The 2017 Tennessee Value and Agency Conference on Philosophy of Disability: Perspectives, Challenges and Aspirations will take place from October 27 through October 29, 2017 at the Holiday Inn Knoxville Downtown (525 Henley St, Knoxville, TN 37902).

Conference Theme: Philosophy of Disability
Over the past three decades, philosophers have increasingly come to recognize that issues of disability are of central importance to moral and political philosophy. Disability raises fundamental issues about the significance of variations in physical and mental functioning for human performance and well-being, for personal and social identity, for self-respect and respect for others, and for justice in the allocation of resources and the design of the physical and social environment. This large, public conference, which carries on the tradition of the Tennessee Value and Agency Conference, will bring together many of the best scholars who work on philosophical issues of disability in order to introduce the main conceptual and normative issues in disability, to advance the discussion of those issues, and to help to set the terms of the philosophical agenda for disability. The conference, and especially the keynote talks, will be of interest to a wide audience, including undergraduates, people working in relevant areas outside of philosophy such as law, public policy, sociology and economics, as well as members of the general public.
The conference will include presentations from a variety of philosophical backgrounds and personal experiences. Presenters will include established scholars and younger philosophers, those who have written extensively on disability as well as those whose work bears on disability, philosophers who are disabled or have direct personal experience with disability, and an international assortment of philosophers. The conference will draw participants and themes from the Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Disability, which is currently being edited by David Wasserman and Adam Cureton.
The following are some of the topics that the conference will include:
- The nature of disability, including the medical and social models.
- Bodily rights, the plasticity of embodiment, and epistemic privilege and discrimination
- Whether disability necessarily makes a person’s life go worse for her
- Distributive justice for disabled people
- Respect for people with disabilities and their self-respect
- Physician-Assisted Dying
- Whether people with severe mental disabilities have moral status equal to people who are not disabled
- The neurodiversity movement and neurotechnology
- The relationship between disability and health
- Healthcare allocation to disabled people
- Reproduction and parenting by disabled people
Our aim is to offer a fairly comprehensive representation of the prominent views on each of our topics as well as to extend these discussions in novel and exciting ways.
Keynote Speakers
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Professor and Chair of Philosophy, San Francisco State University |
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Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Utah |
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Kenan Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, UNC Chapel Hill |
Schedule
Friday, October 27
8:00am - 8:55am
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Continental Breakfast (open to everyone)
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8:55am - 9:00am |
Welcome and opening remarks, John Zomchick (Interim Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville) |
FRIDAY MORNING SESSION, 9:00am - 12:15pm
Chair: Jackie Leach Scully (Newcastle University) |
9:00am - 10:00am
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Paper: Disability, Health and Difference
Speaker: |
Jerome Bickenbach (University of Lucerne) |
Commentator: |
Lorella Terzi (University of Roehampton) |
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10:00am - 11:00am
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Paper: Procreation and Intellectual Disability: A Kantian Approach
Speaker: |
Samuel Kerstein (University of Maryland) |
Commentator: |
John Vorhaus (University College London) |
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11:00am - 11:15am
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Break (coffee and hot tea) |
11:15am - 12:15pm
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Paper: The Limiting Role of Respect for People with Disabilities
Speaker: |
Adam Cureton (University of Tennessee) |
Commentator: |
Teresa Blankmeyer Burke (Gallaudet University) |
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12:15pm - 1:30pm
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Lunch (by invitation; others are on their own)
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FRIDAY AFTERNOON SESSION, 1:30pm - 4:15pm
Chair: Tiffany Campbell (University of Utah) |
1:30pm - 3:00pm
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Panel: Issues in Epistemic Authority: Experience, Privilege, Injustice
Speakers: |
Jessica Begon (University of Oxford) |
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Josh Dohmen (University of West Georgia) |
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Jason Marsh (St. Olaf College) |
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3:00pm - 3:15pm
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Break
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3:15pm - 4:15pm
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Panel: Disability, Justice, and Neurotechnology
Speakers: |
Sara Goering (University of Washington) |
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Joseph Stramondo (San Diego State University) |
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4:15pm - 4:45pm
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Break (snacks, coffee, hot tea, iced-tea)
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FRIDAY EVENING KEYNOTE SESSION, 4:45pm - 6:25pm
Chair: Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry (Peter A. Allard School of Law The University of British Columbia) |
4:45pm - 4:50pm
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Welcome remarks
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4:50pm - 6:25pm
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UT Humanities Center Visiting Scholars Lecture: Defining Disability and Respecting Rights: Reasonable Accommodation must be Meaningful - But for Whom?
