2026 Uehiro Philosophy Graduate Student Conference: Philosophy at the Margins

Call For Papers:

2026 Uehiro Philosophy Graduate Student Conference: 

“Philosophy at the Margins”

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Dates: Thursday, March 12th, 2026 & Friday, March 13th, 2026

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Georgi Gardiner, Tulane University

Dr. Dwight K. Lewis, Jr., University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Dr. Keya Maitra, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

The Philosophy Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa invites Graduate Students in Philosophy to submit to the 2026 Uehiro Graduate Student Conference. This year's theme, Philosophy at the Margins, seeks to address oppressive logics and socio-political regimes constituting inappropriated Others at academic philosophy’s margins, which include but are not limited to those discourses which are Eurocentric, androcentric, sexist, ratiocentric, cis-hetero-normative, ableist, and anthropocentric. We strongly encourage submissions from scholars historically and/or presently underrepresented in philosophy.

As one of the first comparative Philosophy Departments and the host of the East-West Philosophers' Conference since 1939, we also welcome submissions from those interested in cross-cultural, transnational, and fusion philosophies. 

Topics of Interest (including but not limited to):

• Aesthetics at the Margins: Beauty, form, and meaning beyond Eurocentric, cis-heteronormative aesthetics; decolonial art; the ethics and politics of depiction and representation.

• Canon and Canonship: Who counts as a philosopher? Debates on inclusion, erasure, and the politics of citation and academic recognition.

• Comparative Philosophy: Dialogues across philosophical traditions; cross-cultural and/or transnational critique; translation, difference, and mutual illumination between frameworks.

• Disability Studies & Philosophy: Norms of embodiment and cognition; crip theory; accessibility and exclusion in philosophical discourse.

• Environmental Philosophy: Eco-critical theory; ecological feminisms; indigenous ecological injustice; philosophies of the Anthropocene, climate justice, multispecies ethics.

• Feminist Philosophy: Intersections with metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics; critiques of gender normativity; feminist interpretations of canonical thinkers.

• Intersectionality & Critique of Normativity: Cross-cutting axes of identity and power; heteronormativity, whiteness, and the logic of domination.

• Non-Ideal Theory: Critiques of idealized frameworks in political and moral philosophy; philosophy grounded in material conditions, histories of violence, and structural inequality.

• Non-Western and Indigenous Philosophies: African, Latin American, Asian, and Pacific traditions; oral traditions, ritual, storytelling, and art as philosophy; sovereignty and self-determination.

• Philosophy Beyond the Text: Philosophical expressions in performance, visual art, music, ritual; challenges to textual authority and authorship.

• Philosophy of Race & Difference: Critical race theory; racialized subjectivities; decolonial critique; philosophies of hybridity, diaspora, and borderlands.

• Political Philosophy at the Margins: Resistance, abolition, solidarity, and revolution; critiques of liberalism and the state; fugitive political imaginaries.

• Posthumanism & Transhumanism: Rethinking the human and its boundaries; techno-ethics; biopolitics and beyond.

• Social Epistemology & Epistemic Injustice: Testimonial and hermeneutical injustice; situated knowledges; the politics of ignorance; epistemologies of resistance.

• The Margins of Philosophy Itself: What counts as philosophy? Are indigenous ways of knowing still philosophy, or do they go beyond its boundaries?

Submission Guidelines:

We strongly encourage the submission of full papers or working drafts to enable effective review of no more than 5000 words. If authors prefer to submit an abstract, it should be 500–750 words (not including references and bibliography). Whether submitting a full paper, a draft, or an abstract, all materials must be anonymized for blind review and submitted as PDF files. Authors whose full papers are accepted will receive priority for travel support. All submissions must be named “UH2026_SURNAME_TITLE OF YOUR PAPER_FULL/ABSTRACT”. Please use this Google form to submit: https://forms.gle/qUJVaaGKrDcJVra26 

The deadline for submission is December 15th, 2025 at 11:59PM HST.

Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes in length, and students will be allotted another 10 minutes for questions.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by December 30th, 2025.

For all accepted presenters, lodging for the full duration of the conference (three nights) will be provided, along with partial travel subsidies.

This conference is generously sponsored by the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education. We are deeply grateful for their continued support over the years, which has made it possible to foster critical, inclusive, and boundary-pushing philosophical dialogue. 

For further information or questions, contact: [email protected]