PES conference reflections
“The Future of the Future”
Originally published March 24, 2025
I'm back from my trip to Baltimore, where I attended my first Philosophy of Education Society conference. I presented a paper based off my dissertation--first conference presentation since becoming a doctor! 😎
My paper
I was both very nervous and not nervous, having presented at many conferences over the last 10 years, and this was really just me reading my paper, so not even a “presentation” in the sense that I had slides or anything. BUT nervous because this was a new-to-me crowd and I was still feeling student-ish.
My paper session was in the first time slot of the first day, so a little bit of pressure in that not everyone was in town yet, so I told myself I would be happy if one person I didn’t already know showed up. But it ended up being a good sized crowd! The young woman who wrote a response, from Teachers College at Columbia University, did a nice job of not making it feel like a scathing rejoinder, while bringing up some legitimate questions and concerns, which made for a good discussion with the audience*. I’m looking forward to seeing it published later this year in the PES journal.
From L to R: my respondent, Sara Hardman (Teachers College); me; and our session chair, Debby Kerdemen (University of Washington)
I met a number of amazing scholars and great people in general! Made new friends from around the world, met a couple people in person I had only talked to virtually, and even got to chat with someone I admire and who I cited (often) in my dissertation. I was exposed to so many different aspects of philosophy of education (who knew!?) and came away with a HUGE reading list, of course. The best part was the feeling of coming home, intellectually. Even when I wasn’t 100% sure of all of the references and details of a talk, I instinctively felt like “these are my people.”
I’ve never been to Baltimore before, so I made sure to take time away from the conference itself to explore! My first night I found a cute little bar and had a fabulous crab cake sandwich (of course!). I checked out the harbor, had amazing food, and explored Fells Point and Federal Hill.
If you want to see some of the photos I took (not nearly enough people!)-->PES Baltimore photos
Seven Ideas
When I was an undergrad at Kent State (seems like a million years ago!), there was an incredible class called Seven Ideas that Changed the World. So in honor of that (and because I’m just a dork), I figured I’d pick 7 ideas that I’ve taken away from the weekend—that may not have necessarily changed me, but that I’ve picked up on somehow and may lead to more thinking/reading/writing. I’m putting them down here as much for myself to be able to integrate while writing about and so that I can come back to them.
- Something that came up in the discussion in my paper session was the concept of “good”—yes, a heady one for sure, and one that philosophers have debated for, well, ever. There are so many ways to think about what it is “good”—good for individuals, good for society, good for the environment, etc. And everyone’s concept of who or what is most important in those questions can also differ wildly. I’m especially interested in the connections between “good” and “love” and then love and honesty, especially in terms of education. One participant suggested Thomas J. Oord’s work on love. I am especially interested in Black feminist theories on love, which is one reason I picked up bell hooks’ All about Love at the bookstore attached to Stem & Vine, where the reception for the conference was held.
- I met a wonderful colleague, Len, who was kind enough to sit down and suggest a whole reading list for me (suggested readings are my intellectual love language! lol)
- In a Works in Progress session (where authors talk about works that aren’t quite finished, to get more insights and discussion), I heard a little about impasse pedagogy, about Halberstam’s Queer Art of Failure, trying to decenter futurity (something I’ve been thinking a lot about!), and the concept of who is “allowed” to fail. In that same session, but about another work, I am swiping the concept and phrase “carving a path through the scholarship.” {It turns out that a lot of the notes I took are just lovely turns of phrase that I wanted to admire and remember.}
- Another session started me thinking, and then talking to Natasha (my amazing dissertation advisor), about disrupting the idea of “intergenerational” and basically the fluidity of what we mean by “generation” in philosophy of education, because for authors such as Arendt, it has a very specific meaning, but is more complicated now. This may turn into a paper…
- I have a lot of notes from a very interesting and lively session about the “productivity” of motherhood and intellectual work of mothers. This is something I have always been interested in, especially as someone who has been a student, a teacher, and a scholar while mothering, and who likes to push back on society’s assumptions about mothering (done by whomever is doing it—mothering is not necessarily gendered, imho), and who is inherently philosophical about much of my life. And of course, more potential reading: Alison Gopnik’s The Philosophical Baby, Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Lisa Baraitser.
- One of the best sessions for me was an amazing collection of young women who presented a session called “Beyond the Future: Education as a Radical Act of Presence using Black Feminist Epistemologies.” Even if all I took from their work was the idea of “radical acts of presence” I would have been happy, but I took 2 pages of notes and of course more works to read! As I’m looking at them now, I’m seeing a nice connection with my earlier note about futurity and my note from this session about seeing the future not as a distant goal, but as constantly emerging. I really appreciated the idea of being “an ancestor in training,” acknowledging the important place of not only our ancestors, but ourselves as future ancestors and the role we play in laying new foundations (or tearing them up, as the case may need to be). There was so much more, but I think my thoughts about this session may turn into a whole thing in and of itself, which will likely then become shoots that propagate other things. [My reminder to go back and read more Deleuze & Guattari]
- Another very informative and thought-provoking session was one called “We Carry Each Other Forward: The importance of others in making meaning in the digital future”— where a big idea was how do we engage well with technology in education, where it is all too easy to forget and overlook our messy humanness and the chaotic nature of learning. To remember to include the “practice of the imperfect” and remind ourselves and our students about the value of discomfort and process in engagement with one another and new ideas.
There really was so much more to this trip—riding the train, which is always lovely and thoughtful; meeting new people and making new friends (hi Chris!); feeling like I was part of a community of like-minded folks from all over the world (hi Ivan!), which is nice to have a few days of not feeling like a total weirdo in the world; and being intellectually (and soulfully) revitalized—that is so much more difficult to communicate and personally satisfying. Considering it took me 2 weeks just to manage to get this written, I’m sure the impact of those few days will last for so much longer than I can imagine right now.
Big thanks to my dissertation advisor, mentor, and all-around cool person Natasha, to Tyson Lewis for taking time to chat with me and giving me reading suggestions when I asked (and another cool person), to everyone who made the conference happen and those who presented their work.
*For those who aren't familiar with the academic philosophy setup (I wasn't!), each paper has a "response," where someone else writes a shorter paper about the presented one and they both are read at the session. Then I got a few minutes to say something in response to the response (I got a copy beforehand), and then the chair of the session opens it up for comments and questions.