丁香园AV

by Tessa Whittle

What follows are three short interviews with graduate students who have organized and participated in extracurricular activities in the Philosophy department. I asked Celia Gentle about our Work in Progress talks, Gonzalo Ricaldi about philosophy reading groups, and Mukund Maithani about a writing group he ran this summer.

The philosophy graduate student community is small but tight knit, and I鈥檇 encourage anyone in the program to get involved to keep our current extracurriculars going, and start any events and activities that they want to see!

Hi Celia, can you tell me a bit about WIP talks in the 丁香园AV Philosophy department? Well first, what is a WIP talk?

It鈥檚 a work in progress talk. It鈥檚 a cute little space where grad students get to informally talk about something they are working on to get feedback from their fellow students and work through ideas. It is about a 30-minute talk followed by a 30-minute Q&A.

It can be used for all sorts of things. Lots of people use it to practice for their defence. In those cases, their paper is more or less done but the 鈥渋n progress鈥� bit is that they haven鈥檛 given it as a talk yet, so they can practice presenting and answering questions.  But it could be really a work in progress, like a half-fleshed-out term paper that you are still working on. I think fewer people use it for that, but in the summer, it got a little more loosey goosy, which was nice.

Yeah, when I did my work in progress it was mostly defence prep, and I remember thinking that getting those questions earlier would have saved me so much time working through it myself. You did a slightly more loosey goosy one this summer, right? How did that go?

My rock paper. Yeah, that was a term paper I wrote for a philosophy of science class, but it isn鈥檛 going to be my Pro Paper. I presented that one because I applied for a conference with it, and I wanted to refamiliarize myself with it. I wrote it so quickly, and talking about it made me realize how I could restructure it, and some key parts of the argument I wasn鈥檛 addressing well enough. It helped me see other directions I would need to look into to help me flesh the paper out more, which was helpful.

I鈥檓 glad to hear that. The summer ones have been great in general. What are the plans for the Fall?

I鈥檒l still be organizing it, but we will need new WIP organizers when I graduate in the winter or spring. This summer was nice because lots of people were attending, and we were holding them in the seminar room [which has a beautiful view]. Lots of people are around on Fridays, so I think that鈥檚 why people are coming. I hope that we can still do them in the seminar room in the fall, and that people keep showing up.

Me too, thanks Celia!

Hi Gonzalo! Can you tell me a bit about your involvement with reading groups in the department?

I was a part of the MAP reading group, which started last fall, and a small grad student epistemology reading group last spring. The MAP group was organized by Yanjie, who was the head of our MAP chapter at the time. That group is also open to faculty members, for instance Jenn Wang joined us when we were reading about Confucianism because she is interested in that topic.

What is MAP?

MAP stands for which is an organization with chapters at various universities. I first heard about it last summer when I was still in Peru. Yanjie sent an email out to our student accounts saying that there is a MAP chapter at 丁香园AV, but it had been inactive for a while, and he had the intention to pick it back up.

Basically, in the MAP chapter we try to engage in some philosophical activities related to minority groups within the field. So, for instance, last fall we read about That, along with Asian philosophy in general, is a less prevalent topic in the western tradition, so it seemed appropriate to discuss. We have also read things that have more to do with minority groups. For instance, in the spring we read the by , which is a book on social metaphysics and disability. It was really interesting actually. We managed to read the whole book.

What purpose do you think reading groups (MAP and otherwise) serve?

I would say that any reading group people decide to form is valuable because it gives you an opportunity do discuss things that you might not have a chance to in classes. For example, some people started the epistemology reading group in the fall to read more about .

When it comes to the MAP reading group specifically, I think that it鈥檚 important for us to try to keep those going because it is specifically targeted at topics that people don鈥檛 talk much about in our courses and in philosophy in general. I think that鈥檚 one of the most important things.

Interesting, so doing any sort of reading group is important to make sure your philosophical interests are served, but the MAP ones just highlight some underrepresented interests a bit more.

Yeah exactly.

That鈥檚 great. Do you have plans to continue with the MAP chapter in the fall? Any reading ideas already?

For the reading group last spring, we came up with a list of potential readings and then we voted for which one to read. So, I think for the fall we will use the same list or try to add more options for people to vote, and then we will decide what to read. Last fall the problem was that we didn鈥檛 have much attendance, so we will see how it goes in the coming semester. Usually since in the fall people are preparing for PhD applications, they have less time, that might have an impact.

Well, I hope it keeps going! Thanks Gonzalo!

Hi Mukund, can you tell me a bit about the writing group you ran in the summer?

This summer some grad students met every Friday at the department seminar room. The timing would sometimes change based on the WIP talks and people鈥檚 availability, but a few of us would just sit down for two hours or so and work on our individual stuff. We would have a timer going on the TV screen. We would also play some that Gavin introduced us to, like wave sounds, campfires, nuclear sirens鈥�

It was really cool because generally in the department when you have people around you, like in the common room, it is not a structured workspace. It is easy to get distracted. But at the writing group, when the 25-minute timer was going, we were all focused. Then on the five-minute breaks we would stand up and stretch or chat, but at the end of the breaks we were like 鈥渙kay, back to work.鈥� So that went really well.

That sounds really useful. What did people tend to use the space to work on? Was it only for writing papers?

When I started it, the idea was more formal and very writing driven, but people had lots of other things to work on, so it became a broader thing. Some people did focus on their Pro Papers or term papers, but some people also used it to do some TA work or their readings. We often started the meetings by asking  鈥渨here is everyone now with their projects?鈥� So that was helpful to keep people who were working on papers accountable. It鈥檚 nice to get a sense of what everyone is doing, and if you have to report on what you are working on, that鈥檚 motivating.

Why did you decide to organize the group?

Since this was my first summer, I was curious about how people spent their summers, so I asked people from the previous cohort. People were saying it can really depend on you how you spend your time. You can make it structured or unstructured. And I thought that if I spend that time with no structure, that wouldn鈥檛 be great. So I thought I would benefit from having this space, and did find it very helpful to have something attend every Friday to keep me on track.

That鈥檚 a very smart move. Now that the unstructured summer is over, do you think the group will continue?

That鈥檚 a bit up in the air right now. I think it is more of a challenge in the fall because people are busier, and there are more events going on. Friday was a good day for people generally in the summer, but that is when we hold PGC meetings, WIPs, lunches with colloquium speakers, and colloquia themselves, so that鈥檚 a bit tricky. I鈥檒l look at the department schedule and talk to people to see if there is any good time to get together.

Good luck, Mukund!