The 2022 biennial meeting in Pittsburgh was a huge success: with over 680 participants it may have been the biggest ever. However, its very size and overdue nature meant that it was in some respects harder than ever for junior scholars to connect with more established members of the profession at this meeting. More generally, in-person meetings may in fact be a suboptimal means for connecting graduate students with more established philosophers for all sorts of reasons, in that the format makes much more likely interactions with graduate students that are already well-connected; from well-resourced programs; of certain backgrounds; and with different attitudes to engaging in carbon-intensive research practices. As such, the PSA would like to offer its graduate student membership the opportunity to interact with prominent members of our profession in a more controlled and accessible setting.
To this end, the PSA is introducing the ‘PSA Office Hour’ as a pilot project. Each month, for some months of the year, a philosophical theme will be chosen and two influential philosophers working within that theme will be made available, individually, to graduate students via Zoom through online sign-up sheet posted on the PSA member website. The students will select from the following categories that which best describes what they seek out of the opportunity:
- Input on dissertation topic choice
- Guidance on a problem occurring in own research
- Clarification on an issue within professor’s research
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Other (please describe)
Applicants will also be invited to write a short paragraph in which they describe in more detail what they would like to discuss with the professor. Up to 6 students will be selected to participate in the office hour, where the selection will be made to maximize thematic cohesion and promote resource redistribution. . Office hours will last up to 90 minutes and participants must be current members of the PSA. This opportunity is primarily for graduate students, but postdocs are free to apply as well. At the link below, there is a signup form, a request a professor form, and a form for professors to volunteer their services.
The upcoming themes and professors will be:
APRIL: New Directions in General Philosophy of Science
John D. Norton — Mon April 10th, 12pm EDT
Angela Potochnik —–Tues April 18th, 12pm EDT
MAY: Key Questions in Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics
Valia Allori —Tues May 2nd, 3pm EDT
David Wallace–Tues May 9th, 12-1, 1.30-2.30 EDT (2 sessions, 3 students in each)
JUNE: Recent Discussions on the Role of Values in Science
Heather Douglas — Tues June 6th, 1pm EDT
Matt Brown — Thurs June 15th, 12pm EDT
Please visit https://www.philsci.org/psa_office_hour.php for more information or to sign up. Many thanks to Kerry Mckenzie, Alan Love, and Sarah Roe for their effort in organizing this fantastic initiative!
