NAKS member Sally Sedgwick sent along this sad news regarding the death of Professor Graham Bird, a leading scholar of Kant for the past five decades, and a friend and inspiration to many. Sally had been told about his passing by Bird's son, and asked us to announce it to NAKS.  We join our colleagues in the UK Kant Society in celebrating Bird's life and career, and in offering condolences to his family and loved ones.

Graham Bird (b. 1930) was Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manchester, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool. He was a leading Kant scholar for nearly 40 years, and the author of Kant's Theory of Knowledge (1962), William James (1986), and The Revolutionary Kant (2006). He was President of the Aristotelian Society and Chair of the UK Kant Society.  With Howard Williams, he founded the Kantian Review in 1997.  He passed away on July 9, 2021.

Reminder: Wednesday at 1pm ET, Virtual-NAKS continues with the fourth installment of its inaugural series. Thomas Sturm (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) will speak about "the unity and uses of reason." Saniye Vatansever (Bilkent University) will comment. 

More information here: 

https://northamericankantsociety.org/VNAKS

The competition for the 2021 Wilfrid Sellars Junior Scholar Prize (for those who are fewer than 10 years out from the Ph.D.) was fierce this year, with many excellent submissions.  In the end the judges (who were drawn from the Board of Trustees as well as a list of previous Sellars prize winners) declared a tie. So we have two winners.  

One is Sabina Vaccarino Bremner (Groningen) for “Kant on Autonomy as Self-Making.” The other is Samuel Kahn (Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis) for Kant’s Violinist: Reconstructing Kant’s Position on Abortion and the Right to Life.” Congratulations to Sabina and Samuel! 

Samuel will present his winning essay at VNAKS on July 28. Sabina will present hers on October 6. 

NAKS is now offering free membership to anyone who is an active graduate or undergraduate student.  This change is sponsored by donations and dues from employed scholars (for which we are very grateful).  We hope that this will allow as many students as are interested to join NAKS.