pittsburgh Summer Program for Underrepresented Groups in Philosophy of Science ($5,000)

Minorities are extremely underrepresented in philosophy of science, more so than in philosophy. This underrepresentation is due in part to a low proportion of minority individuals among applicants to graduate programs with strengths in philosophy of science. The goal of the 2019 Summer Program for Underrepresented Groups in Philosophy of Science (PSP3) is to attract minority undergraduates to philosophy of science, therefore changing the future composition of philosophy of science. PSP3 will take place at the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh in July 2019.

Rethinking Formal Methods Training in Philosophy ($5,000)

Increasingly, philosophers are using probability and decision theory, statistics, and even experimental design and computer simulation methods. The proposed event will include a public lecture on this new conception of philosophical method, followed by a one-day workshop, to be held on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus. It will bring together diverse philosophers into conversation about the present and future status of formal and mathematical methods in philosophy, their institutionalization in graduate pedagogy, and how these changes now reflect and will engender evolving relationships between philosophy and other disciplines.

Diversity and Inclusiveness Grant

The board of officers committed up to $20,000 for 2018–2019 to support one or two programs aiming to increase the presence and participation of underrepresented groups in philosophy. Learn more. Out of twelve applications, the board chose to fund the following project.

Corrupt the Youth Summer Philosophy Program Pilot ($17,937.80)

Corrupt the Youth’s goal is to address the lack of racial diversity in our discipline by means of a residential summer enrichment program for talented high school students interested in philosophy. It is a two-week program for 20–24 participants (rising juniors and seniors) consisting of four recurring philosophy classes, as well as writing workshops and college prep counseling. The aim is to provide high school students from underserved communities a forum in which they can learn and practice philosophy as a tool to understand and address the issues they face in their schools and communities.