International Plato Society Newsletter, Issue 2 (2010-13) Pisa, 28th February 2012
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to send the second Newsletter of the IPS (2010-2013).
1. IPS Regional Meetings
The IPS is currently supporting the mid-term conference in Paris, “Genre, Sexe et Sexualité dans la cité: la politique du sexe dans les dialogues de Platon”, INHA, Galerie Vivienne, 1st-3rd March 2012, promoted by Université de Paris-Ouest Nanterre-La Défense, Université Paris 1, Centre Jean Pépin, CNRS, UPR 76, and Société d’Études Platoniciennes. You can find the final programme and general information on our website: http://www.platosociety.org/pdf/120303%20Paris.pdf.
In Paris we will listen to the papers of Violaine Sebillotte-Cuchet, François de Polignac, Claude Calame, Nathalie Ernoult, Gabriele Cornelli, Carolina Araujo, Angela Hobbs, Olivier Renaut, Luc Brisson, Clara Acker, Ruby Blondell and Sandra Boehringer, Florence Dupont and Annick Jaulin. The conference, divided in thematic sections, will be open to debates about “concepts de genre”, “eros et politique”, “communauté, genre et législation sexuelle”, “eros et philosophie”, “figures du Banquet” and “interpretations du Banquet”. A round table with David Halperin will offer us many reasons for reflection.
The mid-term conference will have an important role in the organization of the Pisa Symposium. The Meeting of the Executive Committee will be held in the afternoon of 2nd March 2012 and will consider the main points and the general schedule of the Pisa Symposium.
In Coimbra, the Mediterranean Section of the IPS is arranging its 2nd Meeting, about Plato’s Parmenides, which will be held 14th-16th June 2012, at the Facultade de Letras, Universidade de Coimbra. The organizing committee accepts proposals of papers on any subject related to Plato’s “Parmenides”. Abstracts should be emailed with a CV to parmenides.plato@gmail.com.
The IPS is also supporting a Regional Meeting in Brasilia, the Latin American Area Conference of the IPS, about “Plato’s styles and characters: between literature and philosophy”. The Conference will be held at the University of Brasilia, 20th-24th August 2012. On our website, you can find general information and the scientific presentation written by Gabriele Cornelli in a fertile dialogue with Arnaud Macé: http://www.platosociety.org/newconferences.html. In addition to many speakers coming from South America, Bruno Centrone, Dimitri El Murr, Michael Erler, Franco Ferrari, Christopher Gill, Mary Louise Gill, Verity Harte, Mary Margaret McCabe, Debra Nails, Samuel Scolnicov, Alonso Tordesillas, Mauro Tulli and Álvaro Vallejo Campos have confirmed their participation.
In this period, the IPS is also organizing the North American Regional Meeting, which will be held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 4th−7th October 2012. The issue selected is Plato’s Moral Psychology, pleasure, pain, akrasia, egoism, the form of the good, virtue and eudaimonism, politics, eros, and psychology in general. On our website you can find the scientific presentation of the meeting with the call for papers: http://www.platosociety.org/pdf/121007%20Ann%20Arbor.pdf. Plenary speakers will include Gabriele Cornelli, Rachana Kamtekar, Margaret M. McCabe, Nicholas D. Smith and Mauro Tulli. A reception at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and an introduction to the papyrology collection are planned.
2. International Plato Studies Report by Michael Erler
The work of the Editorial Board proceeds smoothly. We received manuscripts and were delighted to accept most of them for publication in our Plato series. We are aware that sometimes the evaluation process takes quite a while. The reason for that is, of course, that the members of the Editorial Board have different obligations as well, which take up a lot of their time. We apologise for this and ask for your patience. Naturally, we will do our best to make the evaluation process more efficient in order to be able to communicate the results as soon as possible. We would like to remind you, however, that we expect that manuscripts sent for being published in the IPS series are not sent to other editors at the same time.
We can summarise our general programme. Volume 29, Anne Balansard, Enquête sur la doxographie platonicienne dans la première partie du Théétète, is in print: perhaps it will appear in March 2012. Volume 30, Mario Regali, Il poeta e il demiurgo: teoria e prassi della produzione letteraria nel Timeo e nel Crizia di Platone, received our approval and will appear in 2012. Many papers of Vegetti’s Commentary on the Republic are being translated and will appear in 2013. Selected papers of our Tokyo Symposium are already in the hands of the Academia Verlag for editing and the drafts are currently being sent to the authors: Noburu Notomi plans to publish the volume in 2013, before the Pisa Symposium. The series, we may say, is flourishing and we would like to encourage scholars to submit manuscripts for evaluation.
