The Diverse Academy 12.-13.6.2025

The Diverse Academy Conference at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies,
Common Room, Fabianinkatu 24 A, 3rd Floor
12-13.6.2025

The theme of this year’s Erkko Conference is diversity in academia. The presentations will explore a variety of issues, including Institutional strategies for fostering inclusive professional learning environments, decolonising the philosophy curriculum; epistemic diversity in medicine and gender studies; the epistemic silencing of African women in philosophy; and the export of the European model of higher education to non-Western countries. The conference has a philosophical focus but we also have speakers from a variety of academic disciplines, including sociology, cultural studies and social anthropology – and we expect that many of the issues that arise in philosophy will apply much more broadly across academia.

Organised by Jane and Aatos Erkko Visiting Professor Helen Beebee.

Verkkosivut: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/diverse-academy/

Ohjelma: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/diverse-academy/program/

Ilmoittautuminen: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/diverse-academy/registration/

Ohjelma:

Perjantai 12.6.

9:45–10: Welcome

10:00–11:15: Louise Antony (UMass), ‘What if women just don’t like philosophy?’

11:15–11:45: Coffee/Tea Break

11:45–13:00: Abosede Priscilla Ipadeola (Hildesheim), ‘Challenging Intersectional Epistemic Silencing: African Women and the Question of Inclusivity in Philosophy’

13:00–14:00: Lunch Break

14:00–15:15: Helen Beebee & Annastiina Kallius (Helsinki), ‘Academic Mirror Worlds: Excluding the Right from Academic Discourse’

15:15–15:45 Coffee/Tea Break

15:45–16:30: Milja Saari (Research Council of Finland), TBA

16:30–17:15: Avishek Ray (NIT Silchar), ‘Decolonizing the university: Rethinking universalism in higher education’

17:15–: Reception

Lauantai 13.6.

10:00–11:15: Anne-Marie McCallion (Manchester Metropolitan University), ‘Is it possible to “decolonize” the philosophy curriculum?’

11:15–11:45: Coffee/Tea Break

11:45–13:00: Leonie Smith (University of Lancaster), TBA

13:00–14:00: Lunch Break

14:00–14:45: Shad Gilbert (University of Helsinki), ‘Two dangers of institutional cosmopolitanism’

14:45–15:30: Kaire Povilaitis (Tallinn University), ‘From Fragmentation to Cohesion: The Role of Academic Developers in Supporting Diversity’

15:30–16:00: Coffee/Tea Break

16:00–16:45: Elina Oinas (University of Helsinki), ‘Epistemic diversity and aspirations for relevance – ideals in North-South collaborations in medicine and gender studies’

16:45–: Final words