CFP: Look Before You Jump

Look Before You Jump

2027 Annual Meeting of the Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World
July 22–24, 2027
The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City
320 East 9th Street, Charlotte, NC 28202
Abstract deadline: February 15, 2027

We invite submissions for the annual meeting of the Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World, to be held July 22–24, 2027 at The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City in Charlotte, North Carolina. Of particular interest are papers that engage with this year’s theme: Look Before You Jump. However, we also welcome and encourage papers on any topic related to philosophy in the contemporary world, broadly construed.

SPCW seeks to provide a forum for new areas of research in philosophy, and we aim to build a community of scholars who provide supportive feedback and constructive criticism. We welcome papers on all topics, from any philosophical tradition. SPCW is especially interested in supporting individuals from historically underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds, as well as anyone working to expand the scope and quality of philosophical discourses.

In addition to traditional papers and presentations, SPCW welcomes diverse formats such as spoken word, script readings, performances, and other approaches that invite and broaden philosophical reflection. We welcome graduate students, independent and nontraditional philosophers, and thinkers from other disciplines or with non-philosophical specializations. Undergraduate students are also invited to submit under the conditions below.

Conference Theme: Look Before You Jump

“Look before you jump” asks us to consider where we stand, what we might leave behind, and where we hope to land. However, even the counsel to pause is open to question: to what extent does reflection foster transformation, and when does circumspection become an excuse for quietly condoning injustice? What are the risks involved with taking a leap versus refusing to take one?

This year’s theme invites submissions relating to preservation and change across ethics, politics, culture, religion, technology, and the environment. Some questions to consider are: What happens when valued traditions or institutions allow for continued exclusion or unequal power? Can transforming inherited practices preserve what matters about them, or does effective change sometimes require their abolition? What do we owe to endangered languages, cultural knowledge, environments, and collective memories, and what makes their disappearance a loss?

We also invite submissions dealing with issues of borders and openings: who is allowed to cross, who must be kept out, and what options develop when boundaries are relocated. How might habits and categories become sedimented thereby making contingent arrangements appear necessary? In what ways could disability studies and crip theory challenge assumptions about normality, independence, movement, and the very image of a “jump”? These questions prompt us to consider how to act amid uncertainty without treating either preservation or transformation as unquestioned desiderata.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Preservation, transformation, and what is worth keeping
• Tradition, exclusion, and unequal power
• Reform, abolition, and institutional change
• Open borders, migration, and belonging
• Openings, closures, and possibilities for collective life
• Sedimentation, habit, and inherited categories
• Disability, access, and crip theory
• Endangered languages and cultural knowledge
• Collective memory, forgetting, and historical responsibility
• Environmental preservation and ecological transformation
• Technology, innovation, and the costs of disruption
• Religious and cultural inheritance
• Risk, uncertainty, and practical judgment
• Any topic related to philosophy in the contemporary world

Conference Submission

Submit an abstract of approximately 500 words by February 15, 2027. Include a bibliography, which does not count toward the word limit. Abstracts should provide a substantial overview of the proposed presentation; creative and nontraditional proposals should also explain their format. Presentations should be prepared for 20–30 minutes, followed by questions and discussion.

Submissions will undergo anonymous peer review. Remove identifying information from the abstract and provide author and contact details in the submission email rather than in the abstract.

Email your anonymized abstract as an attachment to Dr. Raman Sachdev at [email protected], with “SPCW 2027 Submission” in the subject line. Include your name, affiliation (if any), and contact information in the email body.

Programming inquiries: Dr. Raman Sachdev, [email protected].

Undergraduate Submissions

SPCW welcomes undergraduate submissions from philosophy and other disciplines. A limited number of undergraduate presentations will be included in the program. Undergraduate students must obtain approval of their submission from a faculty member and CC that faculty member at their official institutional faculty email address when submitting. Faculty coauthorship or co-presentation is not required. Keep student and faculty identifying information out of the anonymized abstract.

Further Information

Participants should plan to arrive July 21, 2027 and depart July 25, 2027. Registration, lodging, and other conference information will be posted at https://spcw.org/annual-conference.

To foster the sense of community and camaraderie central to SPCW, participants are expected to attend and actively participate throughout the conference program, not only during their own sessions. Submission of an abstract indicates an understanding of this expectation.