Ethics and Applied Philosophy Graduate Conference at UNC Charlotte
April 28 & 29, 2023
Zoom Access
Please note that we are using two separate access links, one for each day.
Day 1 (Friday, April 28)
Day 1 Welcome & Tech Check (2:30pm ET, April 28th)
Please join the UNC Charlotte Philosophical Union in starting the 2023 Ethics and Applied Philosophy Graduate Conference at UNC Charlotte. We will also have time to troubleshoot any tech issues.
Session 1 (3:00pm ET) — Conceptualizing Harm in Bioethics Contexts
Moderator: Jahnavi Patel (she/her)
Speaker: Stefano Pinzan (He/Him), The Role of Emotions in a Kantian Ethics of Care
Speaker: O. René Garrett Wright (René/They/Them/Theirs): Sexual Concern: On People Living with HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ+ Panic, and Non-disclosure
(Exemplary Undergraduate Philosopher 2023)
Speaker: Erica Bigelow (she/they): The Metaphorical is Medical is Metaphorical: Racist Discourses in the ‘War’ on COVID
Session 2 (4:30pm ET) — Narrative, Mindfulness, and Empathy
Moderator: Erica Nelson (they/them)
Speaker: Logan Mitchell (they/them): Mindfulness and Moral Emotions
Speaker: Brianna Larson (She/They): Narrative and Well-Being: The Case for Self-Narrative as Fundamental in Michael Bishop’s Network Theory of Well-Being
Speaker: Sean Maroney (He): Empathy's Capriciousness
Session 3 (6:00pm ET) — Popular Culture, Speech, and The Body
Moderator: Will Wright (he/him)
Speaker: Urna Chakrabarty (she/her): How Fat Horrifies: On Anti-Fat Bias as Fatphobia
Speaker: Margaret Murphy (she/they): They Don’t Know About Us: Teenage Girls, Sexuality and Fan-Fiction
Speaker: Linda Priano (She/Her): Moral Exemplars as Counterspeakers
Session 4 (7:30pm ET) — Two Approaches to the Climate Crisis
Moderator: Nicholas Osaka (they/them)
Speaker: Valena M. C. Reich (She/her): Protecting the Environment: A Justification for Civil Disobedience
(Exemplary Undergraduate Philosopher 2023)
Speaker: Matthew Wiseman (he/him): The Obligations of Democratic Proxy Representatives for Future People
Day 2 (Saturday, April 29)
Day 2 Coffee & Technology Check (8:30am ET)
Please join the UNC Charlotte Philosophical Union in our second day welcome. We will have time for coffee, conversation, and time to troubleshoot any tech issues.
Session 1 (9:00am ET) — Understandings of the Social Construction of Race
Moderator: Nicholas Osaka (they/them)
Speaker: Larissa Kolias (She/her): Haslanger and the Racialized Subject: Against the Social/Political Theory of Race
Speaker: Ryan Miller (he/him): Race as a Constructed Cause
Speaker: Jenny Baranker (she/her): The Problematic Consequences of Having Gendered and Racialized Consumer Goods When There Is No Functional Difference
Session 2 (10:30am ET) — Medical Paternalism and Suicide, Harm
Note to attendees: This session presents philosophical interventions concerning suicide, suicidal ideation, and medical paternalism relating to harm. We recognize the importance of this work, and simultaneously want to notify attendees who may want to elect to not participate in this session.
Moderator: Erik Bahnson (he/him)
Speaker: Eli Garrett Schantz (He/him/his): The Volitional Account of Harm
Speaker: Moya Mapps (they/them): Suicide and Paternalism
Speaker: Ricky Mouser (he/him): Surviving and Thriving
Lunch — 12:00pm ET
Plenary Session (1:30pm ET) — Keynote by Johnathan Flowers (CSU Northridge)
Title: An Applied Ethics of Inquiry: Beyond ‘Just Asking Questions’
This talk will highlight the need for philosophers to be responsive to the social, political, and cultural contexts from which their inquiries emerge and to which they must ultimately return. Insofar as philosophers hold a view of philosophical inquiry generally, and ethical inquiry specifically, as just asking questions
or proceeding from a standpoint beyond culture, this talk will reject this assertion and instead point to culturally and socially responsive inquiry as a necessity for ethical philosophical inquiry. This talk will conclude by drawing on two examples from the Society for Professional Journalists Code of Ethics as a starting point for how to conduct ethical inquiry.
