Villanova in April

Hat tip, Paul Ennis.

Here’s the call for papers for the conference in Villanova where I was kindly invited to give the keynote. The grad students in charge of this conference seem to have their act together, based on my dealings with them so far.

Villanova University
16th Annual Conference in Philosophy

“The Return of Metaphysics”
April 8-9, 2011

Keynote Speaker: Graham Harman
Department of Philosophy, American University in Cairo

The “end of metaphysics” is a perennial theme in contemporary Continental philosophy, which has taken many forms, including the critiques of onto-theology, the metaphysics of presence, and (phallo)logocentrism, with consequent emphases on philosophical practices such as textual interpretation, cultural criticism, and socio-political interventionism. Recently, however, a “return to metaphysics” has been initiated by movements such as speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, actor-network theory, non-philosophy, and others who re-affirm the possibility and even necessity of (speculative) metaphysical thought.

We invite critical papers on the status of metaphysics in contemporary philosophy (for example, concerning the possibility of its “end” or “return”), including its relationship to its precursors in the philosophical tradition, mathematics, the contemporary natural sciences, ecological thought, and literature.

Submission Guidelines:

We encourage submissions from faculty and graduate students of abstracts (300-500 words) or papers (3,000 to 4,000 words). Please format these for blind review—personal information, such as name, institutional affiliation, and contact information, should be either in the body of your email or on a page separate from the rest of your paper, and not in the paper itself.

Please email your submissions (and any questions you may have) to villanovaphilosophy@gmail.com by February 1, 2011.