Previous Organizational Meetings

his is a brief report of the meeting held in March 1998 in St.Pete Beach/St. Petersburg of representatives of programs in Social Theory/Social & Political Thought/Cultural Studies.

Representatives of Programs at Warwick, York (Canada), Kentucky, Arizona, South Florida, and Humboldt (Berlin) met for two days. We discussed the fact that a significant number of programs already exist. 

After a useful discussion of the structure of various programs, which revealed striking similarities, as well as some differences, we discussed the question of how to develop the area. We agreed, essentially, that a field-- post disciplinary, transdisciplinary, the right term is not clear-- had emerged that was not reducible to any existing discipline. It was also agreed that there were things we could and should begin to do to develop the field through an organization.

We agreed on the following 2 key steps:
1. To write a letter to the programs we can identify that would be relevant, enlisting their co-operation and participation.
2. To hold a meeting -- understood as an organizing conference -- in June of 1999 including workshops directly on some of the adminstrative issues that constitute common concerns for these program and scholarly presentations, preferably with some headliners.
We agreed to hold open for discussion at this meeting and elsewhere such questions as what to call ourselves.

In addition, we plan to begin to promote the idea of social theory broadly construed as a coherent field of study, create a common web page with an invitation to link program web pages, make connections with journals in the domain, and develop "social theory" in this sense as a more coherent category for publishers to deals with.

Marv Waterstone has agreed to work on a draft letter to programs based on this agenda, and to identify relevant Cultural Studies Programs. J.P. Jones will work on the problems of hosting a conference, and to establish a listserv for the "Consortium." We plan to continue to keep in touch, and invite your participation in the discussion.

The meeting was very productive, and it is clear that beginning with programs and groups is a good way to start. A quite large group of people, world wide, is associated with these programs.

Stephen Turner
Department of Philosophy
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
CPR 107
Tampa, FL 33620
(813)974-5549
http://www.cas.usf.edu/philosophy/index.html

a) A listserv for programs and the concerns of the consortium now exists: please contact Stephen Turner at the link below for more information.
b) A letter was sent to programs that were identified in 1999. If you have a program that was not contacted, please contact us at the link below.
c) A Conference is scheduled for May 2000: Social Theory 2000. Information and links are available on the opening page for the consortium at socialtheory.org.
We want your participation and input!