The Sitka Institute

July 31, 2016 - August 9, 2016
Pacific Association for the Continental Tradition

Sitka
United States

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Sponsor(s):

  • University of San Francisco

Organisers:

Kuperus Gerard
University of San Francisco

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The Sitka Institute: Thinking on the Edge

Organized by the Pacific Association for the Continental Tradition (PACT)

July 31 – August 9, 2016, in Sitka, Alaska

This summer institute will take place in Sitka, Alaska, on the Sitka Fine Arts Camp (the former Sheldon Jackson Campus). The institute will provide an opportunity to do philosophy “on the edge” in small intimate seminars. It will provide ways to jump start new dimensions of the attendees' own research. Local authorities, such as Tlingit elders, and anthropologist Richard Nelson will contribute to the program. As part of the last frontier, situated on “the edge of the West” and with a variety of ecosystems, abundant wildlife (for one the institute is planned during the yearly salmon run) and a large Tlingit community, Sitka is an ideal location to think about place, to challenge one’s thinking, and to develop thoughts “beyond the edge.”  The institute will focus, in particular, on cultural and individual identities in relationship to place. We will explore place “on the edge” as both an individual and a common good.

 

Structure

The Institute is structured around text seminars and presentations both run by participating faculty, pedagogy/research workshops and three morning seminars run by the three organizers (Brian Treanor, Gerard Kuperus and Jason Wirth). We will compare American/Western senses of place with some of the Native American (Sitka is a town with the highest population of Native Americans in North America) as well as Zen Buddhist notions of place and how place defines, articulates, understands, and communicates the common good of a people. Participants will among other things study the place of the American West in relation to the narrative of the American West. Changes in the West have accelerated faster than the narrative of the West, creating a rupture in the ways we understand individual and common good.

Pedagogy and research workshops will help participants to implement the discussed materials in their research and/or teaching. The conference will start with a mini conference for graduate students.

Some of the texts that we are considering are: Gary Snyder’s, The Practice of the Wild and Mountains and Rivers without End, Bruno Latour's recent Gifford lectures (Facing Gaia: A New Enquiry Into Natural Religion), Richard Nelson’s Make Prayers to the Raven, Ed Casey’s, Getting Back Into Place, Thomas Thornton’s Being and Place Among the Tlingit and Lynn Margulis’s What is Life?.

Expected Participating Faculty (more to be confirmed): William Edelglass (Marlboro College), Carole Heath (Malcolm X), Gerard Kuperus (University of San Francisco), Chris Lauer (University of Hawai’i), Katharine Loevy (Pacific U.), Danielle Meyer (DePaul University), Marjolein Oele (University of San Francisco), Dorothea Olkowski (University of Colorado), Brian Schroeder (Rochester Institute of Technology), Elizabeth Sikes (Seattle University), Peter Steeves (DePaul University), Brian Treanor (Loyola Maramount), Jason Wirth (Seattle University).

Cost

Program Fee     

(The program fee funds a marine mammal tour, rental of the conference room(s), local guest speakers and receptions)

 

For Faculty             $200

For graduate students, adjunct faculty and other disenfranchised groups                     $100

Lodging (dorm style)   

$70 per person per night  (x 9 nights = )  $630

Meal plan (optional) $45 per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Sitka has some good dining options and the dorms are equipped with kitchens

Flight/Ferry

Flights to Sitka will be probably in the $650-800 range. You can save around $200 by flying to Juneau and take a (spectacular) ferry ride ($52) to Sitka.

 

Application

Faculty have two options:

1. Paper Presentation

Faculty can submit a proposal for paper presentations in the form of a 500 word abstract (or a full paper of no more than 3000 words). Presentation time is 30 minutes. The paper should be related to the topic of place and the commons or “thinking on the edge.”

2. Text Seminars. Faculty are also encouraged to submit a proposal for a text seminar. The text seminar (3 hours) should focus on a text related to the main topic (place and the commons) and the application should clearly indicate the relevance of the text in relationship to the main topic. The application should also indicate how the text seminar will be run.

Faculty will either present a text seminar or a paper presentation. Judgments regarding the inclusion of text seminars will be based on relevance to and cohesion of the overall institute.

Graduate Students

Graduate students submit a proposal for paper presentations in the form of a 500 word abstract or a full paper of no more than 3000 words. In addition a letter or recommendation needs to be send directly to the email address below. The institute will start with a graduate student mini conference.

Deadline

Participant should send in their applications for presentation or text seminars no later than December 15, 2015 to [email protected]. Notifications will be given in January 2016 and selected participants will be asked to make a $100 non-refundable deposit by January 15 in order to reserve a room at the campus.

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