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Breakout Session 1
9:30 am
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Breakout Session 2
10:30 am
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Breakout Session 3
11:30 am
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What is Religion?
with Dr. Matthew Hotham
If someone asked you to define religion, you might start by listing examples of major world religions. Or, you might describe central elements of your own religious tradition. But, what if you encountered a community, practice, object, or text “in the wild” and had to determine whether it was religious or not? How would you do so? In this session we will try to answer the question “what is religion, anyway?” through examining popular definitions of religion and applying them to complex and borderline cases like the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. We may not come to a firm definition by the end of the session, but we will gain some insight into how others have tried to answer this question and learn to identify what makes some definitions more useful than others.
Dr. Matthew Hotham
Dr. Matthew R. Hotham [Hoe-Thumb] is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Ball State where he teaches on Islam, The Qur‘an, World Religions, as well as advanced seminars on Animals and Religion, Religion, Colonialism and Modernity, and Islamic Mysticism. His research and teaching focus on embodied, affective, and material approaches to the study of religion. His classes incorporate role-playing, case studies, music, scents, religious objects, and visits to the David Owsley Museum of Art to encourage students to think about religions as lived and living traditions that invite a diversity of embodied human engagements and responses. In his free time he writes poetry and travels.
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Desert vs Utility
with Dr. David W. Concepción
Participants in this session will make decisions about how scarce life-saving resources should be distributed. If all people have an equal right to life, but only some people can be saved, should a person who partially caused their life threatening illness not be treated so a more innocent person can be? Does it matter how many children the sick person has depending on them? Desert based accounts of distributive justice will be contrasted with consequentialist accounts.
Dr. David W. Concepción
David W. Concepción is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Ball State University. Dave grew up in Berkeley, CA, but for some reason people think he is from Maine. He teaches ethics classes and leads BSU students in the production of Stance. He writes about teaching, especially diversity and inclusion. He is on the board of directors of the American Philosophical Association. His dogs “Pig” and “Gillis,” think he spends too much time away from home.
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Who Am I Really?
with Emma Hamilton
If you’re obsessed with taking personality tests and thinking introspectively… attend this session!! We will explore questions like: What aspects of you make up your identity? Does who you are change with time? How can you know who you truly are? Come ready to discuss different theories of how our identity is created, how we might be able to measure it, how it might adapt to our circumstances, and how it impacts the way we navigate our lives.
Emma Hamilton
Emma Hamilton is a sophomore philosophy and secondary English education double major from Westfield, Indiana.
If she were a plant, she would really like to be a cactus because she really wishes that she could be that low maintenance. She also really likes the fact that if Pinnochio were to say “My nose will grow now,” it would create a paradox. She really wishes she could have sat in on the jury deliberations during O.J. Simpson’s trial because, really, how did he get acquitted? Instead of using a watch or a clock, she would really like her internal monologue to just tell her what time it was whenever she needed to know.
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The Philosopher's Toolbox
with Emily Fuher and Samuel Owens
When philosophers need to explain a thought or theory, many will turn to the thought experiment. From Mary the scientist to trolly problems, a philosopher will use these tools to help explain their point of view or to challenge others. Join us for a quick round of philosophical thinking with everyday thought experiments that will puzzle the mind and get you thinking!
Emily Fuher and Samuel Owens
Emily is a senior at Ball State majoring in Philosophy and History with a minor in Film/Screenwriting. With future career plans to work in labor law or public interest law.
If Emily could be a plant, she would be an orchid because it’s expensive and hard to manage but very beautiful. Emily, we don’t think you’re hard to manage!! But her alter-ego fictional character sounds a little different – it’s a mix between Eeyore and Dewey from Malcom in the Middle. I don’t know if this argument is logically consistent, but I haven’t taken the logic class yet. As for Emily’s positions on philosophical schools, she’s always been pretty skeptical of skepticism. Right there with ya, Emily.
