Conference Overview

Well over 125 papers will be presented by scholars from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and South and North America.  The program features four plenary lectures from senior scholars who represent a range of academic disciplines and methodological approaches.  Please read more about our distinguished plenary speakers and their ISUS lectures here.  [Plenary Overview]

Conference panels will provide an intellectual feast of original research, covering virtually all aspects of utilitarian moral and political theory, and the development of utilitarianism and its connections with other speculative traditions.  Panels on ethics and moral philosophy will explore recent contributions and debates within contemporary utilitarianism; the leading critiques and varieties of utilitarianism; forms and limits of consequentialism; and utilitarianism in relation to theories of rights, justice, welfare and equality.  More historically orientated panels will consider the central figures in the utilitarian canon – including Bentham, Mill and Sidgwick – along with less familiar theorists and legacies.  Panels also will be devoted to the relationship – historical and conceptual – between utilitarianism and leading disciplinary formations, such as economics, psychology and aesthetics.  Another set of panels will engage utilitarianism’s role in the evaluation of key institutional practices of the modern state, such as democracy, international law and criminal justice.

The final conference program and schedule will be assembled in late-summer and posted on this web site.  A preliminary schedule follows.

Conference Schedule Overview

The conference will begin mid-morning on Thursday, September 11, and close mid-day on Sunday, September 14.  Below is a provisional block schedule for the meeting, which is subject to revision.  A final schedule and detailed program of individual panels will be posted in late-summer.

September 11 Thursday
10:15 – 11:55               Panel sessions
12:00 –   1:00               Conference Lunch
  1:15 –   2:55               Panel sessions
  3:10 –   4:50               Panel sessions
  5:10 –   6:25               Plenary Lecture
  6:30 –   8:30               Hosted Welcome Reception

 

September 12  Friday
  9:00 – 10:40               Panel sessions
11:00 – 12:15               Plenary Lecture
12:15 –   2:00               Conference Lunch
  2:15 –   3:55               Panel sessions
  4:10 –   5:30               Plenary Lecture
  6:15                            Conference Dinner Dinks
  7:00                            Conference Dinner

September 13 Saturday
  8:45 – 10:25               Panel sessions
10:40 – 12:20               Panel sessions
12:30 –   2:00               Conference Lunch
12:30 –   2:00               ISUS Business meeting
  2:15 –   3:30               Conference Plenary
  3:45 –   5:20               Panel sessions

[open evening]

September 14 Sunday
  9:00 – 10:40               Panel sessions
10:55 – 12:40               Panel sessions