Dayton Conference to Explore Diversity in Philosophy

Dr. Margaret Urban Walker (left), a professor of philosophy at Marquette University, and Dr. Peggy DesAutels, a professor of philosophy at the University of Dayton, are encouraged that their peers agree on the need to focus on diversity. (Photo courtesy of Peggy DesAutels)Roughly 150 philosophers will gather at the University of Dayton next week from Wednesday to Friday, convening what will be the first diversity in philosophy conference to have the backing of the discipline’s leading membership organization, the American Philosophical Association (APA).

Organizers have high hopes for the message that APA sponsorship will be sending to the roughly 11,000 Ph.D.-holding philosophers largely working in U.S. colleges and universities. They also anticipate frank and honest discussions about what some say has traditionally been a less-than-friendly climate for gender and racial diversity in many philosophy departments around the nation.

“This is the first time the whole profession has agreed that we need to focus on this issue,” says Dr. Peggy DesAutels, a conference co-organizer and professor of philosophy at the University of Dayton.

“I’m hoping that there will be a real energy and that together we’ll come up with additional energy and additional strategies for how to move the profession along. And I’m hoping for all of us to get to know each other better. Once you know each other you can work together,” she adds.

The conference will examine and analyze the underrepresentation of women and other marginalized groups in philosophy. Participants “will focus on hurdles and best practices associated with the inclusion of underrepresented groups,” according to organizers.

DesAutels says there’s little evidence the discipline of philosophy is becoming more diverse. A recent APA research paper estimates women are 21 percent of professionally-employed philosophers. “We wish that things were getting better. There’s no evidence that it is getting better,” she notes.

As chair of the APA’s Committee on the Status of Women, DesAutels says the conference was partly organized to coincide with the launching of an academic site visit program by the committee. Immediately following next week’s diversity conference, DesAutels and others will host a site visit workshop for 24 scholars who will be learning, among other things, how to assess “the range and variety of women’s and minorities’ experiences in philosophy that contribute to the ongoing underrepresentation of women and minorities” in philosophy departments.