January 9th – 11th 2025
Character and Global Challenges
If the character-and-virtue agenda in philosophy, psychology, and education is to maintain its contemporary relevance, it needs to be brought to bear on ongoing and future global challenges. Global challenges of our time include: the mental health epidemic; the sudden rise of GenAI and related new technologies that open a Pandora’s box of moral issues; increasing environmental threats; and perceived political dysfunction leading to increased polarisation. All these challenges, and others, threaten the moral ecology underlying healthy character development.
The aim of the 13th annual Jubilee Centre conference is to bring discourses about global challenges closer together by exploring how current agendas in virtue ethics, moral psychology, and character education can inform and advance knowledge and understanding. The conference will bring together experts from a range of disciplines to explore the following big questions and many more. Can theorists from philosophy, moral and developmental psychology, education, sociology, theology, history, and technology learn from each other’s work? How can insights from theory and practice be integrated to address pressing global concerns?
We look forward to welcoming our keynote speakers for 2025: Jeffrey Rosen, (President of National Constitution Center), Daniel Porterfield (President and CEO of the Aspen Institute), and Professor Alessandra Tanesini (Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University).
The call for papers is now closed.
The conference fee is £450 and covers full board at Oriel College (2 nights), including the formal conference dinner. Details of how to pay the registration fee will be provided in due course.
Interested in previous conferences? Click here to explore the papers and topics from the 2024 conference, ‘Virtuous Leadership and Character‘.
FAQs
Submitting a paper and registering
We ask interested parties to send us an abstract of about 500 words to jubileecentrepapers@contacts.bham.ac.uk (marked ORIEL PROPOSAL in the subject line) before June 14th 2024.
Please ensure you list whether any co-authors on your paper are expecting to attend, and who the primary author would be in the instance we cannot accept multiple authors to the conference.
The papers are reviewed over the few weeks following the submission. It is likely you will find out around mid-late July. If you have not received any correspondence by the end of July, please contact jubileecentrepapers@contacts.bham.ac.uk
You are welcome to submit a paper alongside a colleague/co-speaker, however places are limited. It may be that we can only invite one of you to attend, so please clarify who would be your primary speaker.
Please also let us know on any submissions with co-authors, whether they are also interested in attending or are just to be credited in the programme
This conference is an interdisciplinary conference discussing any topic relating to ongoing and future global challenges to healthy character development.
We welcome proposals discussing AI, mental health, and environmental and political issues and will also look favourably upon proposals that explore different character-related challenges from an educational, social scientific, philosophical, religious or practice-oriented perspective. There will be parallel sessions devoted to general topics in the area of character, virtue and character education.
We particularly welcome proposals from teachers, professionals, and other practitioners.
Registration is not yet open. Successful papers will be sent a link in due course on how to register.
The conference fee is £450
This includes full board (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) at Oriel College from lunchtime Thursday 9th to lunchtime Saturday 11th.
Details of how to pay the registration fee will be provided in due course.
Oriel college provides single accommodation only so each registration only covers a single bedroom for that named guest.
Our focus is on any ongoing and future global challenges to healthy character development. We welcome proposals discussing AI, mental health, and environmental and political issues and will also look favourably upon proposals that explore different character-related challenges from an educational, social scientific, philosophical, religious or practice-oriented perspective. There will be parallel sessions devoted to general topics in the area of character, virtue and character education. We particularly welcome proposals from teachers, professionals, and other practitioners.
Please contact jubileecentrepapers@contacts.bham.ac.uk
Attending the event
Arrival and registration for the conference is between 11:15am and 12:00pm on Thursday the 9th January 2025.
If you have registered with accommodation included, you may also be able to check-in to your room by speaking to the Porter’s Lodge. However, not all rooms are available this early. If your room is not available, you can leave your belongings with the Jubilee Centre Staff at the registration desk which can be found in the hall.
Any extra night accommodation would be booked directly with the College. Please contact jubileecentrepapers@contacts.bham.ac.uk to ask for the link to book online with the College.
If you selected the full registration, the accommodation for the 9th and 10th is included.
Please note that Oriel College can only provide additional nights accommodation before the conference and not afterwards. If you require accommodation on the 11th or later, we would suggest looking for accommodation elsewhere in Oxford City Centre.
Please contact jubileecentrepapers@contacts.bham.ac.uk as soon as possible.
For cancellations greater than 7 days before the start of the event, please contact jubileecentrepapers@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
If you are cancelling at any point within 7 days of the start conference, please email h.odonoghue@bham.ac.uk. Please note that we may not be able to provide a refund for short notice cancellations.
All accommodation is a single student room with an en-suite bathroom. Towels are provided and you will have Wi-Fi access. The Wi-Fi password can be collected at registration
Please note that hairdryers, irons, and other similar items are not provided.
Oriel College is an 18 minute walk from Oxford’s main train station and bus services or taxi services are available.
National Express bus services also run from Heathrow airport to Oxford. A direct train is also available from Paddington Station London to Oxford Station.
Please contact jubileecentrepapers@contacts.bham.ac.uk
