8th Annual Ethics and Public Affairs Conference

Graduate students are invited to submit abstracts for presentations related to one or more aspects of our conference theme, Mobilizing Justice: Toward Ethical Public Affairs, from the perspective of political philosophy, public health, law, ethics, political science, economics, public policy, and other relevant disciplines. 

The Theme

Theorists, when describing, for example, what mobilizing justice for Indigenous persons looks like, ask questions such as “What forms does indigenous activism to achieve justice take? Under what circumstances legal or institutional avenues are privileged and, conversely, what explains more direct forms of resistance? [sic]” (Hays, Broderstad, Papillon, 2022). Grappling with these questions, we can ask what it means to mobilize justice for marginalized communities more broadly. Thus, the main question for this conference is: how might we (re)evaluate our social and political institutions to reflect the kinds of changes required by policy and practice (i.e., policy development and implementation) when considering justice from the perspective of marginalized groups?

Mobilizing justice considers a range of perspectives that can be employed to both help us better understand what justice is and foster meaningful and successful resources, conversations, and actions in policy and practice that can serve as vehicles for social justice. For the purposes of this conference, ways to think about mobilizing justice can be conceptualized through activism, knowledge translation, education, policy development and implementation, critical analysis of the philosophical implications of justice and more. The interdisciplinary nature of this conference recognizes the inherent value of tackling issues through both philosophical and empirical inquiry to address what it means to build ethical public affairs. We encourage a broad range of proposals to be selected for presentation to showcase how justice can be mobilized in policy and in practice. Presentations may touch on themes such as:

- Bioethics,

- International relations,

- Social justice, movements, and activism,

- Indigenous affairs and reconciliation,

- Human rights,

- Queer, disability, and BIPOC studies,

- And more…

Instructions for applicants

- Abstracts (with title) must be a maximum of 500 words.

- Abstracts must clearly state the thesis being defended (or the question being answered) and explain the relevance or importance of the chosen topic.

- Abstracts must include the structure of the main results, findings, or arguments.

- Abstracts should not include any identifying information.

- Abstracts should be submitted here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZRzJHncKoRpainsKV4pZ3Otdun1nekzoc00spuRv6Pg/edit

- Deadline for abstract submission: February 12th, 2024 by 11:59pm.

- Notification of acceptance by: February 16th, 2024.

Accepted abstracts will be allocated 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion.

For more information, please email [email protected]