Welcome back to the DRL Newsletter!

As Easter terms and fall semesters draw to an end, read on to find out what’s been happening at the Diversity Reading List in the last few months.

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News

MAP–DRL Workshop:  Creating Inclusive Classrooms’ In St Andrews
We collaborated with the MAP chapter at St Andrews and Stirling to put up a successful workshop. The primary aim of the event was to respond to a growing need in our classrooms: offering inclusive teaching practices and a diversified syllabus engaging to all of our students, including those traditionally underrepresented in higher education, which includes, but is not limited to, women, BME, disabled, and first-generation students.

We heard from Anne-Marie McCallion, a PhD candidate at the university of Manchester, in the departments of both philosophy and sociology, on ‘Disassociated disagreement: the impact of extracted speech on undergraduate philosophers’. Then Ian James Kidd, an assistant professor in philosophy at Nottingham, discussed ‘Diversity, inclusion, and the risks of backfiring’. Finally, our very own Simon Fokt, the project manager of the DRL, gave a presentation on the DRL, what it’s been doing and what it needs in the future. The event closed with a panel-type discussion session with the speakers and Lisa Jones, the St Andrews Philosophy DoT. The last session was very fruitful and both speakers and audience offered practical insight and tips on inclusive teaching. A successful event, with hopefully more to come!

Philosophy by Postcard
There is a charming project currently running, set up to celebrate the work of Iris Mudorch. Participants write a postcard to a philosopher who is broadly sympathetic to Mudorch’s approach. The philosopher then responds to the postcard. To learn more about the project, and to see how to send your own postcard, see here.

(In Parthesis)
The Philosophy by Postcard Project is just one part of a wider project to celebrate the work of 4 women philosophers from Oxford: Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, and Mary Midgley. To learn more visit their website.

CFP: Conference By Women In Philosophy
There will be a conference which aims to “ provide a platform for undergraduate and graduate women philosophers to present their work to their peers”, to be held in Groningen. See their call for papers here.

Lady Mary Shepherd continued
The DRL and the undergraduates at Edinburgh are campaigning to have a statue of Mary Shepherd erected. An undergraduate at Edinburgh has written a blog post about this process, which you can read here. And there has been some intrest from the press too, which you can read here.

Volunteer Spotlight: Alison Toop

I am a Teaching Fellow in medical ethics at the University of Leeds. I have just completed my PhD on the nature of the romantic relationship and the legitimacy of a political institution of marriage. I am currently an Assistant Project Manager for the DRL, but I first got involved back in 2014/15 when Simon Fokt was setting up the project in Leeds. Initially I didn’t feel confident enough to review papers and produce entries for the website – I had only just got back into academic philosophy after a few years in the ‘real world’, and I hadn’t yet started teaching. Luckily there was still loads for me to do. I had a background in writing grant applications for charities, and so I started writing them for the DRL. I also started helping with the promotion of the project online and at events. And that’s what I continue to do today five years later!

It’s been fantastic watching the project grow from strength to strength. My research focuses on some brilliant female philosophers, and that definitely inspired me to get back into philosophy. I was shocked when I started my PhD at how much of an issue under-representation was in the world of academic philosophy. I am proud to be part of a project that aims to make that world a much more inclusive place.

Get involved, get funded!

We continuously expand our list and you can help us by contributing papers via our contribution page.

We couldn’t do what we do without the help of our fantastic volunteers. If you would like to join them and volunteer for us please get in touch! There are so many ways to get involved: reviewing public contributions; helping us with small one off jobs; becoming a regular editor; and promoting the DRL at events and online.

You might even be able to access funding to support your time working on the DRL like Emily Paul (see above). We’re keen to support any volunteers in getting this kind of funding. You can read more about this here.

 

Thanks so much again for all your support,

The DRL Team