Sam is a senior at Ball State majoring in Philosophy.
What’s prickly, hearty, and can grow flowers? Samuel Owens, if he could be a plant. And he hails from Greensburg, Indiana, which he compares to ramen — easy to have in your life but could definitely make you sick if you have too much. Have you ever been to Sweet Awesome Shenanigans Game Store? Yeah, none of us have either…But we hear you could find Sam there casting spells and gaming there in high school.
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"Clueless" About Race? Hint: The Answer Isn't "Gone with the Wind"
with Cierra Tindall, Destanee Griffin, and Kayla Smith
From Hollywood to your hometown, race is a part of our lives. No, not the Indy 500 kind of race…we’re talking about the kind that might be an avoided topic at Thanksgiving dinner. At least with that one uncle. We get it, race can be a tricky subject, but it is something that we need to think about. In this session, participants will do just that– we will identify racial tropes and stereotypes in media, explore the concept of race, and learn about key theories in the philosophy of race.
Cierra Tindall, Destanee Griffin, and Kayla Smith
Cierra is a junior at Ball State majoring in Legal Studies & Philosophy with a minor in Political Science. With future plans to become an attorney.
“Living young and wild and free.” -Wiz Khalifa
Who knew Cierra and Wiz went way back?! She truly was living life backstage at his concerts. Must have been out of this world! Speaking of out of this world and extraterrestrials, Area 51 makes her feel some type of way. Maybe in another life she will return back as a fly to spy on all that goes on over there. If not a little fly, maybe a beautiful lotus flower. How serene!
Destanee is a junior at Ball State majoring in Criminal Justice Criminology and Philosophy. With hopes to become a juvenile probation officer in the future.
Imagine if singer/songwriter Pitbull were a squirrel. He would be responsible for planting thousands of trees worldwide. How did we come up with the logical explanation for this one? No idea. Destanee doesn’t know either, as it seems she only understands 2% of logic in philosophy. Maybe she will stick with collecting cookie cutters instead.
Kayla is a senior majoring in Telecommunications with a minor in Marketing & African American Studies. With future plans to find a full time job working in social media management/ strategy after graduation.
Kayla’s mother deserves an award. She delivered her alone in her apartment. We’re thankful for her because that means we have Kayla in our lives! She is a healing presence, and that’s likely why the plant she identifies with is aloe vera. And when asked what food her hometown would be, she compared Indy to a donut hole – a little sweet spot with country all around it.
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Nietzsche on Bad Art & Good Junk Entertainment
with Dr. Chris Davidson
Popular or “low” entertainment (movies, video games, memes, pop music, TV) is often violent, sexist, and juvenile—and so too is plenty of fancy “high art” (paintings, opera, Shakespeare). Why are so many of our favorite stories, high and low, about nasty things we avoid in real life? Is there perhaps something positive about consuming negative content?
Dr. Chris Davidson
Dr. Davidson works on ethics, philosophy of art, and politics. These tough issues require us to discover what is good and bad. They also ask us to find practical ways of getting more of the good and less of the bad for ourselves and others.
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What is Religion?
with Dr. Matthew Hotham
If someone asked you to define religion, you might start by listing examples of major world religions. Or, you might describe central elements of your own religious tradition. But, what if you encountered a community, practice, object, or text “in the wild” and had to determine whether it was religious or not? How would you do so? In this session we will try to answer the question “what is religion, anyway?” through examining popular definitions of religion and applying them to complex and borderline cases like the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. We may not come to a firm definition by the end of the session, but we will gain some insight into how others have tried to answer this question and learn to identify what makes some definitions more useful than others.
