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Since its inception, the Social Philosophy and Policy Center has offered programs of unparalleled scope and quality for a philosophy-based public policy center. These programs have been recognized as outstanding by the philosophy profession at large, by scholars in this and related disciplines, and by the community of Bowling Green State University and its environs.
The major program areas are as follows:
The Journal, Social Philosophy & Policy, and the Cambridge University Press Books
The Center's journal, Social Philosophy & Policy, is now in its 25th year of publication, and is widely recognized as one of the three major political philosophy journals in the English-speaking world. Social Philosophy & Policy is overseen by its founding editors, Editor-in-Chief Ellen Frankel Paul and Associate Editors Fred D. Miller, Jr. and Jeffrey Paul, and an Editorial Board of distinguished scholars. Subsequent to each issue, a book version is published, with the rationale that with the thematic organization of the journal, a book version would be useful to scholars, to graduate students in their classes, and to a wider audience of trade book purchasers.
Book Series
The Center conducts an ambitious publication program that includes, in addition to the journal Social Philosophy & Policy, two book series: Studies in Social Philosophy and Policy, co-published with Transaction Publishers at Rutgers University and, with Cambridge University, and, with Cambridge University Press, a series ancillary to the journal. The Center's Deputy Director, Professor Ellen Frankel Paul, serves as editor-in-chief of both series, selecting the manuscripts to be published and working with the authors throughout the editorial and production processes.
In addition to the books in these series, there are a prodigious number of books by Center Visiting Scholars as well as books by the Center's directors and Senior Research Fellows. In recent years, books by Center-affiliated authors have been published by Harvard University Press, Oxford University Press, Princeton University, Edward Elgar, and Rowman and Littlefield, among others.
Conference Programs
The Center sponsors two conference programs, Scholarly Conferences and Interdisciplinary Campus Conferences. The Center's Scholarly Conference Program, inaugurated in 1982, is integral to its mission of addressing social policy issues from a moral and philosophical perspective. Through these conferences, the Center seeks to promote interdisciplinary, scholarly discussion among the leading social and moral philosophers, political scientists, historians, political theorists, economists, sociologists, scientists, and academic lawyers in the English-speaking world. Topics in social philosophy and public policy are controversial, and the Center's staff works diligently to ensure that a diversity of opinions is always represented by the speakers at the conferences, each of whom delivers a scholarly paper and then responds to questions in an hour-long session devoted to critiquing his or her work.
The Interdisciplinary Campus Conference program was established in 2003. These conferences are organized in cooperation with other departments at BGSU in order to enhance interdisciplinary relations on the BGSU campus, and are open to the university community and the general public.
Visiting Scholars Program
Conceived as an on-going commitment by the Center to bring to the Bowling Green State University philosophical community senior scholars of the highest repute, as well as promising junior faculty at the outset of their lives of scholarly productivity, the Visiting Scholars Program has expanded to include individuals from other disciplines who are addressing some of the same issues of social import as the philosophers, but who bring to the program their disparate disciplinary and methodological skills. This expansion has been made possible by the extension of the Center's reputation beyond the national and international philosophical community to include other fields, some closely related, others more distant.
Visiting Scholars are selected for their productivity, the attractiveness of their book proposals, the evaluations of external reviewers, and the prospects for publication of the books that they will write while in residence at the Center. Every effort is made to ensure that each visitor's time in residence is devoted almost exclusively to scholarly purposes. Stipends, offices, and secretarial and research assistance are provided to seven to ten scholars who are in residence annually. Appointments are typically for one term: either the fall or spring semester of the academic year, or for the summer term. Candidates may also be considered for academic year appointments, especially when they are on sabbatical. Click here for more information.
Colloquia and Lecture Series
The Center sponsors two lecture series: the Colloquia in Social Philosophy and Policy and the Lectures in Social Philosophy and Policy. The Colloquia series is part of the Visiting Scholars' contributions to the intellectual vibrancy of Bowling Green State University. This series introduces the audience to the research that scholars are conducting while in residence. The Lectures series features speakers who are brought to campus by the Center explicitly to present a lecture to the campus community. Lectures over the years have been conducted on a wide variety of topics, and have featured academics as well as journalists, policy activists, lawyers, and many others.
Senior Research Fellows Program
The Senior Research Fellows of the Social Philosophy and Policy Center are drawn from various departments on the BGSU campus and are appointed to one year renewable terms by the Center's directors. Each Senior Research Fellow attends Center functions, including conferences, colloquia, and lectures, but equally important, each serves in an advisory capacity to the Center's directors, recommending potential topics for conferences and nominating individuals for the Visiting Scholars program and for the Lectures in Social Philosophy and Policy series. Click here for more information.
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