Memphis Philosophy Conference

By Amanda Holmes

Over Spring Break, I went to Memphis, Tennessee to present a paper and attend an undergraduate philosophy conference at the University of Memphis. I went with two of the professors from the philosophy department and another undergraduate student, my friend Marcella Russo.

The conference was a lot of fun and I was able to attend several sessions of another philosophy conference that was going on at the University of Memphis where my professors were presenting their own work. Dr. Jason Aleksander presented a paper on Dante titled “Revelation’s Aporetic Authority in the Divine Comedy and Dante’s Defense of Philosophical Authority” and Dr. Arthur Morton presented a paper on Environmental Philosophy titled, “On Friendship and the Environment.” The opportunity to engage with my professors in discussions about their own work was helpful not only because it helped me to understand what kind of work they do but it helped me to see how philosophy papers are done at the professional level.

Presenting my own paper was a bit intimidating. I presented my thesis titled, “Subversive Spinoza?: Radical Democracy in Spinoza’s Political Thought.” There were roughly 20 people at my presentation. Public speaking has never been something I am very comfortable with but I was able to read my paper and respond to the questions at the end of my presentation with relative ease.

Spending the weekend in Memphis was also a lot of fun. We stayed in the heart of the downtown area and so at night we went to a few blues clubs with some other conference attendees.

I engaged in a personal endeavor to count the number of times we came across an image of Elvis because he is everywhere there. By the end of the trip, I counted at least 80.

Amanda Holmes is a senior philosophy major from Atlanta, GA. She is vice president of the Philosophy Club. Consideration for the student bloggers is provided by Saint Xavier University.