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March 27, 2009   
SUNY ONEONTA TO OFFER FOURTEENTH ANNUAL UNDERGRADUATE PHILOSOPHY CONFERENCE

ONEONTA, N.Y. -- The SUNY College at Oneonta will present its fourteenth annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference on Friday, April 17, and Saturday, April 18, in the Morris Conference Center on campus. The event attracts talented student and faculty speakers from a broad spectrum of colleges and universities throughout the United States. Admission to all presentations in the conference is complimentary, and members of the community are invited to attend.

This year's conference will feature keynote speaker Thomas E. Jackson, Director of the Philosophy in the Schools Project, a joint effort of the University of Hawaii and the Hawaii State Department of Education. Assisted by Philosophy graduate students, Dr. Jackson works in public school classrooms in Hawaii and internationally, helping teachers and their students develop intellectually safe classrooms where topics that arise out of their interests are pursued in philosophically responsible ways. Dr. Jackson's keynote address, which will take place on April 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Craven Lounge, is entitled "Children, Philosophy, and the Loss of Wonder: Who's responsible? What's to be done?"

Conference activities will begin in the Craven Lounge at 9:30 Friday morning with sessions titled "Love, Death and Absurdity in Existentialist Literature" and "Metaphysics, Mysticism and Mental Causation." Each session will feature papers by two to three students as well as extensive discussion with others.

Throughout the conference, presentations will explore traditional areas of philosophy such as ethics, metaphysics, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of science. Other presenters will explore controversial issues such as voluntary amputation, the ethical treatment of animals, and the existence of God.

At 11:15 a.m. on Friday, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Ashok Malhotra will conduct a yoga session to introduce students to the discipline and help create a relaxed atmosphere for the sessions to come.

Conference sessions on Saturday will begin at 9:30 a.m. with panels on "Political Revolution" and "Philosophy of Mathematics."

In all, the conference will feature 28 papers presented by students from colleges and universities throughout North America, ranging from Massachusetts to California and Alaska to Hawaii. All presenters were selected by blind review.

Four students from SUNY Oneonta were selected as presenters for this year's conference:
Angela Hotaling, who will present "Camus and the Absurdity of Existence in ‘Waiting for Godot'"; James R. Jones, "Roquentin Persistence"; Brian Miller, "The Illusion of Choice"; and Jeremy Redlien, "What Does it Mean to Define?"

The conference will conclude with an awards banquet on Saturday afternoon. For several years, the proceedings of the SUNY Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference have been collected and published by Oneonta Philosophy Studies. The conference is sponsored by Oneonta Philosophy Studies, the Philosophy Club, Student Association, and Ninash Foundation.

More information about the conference is available from Distinguished Teaching Professor Dr. Douglas Shrader of the SUNY Oneonta Philosophy Department at (607) 436-2690. A preliminary conference program and abstracts of accepted papers are available at the conference's web site at www.oneonta.edu/pc

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For more information about the College, please call the Community Relations Office at (607) 436-2748 or send e-mail to Carol Blazina, Vice President for Community Relations.   
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