Concordia Philosophy Student Weekly Tabloid Vol. 44
We hope your pre-summer season and academic summer term is full of awesomeness. Whether you are working, taking a break, returning to your home country, studying, or travelling, we hope you have a great summer.
SoPhiA still works over the summer to plan and make sure the upcoming year will be a great one for all philosophy students! SoPhiA never sleeps, so continue to stay tuned for information from us over the summer.
If you want to sharpen some skills over the summer, consider taking non-credit UDEMY courses (free for Concordia students), or work towards your FutureBound certificate with FutureBound skill workshops!
For senior philosophy students, you can check out the current list of advanced PHIL-4xx offerings for Fall and Winter of the upcoming academic year.
- Consider checking out Dr. Ulf Hlobil’s course on “Truth” in the Fall
- Requirements: 12 credits in philosophy, including one of PHIL 263 or 265 or 364 or 365
- Description: The course will be “on the philosophy of truth.” Students “will read seminal texts on the nature and logic of truth from different historical periods.”
- Or Dr. Anna Brinkerhoff’s course on the “Ethics of Belief” in the Winter.
- Requirements: 12 credits in philosophy, including one of PHIL 263 or 265 or 364 or 365
- Description: This course “will focus on central questions in the ethics of belief” such as:
- Is it always wrong to believe on insufficient evidence?
- Are we responsible for what we believe?
- Does morality get a say in the rationality of belief?
- Does friendship place demands on belief that conflicts with epistemic demands?
- What contribution do moral beliefs make to the moral worth of an action?
Finally, stay tuned if you’ve submitted to receive the Sheila Mason Bursary, because the winners will be announced soon if not already!
Without further ado, here’s the 44th Volume of the Concordia Philosophy Student Weekly Tabloid, which brings you all the hottest and best events and relevant philosophy news.
This week, we tell you about:
- New student info sessions
- Recap from our end of year social event
- Opportunity for a two-week 3-credit Concordia course (May 15-26)
- A Glissant and Levinas Conference
- Various Concordia events
- A philosophy book recommendation!
New Student Resources
Are you a new student looking to get the most out of your experience as a new Concordian and/or a first-time university student? See below for workshops and information sessions on how to navigate your university experience.
- Course Registration: How to use Concordia’s system: May 16, 11:30am (+ other dates).
- Fund Your Future! Financial Aid and Award Opportunities and Best Practices: May 18, 2pm (+ other dates).
- How to write a study plan for your study permit application: May 24, 10am.
- “If you would like to find out how to write an effective study plan to help you secure your study permit for Canada, join this information session.”
- Pre-arrival 101: Now that you’ve been admitted: July 5, 10am.
What: New student information events
When: Various dates
Where: Online & in-person
End of year social event: Recap
SoPhiA hosted our last social event of the current academic year on May 9th at N sur Mackay. Hopefully all of you who came out had a great time! We took over most of the bar and many conversations were had. Stay tuned for our next line up of social events for the 2023-2024 academic year.
The social event included many undergraduate and graduate students, as well as friends and even an adjunct professor! We also launched this year’s Concordia undergraduate philosophy journal, The SoPhiA Review! An expert publishing of some of Concordia’s philosophical undergraduate work (thank you Diana Pylypenko!) And we had stickers too!
More physical copies of The SoPhiA Review will be available, TBD.
Summer Course opportunity: Mess and Method — Maintenance, Repair, and Sustainability Edition
“Darren Wershler, interim director of the Milieux Institute and professor in the Faculty of Arts and Science, will be leading a two-week, three-credit course on interdisciplinary research at Concordia.
The course will be co-taught with guest faculty Lori Emerson, associate professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and will introduce students to a range of contemporary critical and philosophical approaches to interdisciplinary research.”
ENGL 602 2231: Mess and Method – Maintenance, Repair and Sustainability Edition
“This course will introduce students to a range of contemporary critical and philosophical approaches to interdisciplinary research whose focus is contextual, material and discursive rather than textual and hermeneutic.
The purpose of ‘Mess and Method’ is to encourage students to think about culture in terms of a set of interrelated concepts such as: controversies and messes, articulations, assemblages and networks, materiality, practices and techniques, parallax and incommensurabilities. Many of the texts we’ll be looking at consider some or all of these concepts simultaneously, but they each have their particular strengths.
In this particular instance of the course, our focus will be on the practices and techniques of maintenance, repair, and sustainability. Drawing on readings from across the disciplines, we will be considering how incorporating such practices into our scholarly work requires us to move beyond the comforts of individual expertise and into a kind of collective engagement that Steven J. Jackson calls ‘broken world methodology’ in his influential work, ‘Rethinking Repair’ (a central text for the course).”