Session 3 (3:00pm ET) — Sex, Gender, and Medicine
Moderator: Steve Muir (he/him)
Speaker: Rebecca Sanaeikia (She/Her): Cissexist Medicalization of Transgender Bodies
Speaker: Kimberly Beasley (she/her): Intersex Injustice: A Bioethical Analysis of Intersex Infant Surgery
Speaker: Scout Etterson (they/them): Articulating the Trans Relationship between Sex and Gender
Session 4 (4:30pm ET) — Approaches to Social Ethics
Moderator: Trey Irby (he/him)
Speaker: Jordan Desmond (he/him): Social Contribution, Basic Needs, and the Scope of Egalitarian Duties
Speaker: Bryson Ng (He/Him): A Rancièrian Analysis of Objectionable Commemorations: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Decolonial Praxis
Speaker: Peter Visscher (He/Him): If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em: Using Techno-Social Engineering as Foucauldian Ethical Practice
Social Hour — 6:00pm ET
Please join us in ending the conference with a social hour: a time for us to network and discuss in a more casual setting.
Speaker Information
Jenny Baranker (she/her), University of Oklahoma
Kimberly Beasley (she/her), Kent State University
Erica Bigelow (she/they), University of Washington
Twitter: @EricaBigelow
Instagram: @ericapbig
Urna Chakrabarty (she/her), Cornell University
Jordan Desmond (he/him), Queen's University
Scout Etterson (they/them), Arizona State University
@skqoot
Larissa Kolias (She/her), The University of Calgary
PhilPeople: Larissa Kolias
LinkedIn: Larissa Kolias
Brianna Larson (She/They), Independent Scholar
Twitter: @brilarsonn
Moya Mapps (they/them), Yale University
Website: moyamapps.com
Sean Maroney (He), King's College London
Instagram: @komodobill
Ryan Miller (he/him), University of Geneva
@rmm4pi8
Logan Mitchell (they/them), UNC Chapel Hill
Ricky Mouser (he/him), Indiana University Bloomington
Margaret Murphy (she/they), American University
Bryson Ng (He/Him), Nanyang Technological University
LinkedIn: Bryson Ng
Stefano Pinzan (He/Him), Vita-Salute San Raffaele University & University of California, Los Angeles
Linda Priano (She/Her), University of Milan
Valena M. C. Reich (She/her), King's College London
LinkedIn: Valena M. C. Reich
Rebecca Sanaeikia (She/Her), University of Rochester
Twitter: @logavaguy
Eli Garrett Schantz (He/him/his), Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend
Mastodon: @eligschantz@med-mastodon.com
Peter Visscher (He/Him), Villanova University
Matthew Wiseman (he/him), University of Southern California
O. René Garrett Wright (René/They/Them/Theirs), Denison University
@maxiplush
Notes and Acknowledgements
The Philosophical Union of UNC Charlotte is the graduate student organization of students at UNC Charlotte interested in philosophical interventions and discussion. Annually since 2018, the Philosophical Union has organized the Ethics and Applied Philosophy Graduate Conference, a home for philosophical interventions and discourse from an applied and interdisciplinary perspective. This year, for the first time ever, we have decided to open submissions to undergraduate students and independent scholars (e.g. those between enrollments or considering graduate training). We believe this better promotes the project of philosophical inquiry and intervention for all and by all.
We want to congratulate the two undergraduate students on the program for their exemplary research: Valena M. C. Reich, King’s College London and O. René Garrett Wright, Denison University.
In acknowledgement of the labor required to organize this conference, we thank the following individuals (in no particular order) for their work in various capacities, be it organizing, reviewing abstracts, or moderating panels: Steve Muir, Nicholas Osaka, Erica Nelson, Will Wright, Erik Bahnson, Zach Elias, James Carr, Carson Saffold, and Pennda Arami. We also thank Amanda Pinto (Marquette University) and Ian Hosbach (Marquette University) for their service as external reviewers. We are also in appreciation of the Center for Professional & Applied Ethics at UNC Charlotte and the faculty of the Department of Philosophy for their advice in organizing this conference.
This conference is funded in part by the Graduate & Professional Student Government (GPSG) of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with student activity fees. The GPSG and Student Activity Fees Commision do not necessarily endorse the beliefs or actions of this organization.
