2023-24 Department Activities and Events
Chicago-Area Consortium in German Philosophy
Last year, the Chicago-Area Consortium in German Philosophy had a full schedule, much of it revolving around Immanuel Kant's 300th birthday. Sponsored Kant-themed events included a conference on Kantian perspectives on morality and history at Marquette, our annual workshop at DePaul, and a massive three-day conference on the Young Kant here at Northwestern. This conference, co-sponsored by the German department, WCAS, TGS, and the Alice Kaplan Humanities Institute, brought together Kant scholars from as far as Israel, and as close as University of Illinois at Chicago, for intense and congenial conversation on texts written in the early years of Kant's philosophical career. Northwestern current PhD student Kasey Hettig-Rolfe and prior Northwestern PhDs Melissa Zinkin (Binghamton University) and Hank Southgate (University of Wisconsin, Madison) were among the invited speakers; many current Northwestern students, including Andrew Chin, one of the co-organizers of the undergraduate philosophy society, participated as chairs and discussants.
We also hosted a conference on 20th Century German Aesthetics and co-sponsored a lecture by James Kreines at Loyola. The calendar next year is not likely to be as crowded, but if you are interested, please visit our website here.
NUSTEP conference
The 16th annual NUSTEP conference brought rich discussion of moral and political philosophy to campus May 30th-June 1, 2024. As so often happens at this conference a real philosophical community formed over the three days we were together, and we’re confident that lasting philosophical collaborations were established. Keynote speakers Sergio Tenenbaum (University of Toronto) and Julie Tannenbaum (Pomona College) anchored an excellent program. The conference is organized jointly by faculty and graduate students and is always both intellectually rewarding and great fun. To see the full schedule for this and past years’ conferences visit our site here.