Imagination and Social Change
Though imagination is often associated with flights of fancy and escapist aspirations, philosophers and other academics have also long recognized its practical and instructive uses. To give just a few examples, imagination has been thought to provide us with insight into the minds of others, to enhance moral understanding, and more generally to enable us to learn about the world in which we live. This conference focuses on one very specific practical use of imagination: whether and how it can help us to bring about social change.
In addition to presentations by our keynote and invited speakers, we have reserved several places on the program for speakers who will be chosen on the basis of submitted abstracts. Contributions are welcome from philosophers and other scholars of imagination at all career stages. Authors whose papers are chosen for presentation at the conference will receive substantial travel subsidies (we will cover hotel costs, conference meals, and a significant portion of travel costs). We aim to make this conference fully accessible and family friendly. More information will be available later this spring, but those with questions about accessibility are encouraged to contact us by email at imag.and.social.change@gmail.com at any time.
Abstracts of 750-1000 words should be submitted to imag.and.social.change@gmail.com by March 15, 2019. We aim to provide notice of accepted papers by April 15, 2019.
The conference is organized by Amy Kind on behalf of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College.