In anticipation of the 50th Anniversary meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, we have collected as many historical SPEP documents as we could find.

Thanks in large part to the generosity of Alan Schrift and Hugh Silverman, and to their impulses to preserve what should be preserved, we have posted Calls for Papers, Programs, Newsletters and Posters dating as far back as 1966.

We invite you to visit the SPEP Archive here on our website.

If you have any documents that we might add to the archive to fill out the collection, please contact Christopher Long, and I will be sure to post them on the site.

The annual SPEP Supplement containing a selection of essays from our conference proceedings will be published by the Journal of Speculative Philosophy beginning with the anniversary issue from this year’s conference.

JSP will make the Supplement issue available online as well as in print. We look forward to working with the JSP editors, John Stuhr and Vincent Colpietro, and with the editors at Pennsylvania State University Press.

Our deepest thanks to David Pellauer for years of outstanding service to SPEP as editor of Philosophy Today.

Ed Casey, past President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, reports that on his initiative the national board of the APA has undertaken a massive survey of all M.A. and Ph.D. graduate programs in Philosophy in the United States.

This survey is meant to be informative in quite detailed ways regarding the number, composition, gender ratio, and racial identities of faculty members as well as graduate students.

Data concerning average years to completion of graduate degrees will be given as well as job placement figures. A special column will allow programs to give a profile of themselves and to specify what they offer that is truly distinctive.

There will be no ranking whatsoever of the 243 graduate programs surveyed. The aim is to help prospective graduate students make informed decisions.

The results of this comprehensive study will become available this fall on the APA website under the heading of “Guide to Study in Philosophy.”

Given the recent and ongoing controversies surrounding the rankings of graduate programs in Philosophy, we would like to reiterate that SPEP remains independent from any ranking system.

For more information on SPEP’s long standing position on graduate program rankings, we invite you to read our Statement on Rankings.

Last spring we reported that the Philosophy Department at the University of Nevada, Reno was in danger of being eliminated due to severe budget cuts. Today, we have received word that the budget proposal approved by the Regents of the University at the June 17 meeting “did not include any reduction of faculty or elimination of programs in the Department of Philosophy.”

Deborah Achtenberg, Chair of the Department, has a letter expressing gratitude to all who spoke out in support of Philosophy at UNR. In the letter, she also outlines some of the initiatives and activities the Department is undertaking to continue to enrich the education of students and serve the interests of the University and the state of Nevada.

Read Deborah Achtenberg’s letter here.

We are very happy to hear this and join the Department of Philosophy at UNR in celebrating this good news.

We are very happy to announce the details of the 50th Anniversary SPEP Conference to be held in Philadelphia, October 19-22, 2011.

The 2011 SPEP Program is now available here.

We invite you to visit the Philosophy Documentation Center’s SPEP Conference Registration webpage to register for the 2011 conference in Philadelphia, pay your Annual Dues for the 2011-2012 Membership Year, and register for the 50th Anniversary Banquet Dinner.

Please note: to attend the conference you must pay BOTH conference registration fees and annual dues. If you would like to renew your membership or join SPEP without registering for the conference, please visit the Philosophy Documentation Center’s SPEP Membership webpage.

The 2011 50th Anniversary Conference will take place at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel: 1 Dock Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

This year the conference will start on Wednesday afternoon, October 19th.

We will have special anniversary sessions featured throughout the conference, culminating in a banquet dinner on Saturday evening, October 22nd followed by a reception featuring music and dancing.

All attendees are cordially invited to the banquet dinner on Saturday, October 22nd at 8:00 p.m. Please join us for a celebration of those who have participated and contributed to the success of SPEP in the last 50 years. Our banquet will include a brief program of acknowledgements, a piano concert by Michael Kim, a special menu created by Executive Chef Glen Matlack, and a complimentary selection of fine wines.

To register for the banquet dinner (cost is $60) and make your entrée selection, please visit the Philosophy Documentation Center’s SPEP registration page.

All attendees are invited to attend the après-dinner reception including dancing and cash bar at 10:00 p.m.

Room Reservations

Lodging for conference participants has been arranged at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel, One Dock Street (Second & Walnut Streets), Philadelphia, PA 19106. Phone: (215) 238-6000.

Ask for the SPEP room block or book directly online at our group reservations website: http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/SPEPconference2011.

• Conference rate: $175 (single & double); Additional Persons $20. Hotel includes fitness center, sauna, and indoor pool. Wi-Fi is complimentary in the lobby. The hotel is located adjacent to the waterfront and set within America’s most famous square mile, blocks from the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, world class restaurants, night clubs, theaters, and shopping.

Note: Room reservations must be made by 12:00 a.m. on September 26, 2011. Please mention the SPEP conference rate.

Graduate Student Accommodations

For information contact Laura McMahon at laura.mcmahon@villanova.edu.

Book Exhibit

All inquiries related to this year’s book exhibit should be directed to Rachel Aumiller, book exhibit coordinator (raumil01 (at) villanova.edu).

SPEP is pleased to congratulate long time member, Linda Alcoff, for her recent election as Vice-President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. After a year as Vice-President, she will become President of the APA in the 2012-13 academic year.

Linda Alcoff is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Her work focuses on social identity and race, epistemology, politics and violence, Foucault, and Latino Studies.  She has edited 9 volumes and written two books: Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self (Oxford 2006), Real Knowing: New Versions of the Coherence Theory (Cornell 1996).

She has served on the Executive Committee of the APA and as Co-director of SPEP. We wish her the best of success in her new position.