9th Annual Graduate Philosophy Conference: "Justice and Solidarity"

Justice and Solidarity

The Philosophy Graduate Student Association at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville invites abstracts from graduate students in philosophy and other relevant disciplines for its ninth annual conference, “Justice and Solidarity,” to be held on March 20-22, 2026. 

We are pleased to share that our keynote speakers will be Dr. Sally Scholz, of Villanova University, and Dr. Avery Kolers, of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

Questions of justice lie at the heart of philosophy and are increasingly relevant today. From Plato’s Republic to Rawls's Theory of Justice to contemporary scholarship, we have sought to understand what we owe each other as individuals, citizens, and members of humanity. Yet justice is often treated in terms of fairness, rights, and duties, while the concept of solidarity - with its connotations of mutual recognition, shared struggle, and collective responsibility - has received less attention. Questions around the relationship between the two remain, intersecting the fields of metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy and historical scholarship. 

Possible subjects of exploration include, but are not limited to: 

• What is the relationship between justice and solidarity? Are there tensions between the two? Is one a subset of the other? 

• Solidarity and restorative, distributive, or recognitive justice.

• Solidarity and justice in non-ideal contexts

• The ethical foundations or limits of solidarity.

• The role of justice and/or solidarity in addressing global or local crises, such as climate change, migration, pandemics, and economic equality. 

• Solidarity and justice in practice

• Novel scholarship related to historical conceptions of justice or solidarity, especially from philosophers outside the canon. 

• Solidarity and epistemic justice.

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts of 500 to 750 words should be prepared for blind review and submitted as PDFs to Kaeleigh Damico [email protected] no later than 11:59 pm on Thursday, January 1, 2026. Please include your name, contact information, and institutional affiliation in the email.

This event will be held in-person. Accepted presenters will be notified by late January. Full papers (approximately 3000 words) should be prepared for 30 minute presentations and will be followed by commentary and discussion. Please direct questions to Kaeleigh Damico [email protected]