CFP: 14th Mid-Hudson Valley Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

The Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Marist College will host the Fourteenth Annual Mid-Hudson Valley Undergraduate Philosophy Conference 10-11 April 2026. Undergraduates are encouraged to submit papers on any topic in philosophy. The conference is selective, accepting at most six papers. There are no concurrent presentations. Each paper presentation includes comments from another undergraduate from either Marist College's philosophy program or from one of the other philosophy programs at four other colleges in the Mid-Hudson Valley Region of Upstate New York. All of the undergraduate presentations will take place in the Henry Hudson Room on the third floor of Fontaine Hall at Marist College.

The keynote speaker this year will be Dr. Victor Kumar, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Mind and Morality Lab and Director of the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. Dr. Kumar’s research focuses primarily on questions lying at the intersection of ethics, cognitive science, and evolutionary theory.  Dr. Kumar is the author (with Richmond Campbell) of A Better Ape: The Evolution of the Moral Mind and How it Made Us Human (Oxford University Press, 2022) and editor (with Nina Strohminger) of The Moral Psychology of Disgust (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). His work has been published in Analysis, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Cognition,  Journal of the American Philosophical Association, Nous, Philosopher's Imprint, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Synthese, and elsewhere. Dr. Kumar’s keynote address will be at 5:00 pm on April 10. The title of his talk is “The Case Against Doom.”

Please send papers of no more than 3,000 words (not including footnotes and bibliography) on any topic in philosophy by 30 January 2026. All papers should be anonymized for blind review, with a cover sheet that includes an abstract of no more than 150 words and contact information. We are accepting electronic submissions by attachment in PDF or MS Word format. Please send submissions to Adam Freda at [email protected].