As the new semesters begin or are about to begin, we’re here for you with a fresh batch of news from the Diversity Reading List!

News

The Categorisation Project is under way
Over the last months we have been working hard on implementing the concept for indexing philosophy we presented in Fokt, Pharr, Torregrossa 2023. The project is led by Quentin Pharr and generously funded by the APA and the University of St Andrews, with further support from the Marc Sanders Foundation. We are hoping to have a test version ready in the coming weeks and to release the final version by the end of the year.

Three new Blueprints!
We have fantastic news for all those wanting to explore different aspects of Philosophy of Mind. Thanks to the APA Small Grant, we were able to create three more fantastic Reading Group Blueprints for you! Check out our Blueprints page to explore a 7-week long group on Chinese Philosophy of Mind (by Xintong Wei), an 8-week long one on Feminist Philosophy of Mind (by Adriana Alcaraz Sánchez and Jodie Russell), and a whooping 11-week long one titled Mind, cognition, and the self. An embodied perspective (by María Jimena Clavel Vázquez, featured in our last Newsletter). This brings our total number of Blueprints to 20!

Short Survey on Epistemic Challenges Faced by Native and Non-native English Speakers in Philosophy
Anna Klieber, a long-time DRL volunteer  featured in our November 2019 Newsletter, is part of a team conducting an exciting study aiming to quantify and compare the epistemic challenges faced by native and non-native English speakers in philosophy. Their international survey targets anyone who has studied or is currently studying or doing research in philosophy. The survey will gather information on, for example, the time required to read, write, or understand a philosophy article or presentation in English.

Whether you are a native or non-native speaker, your participation would be invaluable in helping us better understand this important issue. The survey takes less than 15 minutes to complete, will not collect information that allows you to be directly identified, and has received ethics approval from Utrecht University (Netherlands). We are also happy to share the results with participants who are interested in using the data for their own research.
You can access the survey here and email with any questions.

Big plans for our 10th Anniversary!
2025 will mark the 10th anniversary of DRL’s existence and we would like to celebrate it by organising a conference dedicated to celebrating the various efforts and projects dedicated to making philosophy a discipline of equal opportunity. So far, we are in early planning stages, but are happy to share that the conference is likely to take place at the University of Manchester in early summer 2025, and feature both research papers as well as presentations from the various projects dedicated to the cause. We hope it will provide you with an excellent opportunity to better understand the challenges we are still facing and learn about the various methods and resources available to us. We will be back with more info soon!

Volunteer Spotlight: Lea Cantor (she, her)

I am a Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. I specialize in classical Chinese philosophy (especially Daoism) and ancient Greek and Roman philosophy (especially early Greek philosophy and Hellenistic scepticism). Some of my work has also covered aspects of the European reception of ancient Chinese and Greek philosophy and early modern Ethiopian philosophy. More generally, I am interested in broad narratives in the historiography of philosophy and how these shape specialist research in the history of philosophy, often in unexpected ways.

During my studies at Cambridge and then Oxford, I founded Philiminality, a student-run platform for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary philosophy, which seeks to promote more inclusive approaches to philosophy through academic conferences, reading groups, talks, and mentoring schemes. I am grateful for the chance to pursue this kind of work with the DRL, focusing particularly on making research by authors from under-represented groups more visible in university education.

I joined the DRL team last year as the Editor for Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and Chinese philosophy. Though I have not been involved in the DRL’s recategorization project, I am especially excited about its upcoming launch. This trailblazing project radically reimagines how philosophy and its history might be classified and organized with a view to fostering more globally inclusive approaches to the discipline. I look forward to seeing the DRL’s team of volunteers and users experiment with this ambitiously novel framework.

Get involved, get funded!

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

We couldn’t do what we do without the help of our fantastic volunteers. Check out our Volunteer Page to find out more, and join the Team! There are so many ways to get involved: creating new Reading Group Blueprints; becoming an editor; adding new list entries; organising events, promoting, and much more.

As a volunteer, you will also have access to the funding we receive for various projects we run. Get in touch to find out more!

Thanks so much again for all your support,
The DRL Team