Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 13:17:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Ruth Groff <rgroff-AT-yorku.ca>
Subject: BHA: Bhaskar panel!


Hi all, 

Please forgive me for using the list this way, but I don't trust my cc:
capacities.

So far, Tobin, Hans, Amit and Howie Chodos have said that they either could
or might be able to be on a Bhaskar panel for the Socialist Scholars
Conference.  Martha says she might like to come, but thinks she probably
wouldn't be in a position to present a paper.  I've got a paper, but am
thinking that I might like to save all or part of it for what are called
"the Learneds," here in Canada later this spring.

Now the logistics (then the decision-making):  if we were to have a panel it
would be on Saturday, the 10th, I believe, of April.  The conference is on
the early side this year.  Apparently there will be three panels on
dialectics on Sunday, put on by the journal *Science and Society* in
conjunction with a forthcoming special issue.  Also, they ask the panel
organizer to pay $100 US, which then entitles participants to attend the
conference.  Needless to say, if we do this, I would suggest that we divide
the fee by the number of us who participate.  We need to decide close to
immediately, as they go to press on Monday.  So I'd say we need to decide
such that I can tell the conference organizer what we're doing by tomorrow
afternoon at the latest.

Onto the decision-making.  Here are the decisions that need to be made, as I
see them:

1. Should we commit to do something, not knowing if Bhaskar will be there?

2. If yes, should we do a standard panel, in which people give papers; or
should we do something more like a round-table, in which people from a range
of perspectives talk in a less formal way about how CR/DCR figures in their
academic work AND/OR how they think it should or could figure in practical
political work; or should we do an even narrower kind of educational
session, an "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About CR/DCR but Couldn't
Mangage to Decipher on Your Own" kind of thing?  Of course these 3
categories are not mutually exclusive, but I think that we would need to be
clear in conception about what kind of forum we want to set out.  So that's:
standard panel, round-table, educational.

3. If we decide on a standard panel, we probably need someone to moderate.
Martha, if you do come, maybe you could do it since you wouldn't also be
presenting?  

4. The following is what people have said to me about what, in very general
terms, they could talk about (this would be relevant for either a panel or a
round-table -- though the latter could include Martha too -- and will no
doubt need to be sharpened up a bit if we go ahead):  

a. Tobin on d/cr and theatre/performance/culture ("Brecht meets Bhaskar" I
think was the way he put it!); 

b. Amit on making sense of those whacky political scientists and their
regression analyses; 

c. Howie on d/cr and Marxism

d. Hans on something he hasn't yet revealed!

e. Me on Bhaskar's theory of truth  

5. No matter what we decide to do, we will need then to think of a cool
title, too, and figure out how best to procede with the registration logistics.

SO, this all said, maybe people could weigh in on the various issues.  I
think that my own preference at this stage in the game would be for the
round-table option.  (And we could call it "Hot Sex and Dialectical Critical
Realism", since it always seems to work when we put "Sex and" in the title
of course offerings! I'm kidding of course.)

Let me know quick!
Ruth 

Bertell Ollman tells me that he has still not heard from Bhaskar regarding
his plans.  (And Howard E. points out that it might be ok if Bhaskar skips
this one, because there's going to be a big Re-thinking Marxism conference
in the fall of 2000, and the organizers are hoping that he'll make it to
that.)  



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