Chartered and Working Groups
GSA initiative launched in 2007-2008, Working Groups are interdisciplinary groups comprised of students from various departments and programs across the GSAS that meet on a semi-regular basis over refreshments to share work-in-progress of various kinds—articles, conference presentations, portions of dissertations, etc. The goal of these groups is to gain feedback from colleagues and perspectives outside one’s home discipline.
To qualify as a GSA Working Group, a group must:
- present a statement of its mission/purpose/scope/project
- nominate a spokesperson, who coordinates the group's activities and is the liaison between the gsa and the group members;
- have at least 4 members (and GSAS students must constitute at least 60% of the group)
- renew its status with the GSA every semester
- meet on a regular basis (at least twice a month)
- publicize its activities on a website/blog, to which all fordham community must have access (and which will be checked by the gsa working group committee in order to validate eligibility for funds)
- keep an updated record of its activities on the website/blog
A working group will be eligible for partial gsa working group funds after it has met consistently and followed the guidelines above for at least two months. the group will only be eligible to receive full gsa working group funds after it has met consistently and followed the guidelines above for at least one semester.
Feel free to contact us with ideas for new groups!
CHARTERED GROUPS ARE GROUPS WHICH DO NOT PRIMARILY REPRESENT THE MEMBERS OF A SINGLE DEPARTMENT OR PROGRAM (SUCH AS INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUPS, CULTURAL GROUPS, OR GROUPS WITH A HIGHLY SPECIALIZED AND/OR SPECIFIC NATURE). TO BE CHARTERED, THE GROUP MUST PRESENT A STATEMENT OF ITS MISSION AND PURPOSE, INCLUDING HOW THE GROUP CONTRIBUTES TO GRADUATE STUDENT LIFE IN A WAY THAT A MORE TRADITIONAL DEPARTMENTAL GROUP DOES NOT. IN ADDITION TO A NOMINATED SPOKESPERSON, THE GROUP MUST HAVE AT LEAST FIVE MEMBERS WHO ARE GSAS STUDENTS, AND GSAS STUDENTS MUST CONSTITUTE AT LEAST 60% OF THE GROUP'S MEMBERSHIP. CHARTERS MUST BE RENEWED ANNUALLY. CURRENT GSA CHARTERED GROUP IS: THE FORDHAM PHILOSOPHICAL RED STAR LINE.
Fordham Philosophical Red Star Line
The Fordham Philosophical Red Star Line is a graduate student group run out of the Fordham University Philosophy Department. We have two primary intellectual activities. We collaborate with the University of Antwerp to produce a biennial conference, alternating in New York and Antwerp, which brings together students and faculty from both universities to address issues of contemporary relevance from a philosophical perspective. By working with a respected European university, we are able to bring continential and analytic, European and American perspectives together in fruitful dialogue. Our last conference, in the spring of 2009, was on 'The Normativity of Culture.'
Our second intellectual activity is the production of a book based on our conference proceedings. In 2009, we have published the proceedings from our 2007 conference - 'The End of Secularism?' with Cambridge Scholars Press (Rethinking Secularization [Cambridge Scholars, 2009]). This provides an excellent forum for graduate students to sharpen their skills in developing papers into polished articles. We are in the process of preparing another book based on our 2009 conference as well.
Current Fordham GSAS members: Gary Gabor, Kem Crimmins, Brendan Palla, Adam Wood, Scott O'Leary, Aline Ramos, Joseph Clair, Dan Finke, David Storey, Ryan Kemp, David Zoller, Paul Kucharski.
For more information about the Fordham Philosophical Red Star Line, please contact Brendan Palla at brendan.palla@gmail.com
