Семинар для преподавателей философии

Европейский гуманитарный университет приглашает преподавателей философии принять участие в семинаре в рамках проекта Ре-СЕТ.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Challenge Seminar “‘The Practical Turn’: Con-temporary Philosophy In and Beyond University” funded by OSI Higher Education Support Program.

The Seminar’s profile is development of a model of reflexive and innovative undergraduate teaching of philosophy, which is based on the current international scholarship. “The practical turn” within the post-metaphysical philosophical thinking implies the multidimensional “practi-cization” of philosophy; as a result, the field of “contemporary practical philosophy” extends far beyond its traditional domains of ethics and political philosophy and includes, in particular, structures of pre-reflective consciousness, intersubjective communication, and social-historical world; philosophical thinking transcends the boundaries of an academic discipline and becomes reactive to its cultural and social environments. Exploring of these fruitful implications of the “practical turn” interconnected with critical analysis of the present state of philosophy at the post-Soviet universities opens up a promising outlook on modernization of the undergraduate teaching of philosophy in the region.

The Seminar aims at: (a) increase of participants’ scholarly and teaching competencies; (b) co-operative development of the strategies of scholarly teaching in the areas of contemporary prac-tical philosophy; (c) dissemination of the Seminar’s experiences at the regional universities; (d) building of the regional network of advanced studies in contemporary practical philosophy.

Seminar’s duration – 2 years. In the first year (June 2008 – June 2009), the Seminar will concen-trate on the transformations of subject fields and modes of philosophical thinking which are en-gendered by the “practical turn” in the post-metaphysical philosophy, and on their implications for university teaching. In the second year (July 2009 – July 2010), the focus will be the issues related to the institutional implications of the “practical turn”; course and curricular development related to the areas of contemporary practical philosophy; interaction with the participants’ local academic environments.

Activities within the Seminar include: contact sessions (in Vilnius; the first session is planned to the period of August 17 – September 03, 2008), workshops at the participants’ home universities, and on-line communication. Working languages: English, Russian.

The Seminar’s host institution is European Humanities University, Belarus/Lithuania. The Semi-nar will interact with the Baltic Philosophy Network, which joins the universities from the Nor-dic and Baltic countries, and with the East-European Philosophic Initiative (Poland). The Semi-nar is a development of the previous HESP-ReSET Project in Communicative Philosophy (2003-2006).

The Seminar’s group will include resource faculty and regular participants (15 to 17 persons).

Resource faculty of the Seminar are:
Prof. Timo Airaksinen, University of Helsinki (core resource person)
Prof. Jurate Baranova, Vilnius Pedagogical University (core resource person)
Prof. Vladimir Fours, European Humanities University (academic director)
Dr. Ilya Inishev, European Humanities University (core resource person)
Prof. Hans Joas, University of Erfurt/University of Chicago (core resource person)
Prof. Tatiana Shchyttsova, European Humanities University (core resource person)
Interested university teachers of philosophy (in position of assistant or associate profes-sor/docent) from Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and the European part of Russia are invited to participate in the Seminar. The application documents include:

(a) Application form (in English; please provide the following information: name and sur-name, date of birth, citizenship/country of residence, highest academic degree, home uni-versity and your position in it, courses taught in philosophy, a short description of your prospective participation in the Seminar (appr. 300 words), command of the English lan-guage, contact information (e-mail, phone number, mailing address));
(b) CV (including a list of scholarly publications; in English);
(c) Statement of Purpose outlining your prospective participation in the Seminar (appr. 1000 words, in English or in Russian; in particular: describe your professional interests and state their relevance to the Seminar; identify your expectations from the collaborative work in the Seminar’s team and your personal contribution to it; proceeding from the problem situation at your home university, describe your own proposal aimed at the de-velopment of scholarly and innovative teaching in the field of contemporary practical philosophy);
(d) Sample writing relevant to the Seminar’s profile (scholarly article, essay, original course syllabus; in English or in Russian).

Submit application via e-mail to Yuliya Biedash, administrative director of the Seminar ([email protected]).
Application deadline is May 15, 2008. Incomplete applications are not considered.

The criteria of participants’ selection are:
(a) high level of professional skills;
(b) relevance of professional competencies and interests to the Seminar’s profile and aims;
(c) well-founded and promising proposal;
(d) good command of English.

The applicants will be informed about the results by June 15, 2008.

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