Program Details:
“The course will take place from May 15-26th, 2023. The first week will occur as an online seminar, and will provide the theoretical context for the practical work during week 2. The second week will consist of in-person (mandatory) team-based work in the Milieux Institute on a series of projects to be determined in the first week. The course concludes with a colloquium in which we will share our research with each other in the form of brief presentations.
All are welcome to apply. The working assumption of the course is that we will all bring different competencies and different weaknesses along with us, which is why the course emphasizes group work and collective thinking.”
Registration:
“To enroll, please contact Liz Burgess, the Graduate program Director at the Concordia Department of English, at grad.english@concordia.ca.
For more information, contact Darren Wershler at: d.wershler@concordia.ca.”
Who: Milieux Institute
What: Two-week 3-credit summer course
When: May 15-26
Where: Online + in-person at the Milieux Institute of Concordia (EV Building, 11th floor)
Glissant and Levinas Conference – thinking the Relation
Concordia’s Social Justice Center will be holding a conference on Glissant and Levinas next weekend May 19 and 20 to discuss the relation between Edouard Glissant and Emmanuel Levinas.
Mérédith Laferté-Coutu (post-doctoral researcher working with Dr. Matthias Fritsch) and our own Nelson Graves will be speaking at the event.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in existentialism, phenomenology, Glissant, or Levinas.
“The conference Glissant and Levinas: Thinking the Relation, invites scholars in philosophy, English, francophone, and Caribbean literature, environmental studies, decolonial studies, and Jewish studies, to think about the major point of contact between Édouard Glissant and Emmanuel Levinas: our relation to the other, and its ethical and political significance.”
More info and the conference schedule.
Who: Concordia Social Justice Center
What: Glissant and Levinas Conference
When: May 19-20 (all day)
Where: MB 14.250 and MB.9A (JMSB building) and online (hybrid)
Various Concordia Events
There are several events in the next week that may be interesting to philosophy students.
- ABCs of Personal Finance: May 15, 12pm
- “Take control of your money matters with tips from our personal finance expert. We will start with the basics by covering credit cards, student loans, debt, and how to improve your credit score. We’ll discuss budgeting, automatic savings, and determining what percentage of your paycheck should be saved, invested, or enjoyed.”
- Boost Your Personal Well-being: Strategies From Positive Psychology: May 16, 11am
- “In this workshop, we will discuss ways in which we can tune in to and direct our internal compasses to promote well-being and manage stress. Through reflective exercises and small group discussions, you will develop a greater understanding of your own strengths and how to use them when navigating challenging circumstances. ”
- How a Growth Mindset can Change Your Life: May 18, 10am
- “In this workshop, you will learn about the research on growth mindsets, develop strategies to cultivate resilience when faced with setbacks, and learn how to get smarter every day. ”
- Research in Conversation in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences: May 19, 10:15am
- “Join us in celebrating and discovering the diversity and scope of research within the Faculty of Arts and Science. Ten researchers from the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural and Health Sciences will engage in substantive conversation with Patrick Leroux, Associate Dean of Research.”
- Dr. Matthew Barker will be speaking at the event.
See more of Concordia’s events.
SoPhiA Book Library: Book Recommendation
Current highlighted book:
The Philosopher’s Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods (2010)
“‘The Philosopher’s Toolkit is a very good book. It could be highly useful for both introductory courses in philosophy, or philosophical methodology, as well as independent study for anyone interested in the methods of argument, assessment and criticism used in contemporary analytic philosophy. It is unique in approach, and written in a pleasant and considerate tone. Its authors are both competent philosophers, and the book visibly reflects their deep sympathy to the discipline and their appreciation of its unique character. This book will help one to get going to do philosophy, but more advanced students might find this text helpful too. I wish I had had access to this book as an undergraduate.'” (Teaching Philosophy)
A great book for anyone new to philosophy or philosophical methodology!
If you didn’t know, SoPhiA has a library of over 650 books! We have books from different domains of philosophy and some outside philosophy (psychology, business, political science, and even novels). We even have textbooks for some of your courses! (e.g., PHIL-210, 235, 260, 266, and more)
You can borrow a book for an hour, or even the whole semester. Just drop by our office or send us an email.
You can see our complete library of books online on our Librarika virtual library.
What: Books!
Where: The SoPhiA library (in our office space)
Do you know of any cool philosophy-related events in Montreal or the Concordia Community? Please let us know and we will advertise them here!
**Most pictures are for representative effect only and aren’t actual photos of the events, products, or services we report on.
Students of Philosophy Association 