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APA Newsletters

Fall 2006
Volume 06, Number 1

Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues in Philosophy

Report from the Chair

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Susana Nuccetelli
University of Texas–Pan American

In the academic year 2005-2006, the Committee on Hispanics continued to focus on promoting Latin American philosophy in the North American philosophical community and raising the profile of Hispanics in the profession. I am pleased to report that it also played an important part in planning for an NEH-funded Summer Institute on Latin American philosophy that brought together twenty-five nationally selected college and university professors at the State University of New York at Buffalo in June 2005. In helping to organize this event, the committee’s aim was to make a long-lasting contribution to the field so that Latin American thought, broadly construed, would become available to those interested in incorporating it into their own college’s philosophy curriculum. The Institute is sure to have an enduring legacy in the development of the discipline in the USA. Its fruitfulness is already evident in two other NEH-funded projects that are taking place this year. One, a series of workshops on "Humanities Perspectives on Latin American Philosophy," of which I am director, with Gary Seay as co-director, is being held at the University of Texas–Pan American. Another, a Summer Seminar on Latin American philosophy directed by Jorge Gracia, is being offered this summer at SUNY–Buffalo. We are hopeful that these programs will in turn encourage further conferences and seminars with the aim of serving our long-term goals: to establish Latino/a philosophers in the profession and to promote Latin American thought as a legitimate area of philosophy.

I would also like to congratulate Professor Gregory Pappas of Texas A & M University, who in December 2005 was named winner of the annual APA Prize for Best Essay in Latin American Thought. And I must thank members and friends of the committee for their hard work in helping to organize sessions offered at the three APA Divisional meetings. At the Central Division meeting, our session took up the topic of ethnic-group identity, demonstrating our commitment to bringing a variety of perspectives to philosophical discussion of controversial subjects. At the Eastern Division meeting, we sponsored a special session in which participants of our NEH Summer Institute spoke about their experiences there. Others in this session contributed insights on the experiences of Latino/a graduate students in philosophy in the United States. In this way, some perspectives less often heard at APA meetings were given a forum. I believe that the philosophical community at large stands to benefit greatly from programs of this sort. The upshot, of course, is that we are now vigorously enlarging our reach and bringing more voices into the discussion of issues important not only to Hispanic thinkers but to academic life in the United States.

I look forward to continuing to serve the APA in organizing worthwhile programs like these. I would, of course, welcome suggestions for panels, special sessions, and other events that the committee might sponsor at future Divisional meetings.

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