The co-directors of the Vancouver Institute for Philosophy for Children (VIPC), Dr. Barbara Weber (UBC) and Dr. Susan Gardner (Capilano University), organized a BC conference on Engaged Philosophical Inquiry, which was attended by 25 people. More than half of the attendees were faculty members from BC universities and colleges, including UBC, SFU, Capilano, UFV, Alexander College, TRU and Kwantlen University. Many academic disciplines were represented, among them education, philosophy, literature, science and the arts. In addition, many practitioners and students attended the conference.
There were three plenary talks given: Dr. Susan Gardner (Philosophy, Capilano University) talked about the history of Engaged Philosophical Inquiry, Dr. Barbara Weber (Education, UBC) gave an overview of two EPI initiatives (one provincial and the other national) and discussed two ongoing international research projects (in Germany and Israel) which use EPI as a research methodology, and Dr. Peter Raabe (Philosophy, UFV) spoke about the benefits of EPI from the standpoint of mental health.
The group decided to organize an introductory workshop on the facilitation of ‘Engaged Philosophical Inquiry’ in June and the date will be announced shortly. There will also be another EPI conference on August 23rd, 2013 (at UBC). In addition, Dr. Barbara Weber and Dr. David Burns created a wiki page for the BC group on Engaged Philosophical Inquiry, which collects information around the Vancouver Institute for Philosophy for Children (VICP), BC conferences and workshops, reading and teaching resources, contacts of people in BC as well as current projects around EPI. For more information please visit: http://epiinbc.wikia.com/wiki/Home