2025 BPPA Annual Conference Schedule

Hello! Here is the preliminary schedule for the 2025 BPPA Annual Conference. We received an exceptionally high number of abstract submissions, and the selection process involved several review rounds to finalise the chosen papers. Congratulations to everyone selected to present! Please note that we are still finalising the travel bursary details and may need to adjust a presentation or two if travel arrangements make these dates/times unfeasible for some presenters. We appreciate your understanding and flexibility if you are asked to change your session slot—we are striving to accommodate as many scheduling requests as possible. Therefore, please consider this schedule as tentative. Any updates will be confirmed via email, and this page will be promptly updated if necessary.

Suggested local housing and restaurants are available here: BPPA Recommendations

Note that these are not 'official' partners of BPPA and you do not to limit yourself to the options presented. Thanks to Anna for compiling the list!

For those attending the conference who are not current BPPA members, a conference pass must be purchased through the Events page on the BPPA website (Guest Pass). Student presenters are exempt from purchasing an additional registration or conference pass, but must ensure their BPPA membership is active before the start of the conference. Keynote speakers do not need a conference pass or BPPA membership.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email us at british.postgraduate.philosophy@gmail.com. We value your support and patience as we finalize the exciting details for what promises to be an engaging and insightful gathering of BPPA postgraduates and leading professional philosophers.

Please email Anna and Prem for any questions during the conference to ensure a prompt response.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

British Postgraduate Philosophy Association 26th Annual Conference

Location: Queen’s University Belfast, Riddel Hall (Isdell Courtyard)

UPDATED AS OF 27 OCT 2025

British Postgraduate Philosophy Association 26th Annual Conference

Location: Queen’s University Belfast, Riddel Hall (Isdell Courtyard)

Time: 9:30-17:00

DAY 1 (28 October)

09:30-09:45 — Welcome Remarks 

Opening and introduction to the conference schedule and themes.

09:45-10:05 — Teaching and Learning Philosophy in Malawi: A Necessary Foundation or an Unjustified Luxury? || Oris Kondwani Chimphambano || Theoretical

10:05-10:25 — Ectogenesis and gender inequality: Two pathways converge || Jolie Zhou || Practical

10:25-10:45 — Permissible Consensual Non-Consensual Sex || Lucy Shanahan || Practical

10:45-11:05 — Autonomy and the Life of Altruism || Patrick Williamson || Practical

11:05-11:20 — Break with Refreshments 

11:20-11:40 — Coercive-offers and Responding to the Wrong Kind of Reasons || Benjamin Newman || Theoretical

11:40-12:00 — Does 'Why?' objectify agency? A defence of Anscombe's 'Intention' || William Patterson || Practical

12:00-12:45 — Keynote: Keith Frankish 

12:45-13:45 — Lunch Break, Catered 

13:45-14:05 — Let’s still Get Physical: Why Psychedelics can Reduce Fear of Death without Changing Metaphysical Beliefs || Celia Blaise || Theoretical

14:05-14:25 — Knowing Our Own Virtues? || Amin Mostajir || Theoretical

14:25-14:45 — Identity or inseparability? Spinoza meets Wittgenstein || Francesco Gandellini || Theoretical

14:45-15:05 — Social Action vs Social Systems: Understanding Axel Honneth’s problem with Ideology || Matthew Rutherford || Practical

15:05-15:20 — Break 

15:20-16:05 — Keynote: Laura Jane Nanni 

16:05-16:25 — Liminal Figures: Higher Education's Sex Workers, Epistemic Dependence, Testimonial Dependence and Stigma || Anna McDermott || Practical

16:25-16:45 — Nightmares of Electric Sheep- Artificial Generalised Intelligence and The Human Condition || Anna Rooney || Practical

16:45-17:00 — Wrap-up / Announcements 

18:30 — Conference Dinner 

DAY 2 (29 October)

Time: 9:30-16:00

09:30-10:15 — Career Workshop - Petronella Randell 

10:15-10:35 — Understanding the Beautiful || Carlos M. Suarez Tavernier || Theoretical

10:35-10:55 — God and the Limits of Language in Ismaili Philosophy || Karim Shoaib || Theoretical

10:55-11:15 — Against Biological Relativism: the Cases of Race and Sex || Marco Peruzzo || Practical

11:15-11:30 — Break with Refreshments 

11:30-11:50 — The Nobility of Lying: Epistemic Paternalism in Plato's Republic || Isabelle Woodcock || Theoretical

11:50-12:10 — Can a Bayesian Brain predict pain? A critical review of current predictive processing models of pain || Yixuan Bai || Theoretical

12:10-12:30 — The place of ‘surveyable representation’ in Wittgenstein’s conception of philosophy and whether this amounts to a ‘sideways-on’ view of language || Theoretical

12:30-12:50 — How (not) to solve the Problem of Optimific Wrongs || Jakob Lohmar || Practical

12:50-14:15 Lunch Break, Catered 

14:20-15:20 — Keynote: Roger Clarke 

15:20-16:00 — Closing Remarks and photographs. 

18:30 — Conference Dinner 

Organizational team: Anna McDermott, Jeff Hawley, Prem Narayana-Pai, George Sulliver.

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With the generous support of: