The Call for Abstracts for the 10th SWIP Ireland Conference is now open - ‘Ways of Knowing: Epistemologies and Pedagogies’, Maynooth University, December 05-06 2025.

We invite abstracts that present philosophical reflections on ways of knowing - the multiplicity of local knowledges; the origins and transmission of knowledge; political ramifications of knowledge; the role and security of knowledge transmission in society; inequalities in knowledge distribution among individuals and groups; colonial legacies in knowledge production; differences in understanding knowledge as acquired or produced; and the nature of knowledge after the event of the Anthropocene.

Different accounts of knowledge locate its origins in experience, reason, education, intuition, experimentation, spirituality, understanding, critique, pattern making, the transcendental, and more. Some of the oldest disputes in philosophy turn on trying to provide comprehensive conditions that capture the essence of knowledge. Knowledge also has important political dimensions, and the recognition of knowledge and wisdom (or lack thereof) can be vital in determining a person’s position in society and their life opportunities.

There are ongoing dialogues on the value of situating knowledge within cultures and histories; conducting practices of transformative unlearning; developing a critical understanding of semiotic technologies; and engaging with spaces of knowing and doing that seek to disrupt technoscientific regimes.

At the level of distribution, knowledge and scholarship is under threat. Multiple crises in higher education across the world, chronic underfunding and overburdening of teachers, and changing cultures of regard for learning mean that ways of knowing are under pressure, slow scholarship is difficult, and the structures of our scholarship, teaching and service commitments are in need of interrogation and elaboration more than ever. 

Keynote Speakers

Professor Katharine Jenkins & Han Edgoose, University of Glasgow  

Dr Phil Mullen, Trinity College Dublin

Dr Ella Whiteley, University of Sheffield

We welcome proposals from a broad range of disciplines, including both the analytic and continental traditions in philosophy, critical theory, history of philosophy, education, ethics, epistemology, aesthetics, metaphysics, ontology, political and social theory, cultural studies, literary studies, and other relevant disciplines. 

We also welcome papers which engage with the work of Professor Sandra Harding (March 29, 1935 – March 5, 2025), with a view to putting at least one parallel session together in her honour.

Inter- and cross- disciplinary perspectives are also strongly encouraged as well as proposals for co-presentations and panels. 

Abstracts (max of 300 words) should be prepared for blind review and submitted in a MS Word document (with a separate cover sheet, which includes the author’s name and contact details) and emailed to: swipireland@gmail.com.

This will be an in-person conference.  If there are barriers to your attendance in person please let us know.

Eligible early career researchers are also invited to indicate their interest in being considered for The Maria Baghramian Prize for excellence in philosophical research on their cover sheet. In order to be eligible for the award, presenters must

Indicate on their abstract cover sheet that they wish to be considered for the prize;

Submit their full paper to SWIP Ireland (4000 words max) by October 24 2025

Deliver the paper at the SWIP Ireland conference;

Identify as a woman, or as a trans or gender non-conforming person;

Be either a postgraduate student in philosophy or be within 5 years of completion of their PhD and not yet hold a permanent academic post.

Deadline for abstracts: September 01 2025

Considering the recent UK Supreme Court decision and a currently under-reported legal decision delivered on the 13th March 2025 by the CJEU, SWIP Ireland wants to emphasise our commitment to trans inclusivity and to an intersectional practice of feminism that challenges essentialist and exclusionary understandings of gender, while emphasising the potential positive implications of the CJEU ruling for trans people and for our philosophical communities.

Read the full statement here

We would like to thank all who attended, delivered papers and engaged in conversation at our 2024 conference on World Building in Times of Violence!

Read more about the conference here

University College Cork hosted the first edition of the TransCare conference, dedicated to interdisciplinary perspectives on healthcare access and inclusion for non-binary, gender nonconforming and trans people. The conference saw the launch of the Professional Association for Trans Health Ireland.

Read the full report here

As a feminist organisation we oppose and condemn all forms of fascism, racism and bigotry, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. As members of SWIP Ireland we wish to protest genocidal acts against Palestinian people conducted by Israeli forces in Gaza. We condemn all acts of violence […] We oppose the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories which are violations of international law, with key acts required for the establishment of settlements amounting to war crimes […] We join our voice in calling for an immediate, total and permanent ceasefire.

Read the full statement here

April 2024

Read the piece on our 2023 Annual Conference here.