BIAPT NEWS: Conferences and Prizes
The Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought held its annual conference in early January at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. The conference was a huge success, with over one hundred participants, including several from North America and Europe. Panels focused on contemporary political philosophy, the history of political thought, and different traditions of critical theory, addressing topics that ranged from ‘Confronting the Anthropocene’ to ‘Incorporating the Marginalized in Political Theory’, and from ‘Resisting Colonialism’ to ‘Radical Republicanism’.
The annual conference is renowned for its engaging plenary sessions and this year hosted six memorable keynote speakers: Duncan Bell (Cambridge) unpacked the intellectual meaning and political legacy of interwar transhumanism; in the famous after-dinner lecture, Lea Ypi (LSE) offered an exciting preview of the sequel to her award-winning memoir Free; Lisa Herzog (Groningen) presented her innovative cross-disciplinary work on citizen knowledge in democracies; Suzanne Whitten (Queen’s University Belfast) provided a detailed analysis of the phenomenon of ‘vice-signalling speech’; Jan Kandiyali (Durham) advanced a new philosophical interpretation of a perennial problem in Marxist thought; and Catherine Lu (McGill) explored theoretical issues related to solidarity and global justice to a fascinated audience.
The association bestows two annual awards, which were presented formally at the conference: the 2022 BIAPT mid-career prize was awarded to Robin Douglass (KCL) and the early-career prize to Alasia Nuti (York). The association is now accepting nominations for its 2023 prizes, which will be presented at our 2024 conference: the deadline is May 26th 2023 and further information about the criteria for eligibility and the nomination process can be found at https://www.associationforpoliticalthought.ac.uk/biapt-prizes-2023-call-for-nominations-deadline-may-26th.
At the BIAPT Annual General Meeting, Robert Lamb (Exeter) was elected association chair for a second, three-year term, and Udit Bhatia (York) was appointed as Treasurer. The AGM also discussed a change of location for the conference – held at Oxford since the 1970s – and endorsed the planned peripatetic format that would see it visit different universities in Britain and Ireland in future years. The next annual conference (taking place from January 4th-6th 2024) – will thus be held at Jesus College, Cambridge. The local organisers in Cambridge will be Clare Chambers and Duncan Kelly and the academic convenors will be Rebecca Buxton (Bristol), Helen McCabe (Nottingham), and David Owen (Southampton). The call for papers will be released shortly. For the latest BIAPT news, follow us on twitter @PolThought or visit our website (associationforpoliticalthought.ac.uk).