Southwestern Philosophical Society's 86th Annual Meeting

Call for Papers: Southwestern Philosophical Society’s 86th Annual Meeting

November 15-16, 2024

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

The 2024 meeting of the Southwestern Philosophical Society will be held at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee from Friday, November 15, 2024 to Saturday, November 16, 2024. All papers accepted and presented at the conference will be published in volume 41, issue 1 of Southwest Philosophy Review. This conference is in-person only.

The Southwestern Philosophical Society is an association of scholars founded in 1936 that provides a forum for philosophical research. While SWPS originally served philosophers in the American Southwest, it is today an international society. The Society is proud of its pluralism and its tradition of openness, where scholars from diverse backgrounds and of all major philosophical traditions find their views and styles taken seriously.

Papers on any philosophical topic are welcome. There are multiple benefits to submitting to the Southwestern Philosophical Society:

1. All papers undergo anonymous peer review from two scholars, and all accepted papers receive a commentary.
2. Presented papers will be published in volume 41, issue 1 of Southwest Philosophy Review.
3. Presented papers will receive a written commentary, published in volume 41, issue 2 of Southwest Philosophy Review.
4. While Southwest Philosophy Review owns the copyrights to the journal-formatted article, the author retains copyright over the words. Thus, the author is permitted to expand the conference-length article and publish it in another venue. 

Submission Guidelines:

• Electronic submissions are required and should be submitted to https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=swps-2024
• Papers may not exceed 3,000 words in length (not including notes and references). Papers exceeding this length will not be considered.
• Papers must be in PDF format. Papers submitted in any other format cannot be processed. (If accepted, the author must provide MS Word [.doc/.docx] or Rich Text Format [.rtf] files for publication.)
• The manuscript should be prepared for anonymous review with no name and no identifying information in the title page, main text, or notes.
• Submissions should include a word count and 150-word abstract on the title page. Neither contributes to the total word count.
• If scholars are eligible and wish to be considered for Travel Grants or the SWPS Presidential Prize, they should indicate their eligibility and wish to be considered for either or both on the title page.
• Dues are required only if the paper is accepted for presentation.

Submission Deadline: The deadline for submissions is Monday, July 1, 2024.

Travel Grants: SWPS offers a limited number of $150 travel grants to help defray travel costs. The grants will be awarded to the top three papers submitted by philosophers from underrepresented groups who are also early career philosophers (defined as graduate students or scholars who completed their PhD no more than three years ago). Authors who are eligible for the travel grant should indicate this on the cover page of their submission.

SWPS Presidential Prize: The Presidential Prize goes to the best paper submitted to the annual conference by a junior scholar (scholars who were awarded their PhD no more than three years ago). Authors who are eligible for the Presidential Prize should indicate this on the cover page of their submission.

Membership: You do not need to be a member to submit. But if your paper is accepted, you must be a member of the Society to present and have your article published in volume 1, issue 41 of Southwest Philosophy Review. Dues may be paid when registering for the conference. To join, send inquiries to Deborah Heikes, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, [email protected].

There will be no official conference hotel, but a variety of hotel options will be shared with participants prior to the conference via the conference website.

SWPS Officers:

• President: Dan Larkin, Georgia Southern University
• Immediate Past President: Emily McGill, Coastal Carolina University
• Vice-President and Program Chair: Boomer Trujillo, University of Texas at El Paso
• Secretary and Treasurer: Deborah Heikes, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
• Journal Editor: Todd Stewart, Illinois State University
• At-Large Member: Jerry Green, University of Central Oklahoma
• At-Large Member: Laura Mueller, West Texas A&M University
• Local Arrangements: Scott F. Aikin, Vanderbilt University

Contact: All questions about submissions should be emailed to Boomer Trujillo at [email protected]