CFP: AAPT-APA Teaching Hub - Central Division

The American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT) and the APA Committee on the Teaching of Philosophy (CTP) seek panelists for two sessions at the AAPT-APA Teaching Hub at the 2023 APA Central Division meeting, February 23 – February 24, in Denver, CO.

LEARNING WITH YOUR STUDENTS: TEACHING OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE

We envision multiple 25- or 50-minute presentations about how to effectively teach topics and subjects that are outside of your primary area of expertise. Many instructors are regularly required to do this for individual lessons or whole courses: ranging from those teaching in small departments who must cover a broad range of areas, contingent faculty who lack control over which courses they are assigned, to graduate students TAing outside of their AOS or AOC.

In a world in which universities were better funded and more just, we would be able to broaden curricula by hiring experts who specialize in under-represented traditions and topics. But in the actual world of austerity measures and underfunded public universities, this is not always possible. Additionally, teaching outside of your main area of expertise is often necessary for expanding and diversifying your own syllabi or expanding the course offerings of your department.

Teaching outside of your comfort zone in these ways can be intimidating and time-consuming, and it can be hard to know where to start. This panel aims to tackle these challenges in concrete ways. We welcome proposals on any topic related to this theme, including (but not limited to): 

-       General strategies for how to select and teach yourself new content

-       Pedagogical approaches, classroom activities, or assessment designs that center learning with your students

-       Practical strategies for overcoming hurdles to expanding your syllabus (e.g., perfectionism, fear of failure, objections from skeptical colleagues)

-       How to respond when you don’t know something; turning pedagogical “failures” into positive learning experiences

-       Concrete advice about how to diversify particular courses, e.g.:

o   Including non-Western philosophy in intro, ethics, history, or other lower-level courses

o   Successfully incorporating critical discourses into mainstream courses (e.g., adding philosophy of disability perspectives to bioethics courses; including feminist perspectives in metaphysics or epistemology classes)

o   Teaching the work of marginalized philosophers whose identity you do not share without tokenizing or “speaking for others”

TEACHING CURRENT CONTROVERSIES: 

We envision multiple 25- to 50-minute presentations on strategies, approaches, and concrete practices for teaching about controversial topics and responding to important current events in the classroom. We are open to a wide range of topics, and especially welcome sessions about the following: 

-       Responsibly teaching about abortion in a post Roe v. Wade world

-       Teaching about gun control while grappling with the realities of gun violence

-       Teaching about racism and white supremacy, especially at predominately white institutions and/or in states that are unfriendly to this (e.g., with bans on teaching critical race theory)

-       Incorporating content about climate change and sustainability into your syllabus, especially in classes that are not about applied or environmental ethics

-       Addressing current social and political controversies in non-ethics classes

-       How to use current events as case studies for illustrating traditional philosophical topics

-       How/whether to respond to major news events in the classroom as they occur

-       General approaches to handling student disagreement about controversial topics

-       Inclusive approaches to creating a classroom environment in which students are comfortable sharing their opinions with each other

FORMAT: Rather than a traditional paper presentation, Teaching Hub sessions are expected to be highly interactive. Proposals should indicate how audience members will participate in the session. The primary goal for the Teaching Hub is for attendees to walk away with something concrete to deploy in their own classrooms/teaching context.

What does the Teaching Hub mean by “highly interactive”? This includes (but is not limited to):

-       Focusing less time on arguments for teaching some content or teaching a particular way, and more time on what it would actually look like to teach that content or teach in that way.

-       Presenters thinking of the audience as their students and themselves as the facilitator/teacher. How could you cover the same content in a way that your audience participates in active learning activities during the session time?

-       Offering clear, practical examples of teaching methods, classroom activities, policies, practices, etc.

DEADLINE for proposals: August 15, 2022

SUBMISSIONS: 

-       Proposals for LEARNING WITH YOUR STUDENTS should be sent to session chair Jennifer Lobo Meeks ([email protected]) by August 15, 2022 with the subject line “Learning With Your Students 2023”. 

- Proposals for TEACHING CURRENT CONTROVERSIES should be sent to Nathan Wood ([email protected]) by August 15, 2022 with the subject line “Learning With Your Students 2023”. 

-       In the body of the email, please include your name, institutional affiliation (if any), position (if any), and contact information. 

-       Attached to the email, please include anonymized submission of 500 – 750 words (.doc, .docx, or .pdf) detailing the following: (1) describe the focus of your session, including any plans for how you will use your session time, (2) whether you are requesting a 25- or 50-minute session, and (3) what you hope the audience will take away from it. 

-       We aim to ensure representation of a range of voices and expect to select presenters by September 30, 2022.

Questions about the session should be directed to session chairs at the above email addresses. For general information about the AAPT-APA Teaching Hub, please visit the Teaching Hub website. For specific information about the Teaching Hub at the 2023 Central APA meeting in Denver, CO, please contact co-chairs Alida Liberman ([email protected]) or Melissa Jacquart ([email protected]).

The AAPT-APA Teaching Hub is a collaborative meeting space hosting a series of interactive workshops and conversations designed specifically for philosophers and created to celebrate teaching within the context of the APA divisional meetings. Jointly organized by the APA Committee on the Teaching of Philosophy and the American Association of Philosophy Teachers, the Teaching Hub aims to offer a range of high quality and inclusive development opportunities that address the teaching of philosophy at all levels.