Nathan Allen Shares Valuable Experience Presenting at the 2024 PPE Society Meeting

With support from the Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Nathan Allen, an M.A. student in the Department of Philosophy at Virginia Tech, shares his experience presenting at the 2024 PPE Society Meeting in New Orleans.

Nathan, can you tell us about your experience at the Eighth Annual PPE Society Meeting in New Orleans?

Sure! It was really great. The PPE Society Meeting was actually my first conference where as a presenter. So, as you can imagine, I was a little nervous. But, it turns out that PPE brings in the best sorts of people. My presentation was on the first day and I was on a session entitled “Children’s Rights: Theoretical Investigations.” I was joined by two other excellent philosophers. In addition to my session, I was asked to moderate another session, which was a fun experience. The best part of the conference was meeting new people and having spirited conversations about what each of us were interested in. A lot of the conference was about networking, which I enjoyed. Overall, everyone I met was really approachable and the experience was overwhelmingly positive.

How did you learn about this opportunity and what interested you in pursuing it?

I had known about the PPE Society Meeting from seeing it on several C.V.’s of philosophers. The opportunity to present was mostly orchestrated by philosopher Connor Kianpour who also works on children’s rights research. Mostly, all I had to do was revise my paper a bit and write an abstract. Some PPE research is on applied topics, which is great for someone like me who often works on applied issues. I should also note that, if you are familiar with what the Kellogg Center at Virginia Tech does, then you already have a good idea of what happens at the PPE Society Meeting.

Can you provide us with some information about the paper you presented and the review and approval process?

When I applied to M.A. programs in philosophy, I needed a writing sample (which is standard requirement for applying to humanities graduate programs). This paper came out of that. It is called “Kant and the Rights of Infants.” The gist of the paper is this:

Kant tells us that everything in the universe is a person or a thing. Persons have dignity, things have a price.  Therefore, persons can use things however they see fit. Crucially, persons are persons because they have and can exercise rational capacities. So, if you cannot do that, you are a thing. Herein lies the problem: if you have ever been around an infant, you know that they are far from rational! So, to keep from having to accept the conclusion that infants are things and you can use them however you want (which is a really bad conclusion!), I use some contemporary theory about Kant and animals from Kant scholar Christine Korsgaard to show that we can maintain that infants are not persons but nevertheless are “ends-in-themselves” (another common Kant term). That is basically what my paper is about.

As for the review process, sometimes people will submit standalone abstracts and then reviewers will try to group the accepted papers together according to some theme. Or, you can ask other academics you know (or know of) if they would be interested in being together on a panel about some topic. That is what I did. Then, the reviewers will review each abstract. If there is one they do not like, then the whole panel gets rejected. They seemed to be fond of my group’s panel proposal!

How did this event, and your presentation, help move you forward in your academic career and/or research?

More than anything the event helped with my confidence and professional skills. A lot of career progress, not just in academia, is really about practicing being the person you want to be. It is not about faking it as much as understanding that there are qualities that you would like to possess and acting the part until you actually have those qualities (a very Aristotelian thing to say). For example, I used to be incredibly shy. The confidence I have now, presenting my own research, did not come from just eventually being confident or being divinely inspired (a very Platonic thing to say). I truly believe that I just imagined what a confident person does (or emulated someone) and tried things out. I like to present in front of people now whereas as an undergraduate I just did it because I wanted to be a person who liked to present and was good at it. Practice being the person you want to be!

Beyond this, it was also just great to network with other academics and get feedback on my work!

Do you have any final remarks for other students who may be interested in exploring similar opportunities?

I know this may sound obvious, but just apply for opportunities. There are many conferences geared towards undergraduates and graduates. And even the ones that are not, still often accept work from promising students. Again, if you want to be a [insert your profession], do the things that you know those professionals do! Start somewhere to end somewhere. Ask professionals in the field you are interested in what they do. Then do that. I think most people are under the impression that there is a natural progression that just happens in careers. I tend to think that does not really work for most people. If you are interested in academia, you need to chat with academics in the particular discipline you are interested in. Asking your professors (perhaps at the Kellogg Center!) about graduate school, journals, conferences, grants, etc. will be so helpful for you as a student. They have already done what you wish to do and so they can be a great resource.

(Photo credit Nathan Allen – Used with Permission)