Dr. Matthew Hotham
Dr. Matthew R. Hotham [Hoe-Thumb] is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Ball State where he teaches on Islam, The Qur‘an, World Religions, as well as advanced seminars on Animals and Religion, Religion, Colonialism and Modernity, and Islamic Mysticism. His research and teaching focus on embodied, affective, and material approaches to the study of religion. His classes incorporate role-playing, case studies, music, scents, religious objects, and visits to the David Owsley Museum of Art to encourage students to think about religions as lived and living traditions that invite a diversity of embodied human engagements and responses. In his free time he writes poetry and travels.
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Deckard & Rachel Sitting In a Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First Comes Love, Then Comes. . .
with Dr. Kevin Miles
Once upon a time there was a fictional character named Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Captain Kirk had a ‘flip phone,’ a tool for wireless communication that really seemed, at the time, only imaginable, at least to a ten-year-old, in a world of science fiction. Science fiction once had a way of projecting possibilities that seemed, if not unlikely, at least as belonging to a future so distant as to suggest they probably would not happen in the lifetime of the person identifying them as science fiction. This discussion will entertain itself with the science fiction scenarios that could quite reasonably become as ubiquitous as wireless communication, namely, a human being falling in love with something “artificial.” We will discuss philosophical, ethical, and political implications suggested in films such as Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and Her. What are we to think about the romantic relations depicted in these films? Is Loving v. Virginia (1967) instructive? Does Freud’s “Uncanny” give us a way to think about these films?
Dr. Kevin Miles
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Where Did Morality Come From?
with Dr. David W. Concepción
Is there morality? If so, does someone make it? If so, who makes it? Participants in this session will evaluate the comparative strengths of meta-ethical nihilism, objectivism, and many forms of constructivism.
Dr. David W. Concepción
David W. Concepción is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Ball State University. Dave grew up in Berkeley, CA, but for some reason people think he is from Maine. He teaches ethics classes and leads BSU students in the production of Stance. He writes about teaching, especially diversity and inclusion. He is on the board of directors of the American Philosophical Association. His dogs “Pig” and “Gillis,” think he spends too much time away from home.
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So Why Exactly is it Mother Earth?
with Dr. Sarah Vitale
We’ve all heard our planet referred to as “mother earth.” It may not strike you as odd. But it doesn’t stop there. Hurricanes used to be given mostly female names. So what is the relationship between women or femininity and the more-than-human or natural world? In this session, participants will consider this relationship between women and nature and then learn about some key theories of ecofeminism, a branch of feminism that combines the struggle for women’s rights with ecological goals.
Dr. Sarah Vitale
Dr. Sarah Vitale is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Ball State University. She teaches classes on social institutions, contemporary philosophy, and critical theory. Her research focuses on Marx and post-Marxism, as well as contemporary feminism and gender studies. She is Co-Editor of the Radical Philosophy Review, the journal of the Radical Philosophy Association. Dr. Vitale started the Ball State Philosophy Outreach Program in the spring of 2016, and it has been one of the highlights of her life in Indiana. When she is not doing philosophy at Ball State or at a high school somewhere in Indiana, she is likely watching TV with her cat Lucy or planning a trip to a far-off land.
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How Did You DO That? Thoughts on the Mind-Body Problem
with Dr. Jeff Fry
One of the vexing problems in the history of philosophy is the “mind-body problem.” One aspect of this problem concerns whether minds exert causal influence on the physical world. This presentation explores this fascinating issue.
Dr. Jeff Fry
Jeff Fry is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Ball State University. His current research interests lie at the intersection of the philosophy of sport, the philosophy of mind, neurophilosophy, and ethics. He once went ten consecutive years without missing a day of running at least two miles a day.
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Nietzsche's Guide to Becoming Human
with Dr. Jason Powell
The nineteenth-century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, provided a fascinating examination of what it means to be a fully thriving and flourishing human being. Join us as we assess his definition of humanness and see whether it is still relevant today.
Dr. Jason Powell
Jason is an intellectual historian whose concentration is the history of philosophy and literature. He has taught courses on Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard, and has written on these subjects for his book, Becoming the Lost Generation. In the spirit of Kierkegaard, Jason named his son Søren, who is a junior at Ball State University.
