Studying the Humanities at Villanova will fill your life with meaning and purpose; it’ll awaken your mind and fill your soul.  But did you also know that a degree in the Humanities — we’re talking Theology, Philosophy, Humanities, English, History, and Language — is coveted by our nation’s top employers? The skills you cultivate by studying the humanities – critical thinking and analysis, communication, writing, presenting, etc. – are sought after by our nation’s premier employers.

At this fun and informative event, you’ll learn about Villanova’s degree programs in the Humanities; talk to wonderful students, faculty, and staff in those disciplines; eat great food; laugh and smile; and learn many new things! Join us on Friday, October 21, from 1 to 4 PM, for an afternoon of excellent conversation and fun! Learn more about the Humanities and how earning a degree can help you build a meaningful, fulfilling life.

Nikolaus Fogle, PhD. is the Philosophy librarian and Philosophy, Theology and Humanities team coordinator. Don’t miss his presentation on “The Library of the Future” at 3:30 during the Humanities Day presentations.

From January 11 to March 11, the library will be running a trial of two major e-book platforms from Taylor & Francis: Routledge Handbooks Online, and Taylor & Francis eBooks (which contains mostly Routledge titles). Both collections are strong in a wide range of humanities and social science disciplines.

Routledge Handbooks Online contains collections of scholarly review articles on commonly researched topics. More than 600 volumes (about 18,000 chapters) are included. The articles are useful for getting a general overview of a topic, and make good jumping-off points for further investigation. Each chapter can be viewed in HTML or downloaded as a PDF.

Taylor & Francis eBooks contains more than 50,000 ebooks—both single-author texts and edited collections. Many of these are recent publications, but the collection contains works spanning the last century as well. The majority of them are DRM-free, with no time limits or print limitations, though some do have restrictions.

Your feedback about these resources is valuable to us. Please send your comments to Nik Fogle at nikolaus.fogle@villanova.edu. We’d particularly like to know what you found useful about them, what was lacking, and to what extent you would use this material in the future. Please be sure to tell us which of the two platforms your comments are about.

Since its creation in 2009, PhilPapers has quietly become a leading research tool for scholars and students in philosophy. In essence it is a research database, and the main competitor for The Philosopher’s Index, but it’s also an open access archive and a discussion forum for the philosophical community. Since absorbing the content from the Philosophy Research Index back in April it also claims to be the largest research database in philosophy, with more than 1.7 million entries from some 4,600 journals. Much of its content is sourced by crawling the sites of journals and open-access archives, as well as member submissions.

PhilPapers grew out of MindPapers, a philosophy of mind bibliography created by David Chalmers in the mid 1990s. Today it is edited by Chalmers and David Bourget, along with an array of area editors, and is operated by the Philosophy Documentation Center and the Center for Digital Philosophy. It has been sponsored by a number of institutes and organizations, including the UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the philosophical profession’s main scholarly society, the APA.

Built with internet-based research in mind, PhilPapers is less clunky and more connected than most databases. The search function is complemented by the ability to browse a finely articulated taxonomy of philosophical topics and areas, each portion of which is curated by scholars with appropriate expertise. Navigating from the general area “History of Western Philosophy” to “Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy,” for instance, one finds a brief overview of the topic along with a list of key works before being presented with a breakdown of further subcategories.

The PhilPapers platform includes an array of useful features, including the ability to set up content alerts for the topics and subtopics that interest you, as well as specific searches. Users can follow authors, save articles to bibliographies and reading lists, and export citations to citation management tools like Zotero and Mendeley. Other features, like links to an article’s Google Scholar page, or to cheap copies of a book on Amazon, help to integrate common next-steps in the researcher’s workflow.

Available on most pages

Each article record includes a number of download options, including a direct download (if the article is part of PhilPapers’ open access archive), as well as proxied and unproxied links to journals and full text databases. Users who create accounts with PhilPapers can have it store Villanova’s proxy and link resolver information for quick access to content via Falvey Library. Follow these directions to set it up:

Go to Preferences -> Off campus access, and enter this proxy schema:

http://ezproxy.villanova.edu/login?URL=

Under Preferences -> At my library, enter this as your link resolver URL:

http://openurl.villanova.edu:9003/sfx_local

Once that’s set up, you’ll have the option to “Find it @ Villanova University.”

