CFP: Introducing Students to Philosophy: New Approaches: 2019 APA Eastern Teaching Hub

The APA Committee on Teaching Philosophy and American Association of Philosophy Teachers invite proposals for a 2019 Teaching Hub session on the topic of how best to introduce students to the field of philosophy. Though students entering college typically are familiar with disciplines such as history, biology, and mathematics, they often do not know what to expect from philosophy. Teachers of students new to philosophy must do more than simply present the next stage of material. We have to convey some sense of what philosophy is, and we have to explain to students—often very efficiently—how to read it, discuss it, and write it. Most importantly, we have to motivate the whole project: we have to explain why the study of philosophy is valuable and drum up some enthusiasm for our antiquated texts.

For this Teaching Hub session, we are looking for presenters willing to share promising new approaches, in either content selection or pedagogy, to these challenges. Sample topics include, but are not limited to the following:

• The best first text: what to assign first in an introductory philosophy class
• Editorial columns as an inroad to philosophical dialectic
• Philosophy the old-fashioned way: how to bring millennials to love our canon
• Productive uses of social media
• Capitalizing on the wisdom that comes with age: teaching new adult learners
• Introducing high school students to philosophy through summer camps

To submit a proposal for consideration, please email Karl Aho ([email protected]) by Friday, August 24, 2018, with the subject line "Introducing Students 2019 Teaching Hub." In the body of the email, please include your name, institutional affiliation (if any), position (if any), and contact information. Attached to the email, please include an anonymized proposal of 500 to 750 words in PDF form describing both what you plan to present and what you hope the audience will take away from your presentation. The organizing committee will select 3–4 participants for the session by early September and will aim to assemble a panel that is diverse in all of the relevant respects, including career stage and institutional affiliation.