The coronavirus pandemic has turned much of the world upside down, created and deepened anxieties, and thrown existing inequities into sharp relief—especially in academia. For so many of us, it has changed the way we teach, how we engage with our colleagues and students, and our personal and professional priorities.
At this time of upheaval, all of us at the APA are working hard to continue to serve the needs of philosophers and the discipline of philosophy, and to find new and innovative ways to offer opportunities for scholarly exchange, professional development, and community.
We have begun organizing webinars on topics of greater interest due to the pandemic, including one on online teaching and another on how department chairs can lead their programs through this crisis, with more to come. We are highlighting publicly engaged philosophy on our social media channels, promoting the ways APA members are participating in public conversations about the pandemic and demonstrating the broad value of philosophy. Together with other scholarly societies, we are advocating for college and university administrators to ensure their institutions’ policies and practices related to the pandemic are humane, flexible, and appropriate, and push back against threats to philosophy programs instigated by cost-cutting measures across institutions. And as you heard yesterday, we are developing contingency plans for our 2021 divisional meetings so that the rich and exciting programs we are now planning will come to fruition, whether or not we are able to meet in person.
As we do this work, your support is more important than ever. The cancellation of the 2020 Pacific Division Meeting and other impacts of the pandemic have left the APA in a very difficult financial position, and so we’re writing today to ask you to make a financial contribution to the APA to help us weather this crisis.
Prior to this crisis, the APA was already operating on a very modest budget with a staff stretched to capacity. In order to continue the work described above and to expand to new and innovative programs and initiatives in service of philosophy and philosophers, we need your help.
Whether or not you are able to make a financial contribution today, please know that all of us at the APA deeply value your support and your contributions to our discipline and our community. We hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy, and we look forward to a time soon when we can once again do philosophy together in person.
With gratitude,
Cheshire Calhoun, chair of the board of officers
Dominic McIver Lopes, chair-elect of the board of officers
Rebecca Copenhaver, Pacific Division secretary-treasurer
Jeffrey Dunn, Eastern Division secretary-treasurer
Elyse Purcell, Central Division secretary-treasurer
Amy Ferrer, executive director
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