Forums on
Sustainability in Philosophy
Eugene Chislenko (Organizer) & Rebecca Millsop (Moderator)
Each month our members come together via video forum to discuss our current projects and goals. Please see our recent and future topics below. If you are interested in joining future forums, please reach out to us by emailing us at philosophersforsustainability@gmail.com. We would love for you to join us!
- March 2019: Sustainability Advocacy in Philosophy Organizations
- April 2019: Drafting Sustainable Practices Guidelines
- June 2019: Member Suggestions for Sustainability Guidelines
- July 2019: The APA Good Practices Guide
- August 2019: Teaching Sustainability
- September 2019: Our Sustainability Guidelines
- October 2019: Sustainability Advocacy
- November 2019: Sustainabili
ty Resources - December 2019: Climate Change and Public Philosophy
- February 2020: Climate Strike Support
- March 2020: E-vents & E-Conferences
- April 2020: Handling Emergencies
- May 2020: Strategic Planning
- September 2020: Shifting our Field
- October 2020: Climate Change & Racial Justice
- January 2021: Building Community Online
- February 2021: Taking Political Action
- March 2021: Holding Local Events
- April 2021: The Future of E-vents in Philosophy
- May 2021: Pre-Conference Forum
- June 2021: Strategic Planning
- July 2021: Teaching Sustainability – Climate Justice in Theory and Practice
- August 2021: Training on Sustainable Practices Workshops
- September 2021: Fall Kickoff
- October 2021: Divestment in Higher Education
- November 2021: The APA 2+1 Campaign
- January 2022: Climate Emotion
- February 2022: Climate Emotion
- March 2022: Strategic Planning
- April 2022: Holding a Local Workshop
Advocacy in
National Philosophy Associations
Sustainability Guidelines
Drawing on similar efforts in the United Kingdom, the American Philosophical Association has recently drafted a good practices guide for philosophers, which has already been widely read and influential in a range of departments. In 2019, Philosophers for Sustainability ran an advocacy campaign to encourage the American Philosophical Association to distribute guidelines on sustainable practices. We then collectively drafted, discussed, revised, and submitted a set of guidelines. In February 2020, the APA published its revised Good Practices Guide that now ends with our sustainability guidelines. These are the main professional guidelines in our field in a large and influential country, going out to about 10,000 APA members who teach some number of millions of students every year. Getting a fraction of those members to consider and adopt more sustainable practices is a real victory!
A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in drafting, discussing, revising, and advocating for the guidelines throughout 2019. We encourage all our members, and other interested philosophers, to hold local events on sustainability and/or climate change for your department or other philosophical community (including undergraduates), in which you can use these guidelines as a starting point for discussion of practices, plans, and advocacy in your community. We have some experience with these and are happy to share materials such as flyers and agendas, as well as putting you in touch with nearby Philosophers for Sustainability members whenever possible. Please let us know afterwards how the event goes and share any useful guideline or advocacy suggestions with us!
Please find the Sustainability Guidelines HERE.
The APA 2+1 Campaign
Our current advocacy project is a campaign urging the American Philosophical Association to move one or two of its annual divisional meetings entirely online. Read more about the 2+1 model in a recent APA Blog piece written for the Climate Matters series by Helen De Cruz: “The Case for Alternating In-Person and Virtual Conferences”. Learn more about the campaign, sign the petition, and see all current signatories on our campaign website: The APA 2+1 Campaign.
Conference 2021: Philosophy and the Climate Crisis
June 10-12, 2021
Climate change presents a major challenge for our time. It is expected to greatly increase global temperatures, “natural” disasters, political instability, war, disease, drought, and famine in this century. Its impacts are far-reaching and distributed unequally. In this conference, we aim to make progress toward addressing climate change, both by addressing the philosophical challenges it raises, and by working together to encourage sustainable practices in teaching, research, administration, advocacy, and community engagement.
For more information, check out the Conference 2021 page.
Climate Matters | Blog of the APA
Climate Matters is a monthly series of short articles hosted by the Blog of the APA, and co-edited by Philosophers for Sustainability co-founders Rebecca Millsop and Eugene Chislenko. The series brings together articles by both established and early career philosophers focused on connections between climate change and the discipline of philosophy. It features accessible discussions of philosophical approaches to various aspects of climate change, but also discussion of ways in which the practice of philosophy will need to adapt as part of an adequate global response to climate change. The goal of the series is to foster discussion of climate change among philosophers as a field, and to combine theoretical discussions with practical ones about the institutions of philosophy.
We have many other projects we would like to take on and we are in the process of starting some of them. Stay tuned for more, and please get in touch with any proposals!