To learn more about PhilPapers, or if you have questions, please contact the Philosophy Liaison Librarian Nikolaus Fogle (nikolaus.fogle@villanova.edu, 610-519-5182).

Welcome back, everyone! The schedule for fall professionalization workshops is now complete. You can find it on the department website, and right here:

Policies/Progress
Friday, September 5th, 2014, 3pm. Old Falvey Reading Room (enter through Old Falvey)

Getting published
Thursday, October 2nd, 2014, 11:30am. Hypatia Editorial Suite, Falvey 1st floor

Dissertation planning
Friday, November 7th, 2014, 3pm. Falvey 204

Keeping All The Balls in the Air: Prioritizing Your Tasks, Defining Your Goals
Wednesday, November 19th, 2014, 11:30am. Falvey 205

If you have any questions about these events, just let me know. I can be reached at nikolaus.fogle@villanova.edu, or (610) 519-5182.

In addition to preparing for the upcoming online symposium, Hypatia has recently announced two new resources for the feminist philosopher. The new virtual bibliographies are a composition of Hypatia articles discussing important topics in politics and culture. The first bibliography covers Immigration and Citizenship, providing a distinctly feminist philosophical outlook on highly discussed issue. Hypatia also offers author interviews, which provide authors’ commentary on their own works, as well as their thoughts to current and future feminists. These two new features can both be valuable resources for teaching or research, and can be found on the journal’s website at the links below.

http://www.hypatiaphilosophy.org/Editorial/feminist-philosophy-connections.html

http://www.hypatiaphilosophy.org/Editorial/bibliography.html

In Hypatia 29.3, a special issue on Climate Change, feminist philosophers Chris Cuomo (author of Feminism and Ecological Communities: An Ethic of Flourishing) and Nancy Tuana (author of Feminism and Science) focus critical attention on one of the most pressing social and environmental issues of our day. Policy makers have recently begun to acknowledge the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women and disadvantaged communities, but feminist analyses of the complex epistemic and political dimensions of climate change, as well as its causes and effects, are urgently needed. This special issue initiates a necessary conversation that will deepen our understanding and help identify promising opportunities for positive change. Co-editors Cuomo and Tuana have invited scholars and activists working at the forefront of feminist climate justice to share their perspectives. Watch the interviews online, and join the co-editors in an open forum on issues on August 19-23, 2014.

For more information, please visit the Hypatia website (http://hypatiaphilosophy.org), or the Philosopher’s Eye (http://thephilosopherseye.com/phileye/online-events/hypatia-symposium-2/).

Publishing articles is an essential part of every scholar’s practice. It can be confusing, though, to know just how to navigate the process of preparing, submitting, and revising articles, and getting them accepted. How do you select the best journal for your paper? What can you do to improve your chances of being accepted? What does it mean if your article is not accepted, or if you get “revise and resubmit” decision?

Next Tuesday, the editors of four journals in the social sciences and interdisciplinary studies will hold a workshop on academic publishing. Scholars in other disciplines are welcome to attend as well. The editors will discuss a range of topics regarding manuscript preparation, submission, and revision, and answer all your burning questions about the whole process. Just in time to get started with your summer research!

On hand to offer their advice will be:

Maria Toyoda, editor of Japanese Political Economy

Christopher Kilby, book review editor for Review of International Organizations

Connie Titone, editor of Journal for Peace and Justice Studies

Heidi Rose, past editor of Text and Performance Quarterly

Chip Folk, past editor of Visual Cognition

The workshop is sponsored by Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, and will take place on Tuesday, May 13, from 1-3pm, in the Hypatia Editorial Offices on the first floor of Falvey Memorial Library.