3. Financial Situation
Our Society is increasing. We now have around 500 members. However, only a minority of members have renewed their subscription for the triennium 2010-13. The economic crisis is well known all around the world and the support of all members plays a key role in the life of our Society: the support is necessary to endorse the meetings on Plato and to foster the many activities of our website. Furthermore, you can easily understand the importance of our general financial situation for the Pisa Symposium. We remind you that the privilege of proposing an abstract for plenary sessions or parallel sessions in Pisa is confined to paid-up members of the Society.
4. IPS on the Website
The IPS Homepage
Thanks to Debra Nails and to the internet task force, the IPS Website, hosted by Michigan State University, keeps on testifying the increasing activity of our members with commendable patience and flexibility: http://www.platosociety.org.
Bibliographie Platonicienne
The IPS is grateful to Luc Brisson: his Bibliographie Platonicienne now establishes the most complete and accurate list of works, published until 2011, on Plato and his works. The IPS is fortunate to have every annual Bibliographie Platonicienne since 2000 on the website in a searchable format.
The IPS Internet Journal Report by Francisco Gonzalez
A total of fourteen papers were received and reviewed for inclusion in volume 11 (2011). Of these, six were rejected, three accepted with substantial revisions, and five accepted with minor revisions. This means that eight articles will be included in the latest volume. Of these, four are papers that could not be included in the volume for the Tokyo conference for reasons of space. The other four are original papers submitted to the journal for review, though they include one paper that was presented at the Tokyo conference in a short version, but greatly expanded and reworked for submission to the journal. A total of twelve internationally recognized Plato scholars have aided the journal in the review. Overall, this has been a healthy year, though also an unusual one and one that only heightens the need for a clear and firm decision on the future mission, policy, and format of the journal.
5. X Pisa Symposium
In summer 2013, there will be our Symposium in Pisa. After our discussion in Tokyo and after our dialogue with institutional representatives, we have now made our final decision on the date: the third week in July, from the 15th to the 20th. During the meeting of the Executive Committee in Paris, I will report, in detail, on the status quo of our preparation. In Dublin we chose as theme the “Symposium”. We are wondering about the possibility of dedicating one plenary session to each speech of the dialogue. As Arnaud Macé suggested in Tokyo, we will send the call for papers before summer 2012.
Most of the Symposium will be held at the Palazzo dei Congressi, Via Matteotti 1, and at the Sapienza of Pisa University, Via Curtatone e Montanara 15.
– The Palazzo dei Congressi is the main convention hall of Pisa. It was opened in 1984 and, thanks to its architectural features and close proximity to the historical centre, in an attractive area between Lung’Arno Buozzi and Viale delle Piagge, has, over the years, hosted a lot of scientific, cultural and political events.
– The Sapienza is the oldest building of the University of Pisa, founded with the Papal bull as Studium Generale at the beginning of the 14th Century, 1373, and then developed by Lorenzo and Cosimo de’ Medici. Now the Sapienza is the main seat of the Law School and of the University Library, rich in manuscripts and precious editions.
Registration and hotel booking will start as soon as possible. In any case, we are proud to announce that the Headquarters of our meeting will be at the monastery of Santa Croce in Fossabanda, now converted into a hotel. The monastery is located near the Palazzo dei Congressi. Called in Fossabanda because of the ditches in the neighborhood, the picturesque church already existed in the 13th century, but was rebuilt in 1325 according to the forms today: the interior has a nave with two side chapels preserving 17th century paintings. The monastery consists of a large square cloister, surrounded by arches on the ground floor and white columns on the first floor that directly support the roof.
The programme will follow the custom of the past: the sessions will be held from Monday afternoon to Saturday morning, with one afternoon, perhaps Wednesday, for excursions: Bolgheri, with its world renowned vineyards, Carrara, whose marble gave birth to many sculptures of the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo’s David, and Lucca, with its majestic walls and its splendid cathedral. The General Assembly will be held, perhaps on Thursday, in the late afternoon, at the Certosa of Calci. Located at the centre of the Graziosa Valley at just 10 km from Pisa, the Certosa is the biggest monastery in Tuscany. It was founded at the feet of Mount Pisano and it houses also the Natural History and Territory Museum.
Deadlines and other conditions for the submission of abstracts will be fixed by the Executive Committee at the mid-term meeting in Paris. Abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words in length. Applicants should indicate their preference between longer paper (40 minutes) for plenary sessions and shorter paper (20 minutes) for parallel sessions. The Executive Committee, as usual, will evaluate the abstracts for the perhaps unavoidable selection: we therefore advise all applicants to write the abstracts clearly and carefully. Paid-up members can submit the abstracts in any of our five official languages. Contact address, e-mail address, fax and affiliation, should be specified.
I hope everyone is having a good start to the year, Best Wishes,
Mauro Tulli