Sunday, May 29, 2011

BSET 2012 CFP

Having just enjoyed a very successful Law and Philosophy Graduate Conference here in Stirling, it's time already to look forward to another conference...

First CALL FOR PAPERS

The BRITISH SOCIETY for ETHICAL THEORY

2012 CONFERENCE

University of Stirling, UK

Mon 9th - Wed 11th July 2012

Keynote Speakers:

Sarah Broadie (St Andrews)
Frances Kamm (Harvard)


Papers are invited for the 2012 annual conference of the British Society for
Ethical Theory, to be held at the University of Stirling, following directly on from the Joint Session.
The subject area is open within metaethics and normative ethics. Papers on topics in
applied ethics, moral psychology or the history of ethics may also be considered provided
they are also of wider theoretical interest.

Papers, which should be unpublished at the time of submission, should be
in English, no longer than 6500 words, readable in 45 minutes and prepared for blind review.

BSET is keen that all selected papers will be communicated clearly to its conference audience.
Please bear in mind that all sessions are plenary, so the venue will be more like a lecture hall than a
seminar room.

Please send your anonymous submission electronically, and include an abstract.
In a separate document list your full name, address and academic affiliation. Those who submitted
papers for our previous conferences - successfully or otherwise - are welcome to submit again, although not the same papers.

BSET operates a system whereby the papers will have all identifications removed BEFORE being
sent to our Chief Referee, who contacts other referees and finalizes the program. The one exception to this is the identification of postgraduate status. Please tell us if you are a postgraduate student as submissions from
postgraduates are encouraged; we aim to have at least one graduate speak at the conference.

Selected conference papers will be considered for publication in the journal Ethical
Theory and Moral Practice. Please make clear in any covering email
whether you intend your paper to be considered for publication here as well as
for the conference programme, although final decision on this matter need not be made by the author
until the time of the conference itself.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 9th December 2010.

Papers and accompanying particulars should be emailed to the contact email on the following page:

http://www.bset.org.uk/2012.html [under construction]

Note that ONLY electronic submissions will be accepted.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

School Skirts

I happen to have seen two interesting pieces relating to school skirts on the BBC lately, so thought I'd pass comment.

Firstly, a boy from Cambridge who found that, though his school doesn't allow shorts, it does allow boys to wear skirts. I've always thought that, while a uniform policy requiring boys to wear trousers and girls to wear skirts might pass as 'separate but equal, a uniform policy giving girls but not boys the choice is unequal. In this case, though, it seems he was only wearing a skirt as part of a peaceful protest, in an attempt presumably to be allowed shorts.

Secondly, it seems that schools it South Korea are making adjustments to desks to help girls with short skirts sit 'more comfortably.' This one strikes me as strange. I'd have thought that if the girls weren't comfortable sitting in short skirts then they wouldn't wear them. Obviously there are some concerns about peer pressure and collective action here, but nonetheless no one's really forced to wear a shorter skirt than they want to. Perhaps the real justification is to make teachers more comfortable...

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Quiet Time

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. It owes in some part to being busy at work, though the main reason is that I haven't been able to post links to Blogger from home. It works fine when I'm at work but, for some strange reason, seems to have stopped functioning properly at home. So now I only have time to write here if I can find it while in my office...