"Reclaiming the World: the Future of Objectivity," University of Toronto, May 23-24, 2008.

The notion of objectivity has come under severe criticism due to developments in the humanities and in the sciences. These criticisms have profound ramifications for how we understand the world, and for how we understand the nature of our own intellectual work. How do we move forward? Should we give up looking for understandings of the world that are dispassionate, a-political, and/or neutral? Or is there some other way of achieving detachment and dispassion, for example, that avoids problems inherent in our classical understanding of objectivity? If neither, what should inspire confidence in our accounts of the world? This interdisciplinary conference will explore the prospects of forging a new and tenable epistemology—one that does justice to the critiques of objectivity, but retains allegiance and accountability to a larger world. Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are particularly encouraged to submit proposals. Conference webpage: http://research.fis.utoronto.ca/objectivity/index.html.