Hi Peter, Mary, Can, Rich, Horse, Marco, Willem, ...
Peter, thanks for the info. on Steve Grand. I looked at his home page,
and consider that he would be a good example of someone we could
consider inviting to talk to the MoQ conference if and when it gets off
the ground. I think we should start throwing around some more names . .
.
MARY
> I'm excited about the Conference idea . . .
> I'm anticipating an upcoming period of FREE TIME soon, so I would like
to
> get involved with Conference plans and preparations....
That's a rare and generous offer Mary. I like the sound of your ideas,
especially the more concrete ones.
>I would
> like to find out what schools are teaching Pirsig related courses.
Previous
> casual surfing has turned up a few syllabi that mention ZMM. I'd like
to
> see if any have taken it to the next step with MOQ. Once I have a
list
> begun of these I could then begin contacting the instructors to find
out in
> what way they are utilizing Pirsig and whether they would be
interested in
> presenting at or attending a conference.
That's an excellent idea! I personally have referred toPirsig in
lectures on bioenergetics, but only in a small way! I suspect that
there's some serious stuff going on, both in teaching and research. For
instance, we already know about several doctoral theses that feature
Pirsig's writings. Teachers and researchers may jump at the idea of a
conference.
> I figure all this will take a
> while so I thought it best to start now - in the hopes that we will
have a
> location and date worked out by the time I'm ready to start contacting
> people. Of course, I would also want to present the list to you for
> vetting before making any contacts at all!
I suspect that vetting won't stop the word getting around. If the idea
takes off, academics will be intrested in coming and presenting.
Sometimes at a small conference, everyone can make an oral presentation.
Even if this is not possible, we cater to sensitive academic egos by
appointing discussion leaders, chairmen etc. I think that the first
stage is to go for a few high profile speakers to fill ~20% of the
programme. The rest of the speakers should be selected from the
abstracts they send in. (Hopefully, this will allow for plenty of "lay"
presentations).
> In this fact-finding stage I expect we will be going around in circles
a
> lot.
Not circles, spirals!!!
>For instance, we may discover a professor who is willing to champion
> the idea of hosting the conference at his/her own school.
That would be great. How many graduate students do we know working on
Pirsig? Ant McWatt was one . . . These graduate students are the people
who know which influential Profs. might be willing to help.
> How about if everyone who
> has suggested a location do a little legwork? Let's find out if our
> location ideas are even feasible. I suggested U of Montana. Don't
know a
> soul there, but I'll do some checking. Maybe call up the head of the
> Philosophy Dept. and say that we are in the preliminary stages of
planning
> an MOQ conference, have several locations in mind, and want to
explore the
> idea of having UofM serve as host for the event. That kind of thing.
Just
> my 2 cents (not worth a hell of a lot!)
Mary, that's a grand thought. I hope that the University is proud of
Pirsig, even if they didn't do a hell of a lot to support him 40 years
ago!!!! Besides Philosophy, you could also try the English department,
maybe even their public relations people. Actually, I suggest that you
contact PR first, to get an idea of the University's attitude. Do you
need help?
> Wishing you happiness,
> Mary Wittler
> eBay Seller ID moq
> Beautiful Dreams...
Mary, I love the dreams - keep them coming. It'll be wonderful if we can
pull something off.
Jonathan
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