Call for Papers: Philadelphia Summer School in Continental Philosophy

Topic: “Continental Philosophy of Religion and the New Metaphysics” (featuring seminars on the work of Quentin Meillassoux, Ray Brassier, Bruno Latour, and Catherine Malabou)

Seminar Leader: John Caputo

When and where:

Saturday, August 9^th, 2014; 9am-4:30pm

Campus of Immaculata University

Malvern, Pennsylvania

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Topic: Continental Philosophy of Religion and the New Metaphysics

John Caputo will be leading two one hour seminars with catered lunch in between: one seminar on Quentin Meillassoux and Ray Brassier; one seminar on Bruno Latour and Catherine Malabou.  Select attendees will present their research during the morning and afternoon flanking the Caputo seminars.

Attendees are encouraged to purchase The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion (Indiana University Press, 2014) and The Insistence of God (Indiana University Press, 2014).   A reading list featuring works by Meillassoux, Brassier, Latour, and Malabou will be provided.

Location: Immaculata University, Malvern, Pennsylvania

Organizers: Leon Niemoczynski (Immaculata University) & Stephanie Theodorou (Immaculata University)

Cost: $70.00 faculty; $45.00 student or other (seating is limited, pre-registration required.  Cost includes catered lunch)

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Immaculata University is pleased to announce the”Philadelphia Summer School in Continental Philosophy,” a one day seminar style “summer school” and workshop that, this year – its first – features John Caputo as its seminar leader.  The event will be organized with two new books as a backdrop: The Insistence of God and The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion (both Indiana University Press, 2014), although a formal reading list including works by Meillassoux, Brassier, Latour, and Malabou (for the seminars) will be provided.  John Caputo will lead two one hour seminars/classes flanked by morning and afternoon mini-research presentations where researchers present 2000 word abstracts/summaries of their work and engage other participants in query designed to further research goals and enhance the nature of research projects through mutual dialogue.

***

The theme of this year’s summer school will explore the relationship between the future of Continental philosophy of religion and new schools of thought emerging in contemporary Continental metaphysics, identifying possible routes of exploration as well as areas of influence, cross-over, or challenge.

Topics such as materialist approaches to theology and religion, speculative materialism and non-theology, environmental aesthetics and theology, political theology and ecology, the speculative theologies of German idealism, process-relational philosophy and theology, phenomenology and contemporary French theory and theology/religion, as well as questions of atheism’s relationship to contemporary Continental philosophy of religion will be of central importance for the school. The “new metaphysics” in its most contemporary forms will be a major point of discussion as it bleeds into its Continental philosophical antecedents, especially vis-a-vis thinking about religion, theology, and the Absolute.

Philosophical naturalism (Ray Brassier), the divine inexistence (Quentin Meillassoux), non-philosophy and theology (Francois Laruelle), the Absolute (Iain Hamilton Grant), plasticity (Malabou), or the factish gods (Bruno Latour) are some possible starting points, but one could also see discussion of historical figures as well: whether Bergson, Deleuze, Schelling, Hegel, Kant, Whitehead, Heidegger, or Derrida for example, as participants explore those figures’ importance for the future of Continental philosophy of religion and corresponding areas of realism, materialism, and metaphysics.  Those who have an interest in contemporary French philosophy (Badiou, Meillassoux, Kacem, Laruelle, Malabou) should certainly apply.

How to Apply: Those interested should send a summary of a current research project (no more than 2000 words, fit for a 15 minute presentation) to: lniemocz@mail.immaculata.edu by May 30th, 2014.

Those accepted into the summer school will be notified by June 10th, 2014.

Please attach research statements/summaries as .rtf or MS Word .doc files.

Until June 7, Falvey has a trial subscription to Maney Publishing’s Philosophy, Religion and Theology journal collection. We have access to current issues and backfiles of nineteen journals:

Black Theology

Comparative and Continental Philosophy

Critical Horizons

Journal of Adult Theological Education

Journal of Critical Realism

Journal for the Study of Spirituality

Medieval Mystical Theology

The New Bioethics

Political Theology

Practical Theology

Reformation

Reformation & Renaissance Review

Rural Theology

Theology & Sexuality

Journal of Chinese Religions

Levant

The Linacre Quarterly

Medieval Sermon Studies

Palestine Exploration Quarterly

I’d greatly appreciate any feedback you might have about these. Please send any comments to: nikolaus.fogle@villanova.edu. I’ll also send around a survey at the end of the trial.