CFP: Thinking the City: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Place

This conference aims to establish a sustained and systematic philosophical engagement with the city as an object of inquiry within analytic philosophy. While cities profoundly structure our social, moral, epistemic, and political lives, there has been little comprehensive philosophical treatment of the city as such. With the notable exception of Quill Kukla’s recent work—which opens an important line of inquiry while leaving significant conceptual territory unexplored—there is as yet no coordinated body of research addressing the nature, norms, and lived experience of urban life utilising tools and concepts from within analytic philosophy.

The conference seeks to address this gap by creating a dedicated forum for philosophical reflection on the city. We invite contributions that engage with the epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, political, and religious dimensions of urban life. The event aims to bring into dialogue work on adjacent themes—including spatial justice, collective agency, identity, trust, public space, and belonging—and to situate these within the broader framework of a developing philosophy of the city.

A central goal of the conference is to help articulate the contours of this emerging field and to contribute to setting a research agenda for future work. The main conference will be preceded by a focused, graduate-student-led workshop dedicated to identifying new research questions and directions for sustained inquiry.

Invited Speakers

Quill Kukkla (Georgetown): The Architecture of Agency

Daisy Dixon (Cardiff): Aesthetic Justice — a Cardiff City Impact Case Study

Pilar Lopez Cantero (Antwerp): Care-washing in The Built Environment

Alice Roberts (Cambridge): Can Statues make values 'perceptible'?

Heba Raouf Ezzat (Ibn Haldun): Order and Disorder in the City - Reflections on Human Agency

Dates

31 May: Graduate Student / Early Career Talks

1 June: Invited Speaker Conference

Workshop Submission Details

We welcome submissions from graduate students or early-career researchers whose work draw on or engage with the city from epistemology, philosophy of mind, political theory, philosophy of religion, ancient philosophy, and postcolonial thought.

We aim to invite 3-4 speakers for 15 mins talks followed by a seminar style discussion with the invited conference speakers. If interested, please send us the following:

(1) Abstract (max. 250 words) of your contributed paper. We particularly welcome work-in-progress.

(2) Expression of Interest (max. 500 words) describing how your research fits well with the themes of the project and how you think your research can benefit from participating in this event.

Please send these using the following form: https://forms.gle/t9LjPb4ZQRh5YtgH9

Deadline for Submssion: 15 April 2025

Funding

The conference is funded by the Mind Association and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

While we currently can’t guarantee to cover all expenses associated with attending the workshop, we hope to contribute to covering the accommodation costs of the selected speakers.

Contact

Please email Adham El Shazly ([email protected]) or Alice Roberts ([email protected]).