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Making the Most of Life During a Pandemic
with Dr. Rachel Fredericks
Applied ethics is all about figuring out how to make good tradeoffs in the real world: balancing what is good for me against what is good for other people, balancing what is good today against what will be good in the future, balancing the value of freedom and the value of security, and the list goes on and on. We have to make tough decisions (whether we want to or not, whether we realize it or not) because there is no way to ensure that 100% of the people get 100% of what they want 100% of the time. In this session, we’ll put our knowledge of that unfortunate fact to work in doing a series of short activities designed to help us work toward making good (ethically justifiable) tradeoffs between different values during the COVID-19 pandemic (and beyond).
Dr. Rachel Fredericks
When prompted to describe herself in one word, Dr. Rachel Fredericks chooses “curious.” Her research & teaching interests are all over the place within the general category of ethics (or, if you prefer, moral philosophy – just like Chidi from The Good Place, but with less indigestion). She does work relating to concrete issues in environmental and climate ethics, biomedical ethics, justice, the morality of various emotions (like jealousy and awe), and a bunch of other, abstract stuff that most people find boring. She also loves swimming and eating popcorn.
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Is a philosophy major useless in 2021? (Spoiler Alert: It isn't)
with Will Misback
In this session, I examine why philosophy is one of the best majors for prospective entrepreneurs. To do so, I highlight the skills taught during the course of a philosophy major that benefit an entrepreneur’s efficacy, providing examples of times I have used each of these skills in my business. In the second portion of the session, we shift our focus to the topic of ethics in business, examining the valuable prescriptive insights Utilitarian Ethics provides to actors in capitalist economies.
Will Misback
Will is an entrepreneur who received a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh in 2018. He currently is building A Posteriori Coffee Co,
an online coffee vendor which donates 20% of the profits it generates selling roast-to-order, fair-trade coffee to pre-college and public philosophy nonprofits. -
Boom! Bang! Pow!: The Avengers' Ethics
with Sam Seifert, Samuel Owens, and India Garner
Earth’s mightiest heroes all have ethical rules that they follow. We are examining the ethics involved in Marvel’s original Avengers. Heroes and villains alike do what they believe is right for their people. Does this mean it’s morally right? This discussion will help you think about what it means to live by the standard of a super! We will consider the ethical systems of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, the Hulk, the Falcon, Red Skull, and Loki.
Sam Seifert, Samuel Owens, and India Garner
Sam Seifert is a sophomore from Frankfort, Indiana (home of the Hot Dogs!), with a double major in criminal justice and psychology.
If Sam were a fictional character, she would be Ava Sharpe from Legends of Tomorrow, who always follows the rules and likes it when things are clear cut, and, while she hates to admit it, she vibes with that. When she’s not watching Legends of Tomorrow, she likes to watch chiropractor videos on YouTube. She also thinks that if she were a plant, she would probably be a weed, because once you’ve spotted her, she’s really hard to get rid of.
Sam is a senior at Ball State majoring in Philosophy.
What’s prickly, hearty, and can grow flowers? Samuel Owens, if he could be a plant. And he hails from Greensburg, Indiana, which he compares to ramen — easy to have in your life but could definitely make you sick if you have too much. Have you ever been to Sweet Awesome Shenanigans Game Store? Yeah, none of us have either…But we hear you could find Sam there casting spells and gaming there in high school.
India is a senior at Ball State majoring with Child Life & Child Development with a minor in Ethics. With the future plan to become a Certified Child Life Specialist.
Put some googly eyes and fake eyelashes onto a Venus fly trap and that’s your girl India G! She will dance the day away with her roots firmly planted in the ground, but at night those voluminous lashes come off and she’s ready to tuck in for the night and be the little spoon. If you ever want her to be the big spoon, you’ll need to sign a waiver or else you will be caught in her grasp for life. Good luck getting rid of her!
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