Speakers: |
Leslie Francis (University of Utah) |
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Anita Silvers (San Francisco State University) |
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7:00pm - 9:00pm
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Dinner (everyone is on their own)
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Saturday, October 28
8:00am - 9:00am
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Continental Breakfast (open to everyone)
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SATURDAY MORNING SESSION, 9:00am - 11:45am
Chair: Justin Guinn (University of Tennessee) |
9:00am - 10:00am
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Panel: Dignity and Cognitive Disability
Speakers: |
Linda Barclay (Monash University) |
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Suzy Killmister (University of Connecticut) |
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10:00am - 10:15am |
Break |
10:15am - 11:45am
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Panel: Wellbeing
Speakers: |
Julia Mosquera (Reading, Institute for Futures Studies) |
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Stephen Campbell (Bentley University) |
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Sean Aas (Georgetown University) |
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11:45am - 1:00pm
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Lunch (by invitation; others are on their own)
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SATURDAY AFTERNOON SESSION, 1:00pm - 4:15pm
Chair: Mary Helen Brickhouse-Bryson (University of Tennessee) |
1:00pm - 2:30pm
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Panel: Moral Status
Speakers: |
Alice Crary (The New School for Social Research) |
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Licia Carlson (Providence College) |
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Eva Kittay (Stony Brook University) |
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2:30pm - 2:45pm
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Break (coffee and hot tea)
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2:45pm - 4:15pm
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Panel: Cost-Benefit Analysis
Speakers: |
Greg Bognar (Stockholm University)
“Cost-Effectiveness Analysis and Disability Discrimination” |
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Dominic Wilkinson (University of Oxford)
“Prioritisation and Parity. Which disabled newborn infants should be candidates for scarce life-saving treatment?” |
Commentator: |
David Wasserman (National Institutes of Health) |
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4:15pm - 4:45pm
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Break (snacks, coffee, hot tea, iced-tea)
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SATURDAY EVENING KEYNOTE SESSION, 4:45pm - 6:20pm
Chair: Christie Hartley (Georgia State University) |
4:50pm - 6:20pm
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Keynote Address: Appreciation and Expressions of Respect
Speaker: |
Thomas E. Hill (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) |
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6:45pm - 8:45pm
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Dinner (by invitation; others are on their own)
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Sunday, October 29
8:00am - 9:00am
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Continental Breakfast (open to everyone)
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SUNDAY MORNING SESSION, 9:00am - 11:00am
Chair: Caroline Mobley (University of Tennessee) |
9:00am - 10:00am
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Paper: Children's Disability, Parental Autonomy, and Identity
Speaker: |
Mary Crossley (University of Pittsburgh School of Law) |
Commentator: |
Chris Kaposy (Memorial University of Newfoundland) |
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10:00am - 11:00am
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Paper: The Disability Case Against Legalizing Assisted Dying
Speaker: |
Danny Scoccia (New Mexico State University) |
Commentator: |
Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry (Peter A. Allard School of Law The University of British Columbia) |
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11:00am - 11:15am
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Break (coffee and hot tea)
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SUNDAY EARLY AFTERNOON SESSION, 11:15am - 12:45pm
Chair: Alex Feldt (University of Tennessee) |
11:15am - 12:45pm
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Skype Panel: Critical Approaches to Philosophy of Disability
Speakers: |
Shelley Tremain (Independent Scholar) |
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Melinda Hall (Stetson University) |
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Havi Carel (University of Bristol) |
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12:45pm - 2:00pm
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Lunch (by invitation for those who are still in town; others are on their own)
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SPONSORS