Analyzing Catholic Philosophy
2015 Annual ACPA Meeting
(8 October-October 11)

June Mailing: Submitting Papers for 2016 Meeting

Justice: Then and Now
2016 Annual ACPA Meeting

Guidelines for Submitting Papers for the ACPA Annual Meeting in the Fall of 2016

Deadline for Submissions: 1 March 2016. 

Please note that we now ask you to submit your paper electronically, as an email attachment. 

1) The theme of the 2016 meeting is “Justice: Then and Now.” However, papers on all topics are welcome.

2) Here is President Flannery's description of the topic:

We are pleased to invite you to San Francisco for the ACPA's 90th anniversary meeting, to be held in the autumn of 2016.  The theme of the meeting will be "Justice: Then and Now."  Many arguments and proclamations today, in both academic and political contexts, are made in the name of justice, and yet the meaning of the term as used and the presuppositions of its advocates are rarely made explicit.  The question "What is justice?" is, of course, an old one: Plato's Republic comes immediately to mind, as does the fifth book of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.  Answers to the question have been proposed by figures as diverse as Augustine and Machiavelli, Aquinas and Mill.  And in our own day, John Rawls's theory of justice sent many philosophers off in new directions—although often with an eye towards the past for inspiration and intellectual support.  Perennial subthemes of this entire debate include the relationship between justice and equality, between justice and positive law, justice and divine law, and justice and equity.  Papers for the meeting might consider justice within particular philosophical traditions: Augustinian, Thomistic, Franciscan, Jesuit, phenomenological, existentialist, analytic, etc. 

We cordially invite you to submit papers on any of these topics, or in any philosophical area, problem, controversy, school of thought, subfield, tradition, or method.

3) Papers must be received no later than 1 March 2016, at the following email address:  [email protected].

4) Submissions must be received through email. Please save your paper in Microsoft Word (.docx preferred) or PDF. (Other formats are not acceptable.) Send your paper as an email attachment to us at [email protected]. The text of your paper should not exceed 15 typed, double-spaced pages, 12 point (30 minutes reading time). The paper must begin with a short abstract (150 words), suitable for inclusion in the conference program. (The abstract will not be counted against the overall length of your paper.)

5) The format of the paper should be appropriate for blind reviewing, that is, nothing in the paper itself should reveal the author’s identity. (We will take care that your paper is not identifiable in the way it is saved by us, as blind review is one of the strengths of our conference papers and our proceedings.)

6)  In the body of your email, please include:

            Author’s name,

            University affiliation,

            Complete postal address,

            Home/cell phone number,

            Work phone number,

            Fax number,

            E-mail address that will be good from 2 April 2016 through 1 September 2016.

            (If you use more than one email address, please include all of them.)  

7) It is understood that, by submitting material for possible presentation at the 2016 Annual Meeting, authors agree that, should the paper be accepted for presentation at the Annual Meeting and publication in the annual Proceedings, they will deliver the paper in person at the 2016 ACPA Conference, and they agree to allow the ACPA to hold the copyright to their paper published in the Proceedings. If the paper is accepted, you will be asked to sign a publication agreement with us.

8) Those authors who wish to have their papers considered for the ACPA Young Scholar’s Award (scholars 35 years of age or younger, regardless of academic position, are eligible) should indicate as much in the body of their email.  

9) We will acknowledge receipt of your paper by email, shortly after it is submitted. If you do not hear from us within one week of submitting your paper, please contact us by email. Then between 1 and 15 July 2016, we will inform you if your paper has been accepted for the conference, and for publication in the ACPA Proceedings.  

10) If you would like to comment on a paper or to chair a session, please let the ACPA Secretary know by sending a separate e-mail to [email protected] or by writing to the ACPA’s National Office.  Be sure to provide your e-mail address, as well as your fax, home, and work telephone numbers, and your area of philosophical expertise.