Earlier this week, we announced some of the information for this year’s Stoicon conference, coming up this Fall – Saturday, October 14 2017. After several years of being held in London, last year’s conference took place in in New York City (and with over 330 attendees, was so far as we know the largest gathering of people interested in Stoic philosophy in history). This year, Stoicon will be held in another major metropolis – Toronto – and we are expecting it to be just as engaging a conference as the previous ones!
The theme selected this year – for both Stoicon and Stoic Week – is “Stoicism at Work”, a topic quite timely in our present era. The conference will take place at the Holiday Inn, Yorkdale in Toronto.
Tickets can be booked online via EventBrite.
We will be posting more details about hotel rates and tickets for Stoicon in the coming months, here in Stoicism Today. Keep an eye out for details forthcoming about events on the Sunday following the conference as well!
The full schedule – Fate permitting! – for the conference is available. The morning will be devoted to a set of plenary talks by expert Stoic writers, researchers, and practitioners (and of course, informal conversations over coffee during the breaks). After a break for lunch, we then resume and break out into a set of smaller sessions. These provide either longer (45-minute) talks or intensive 90 minute workshops, focused on the key themes of the conference. Then, after a short break, we reconvene for a talk by the renowned scholar, Margaret Graver, and then carry on the conversations at the reception.
Schedule
8 – 9am Registration and coffee
Plenary Sessions
- 9am Introduction: What is Stoicism?
Donald Robertson, author of Teach Yourself Stoicism - 9.30am How to be a Stoic: Conversations with Epictetus
Prof. Massimo Pigliucci, author of How to be a Stoic - 10am The Stoic Minimalist: Practicing Stoicism, Avoiding Controversies
Dr. Chuck Chakrapani, author of Unshakable Freedom: Ancient Stoic Secrets Applied to Modern Life
10.30am Morning break (30 min.)
- 11am Stoicism, Buddhism, and Judaism
Dr. Ronald Pies, author of Everything has Two Handles - 11.30am Living the Best Possible Life: Epictetus’ Rx for Clarity, Ease, and Serenity.
Sharon Lebell, author of The Art of Living - 12pm Stoicism and Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT)
Dr. Walter Matweychuk, author of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: A Newcomer’s Guide - 12.30pm Phobias, Terrorism, and Stoic Fearlessness
Prof. William O. Stephens, author of Marcus Aurelius: A Guide for the Perplexed
1 – 2.30pm Lunch break:
2.30 – 4pm Parallel Talks & Workshops
- Stoicism and Values Clarification (Workshop)
Prof. Christopher Gill, author of The Structured Self in Hellenistic and Roman Thought
Tim LeBon, author of Wise Therapy - Stoicism and Creativity (Talk)
Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacle is the Way - Stoic Perspectives on Leisure, Work, Duty, Discipline, and Vocation (Talk)
Stephen Hanselman, author of The Daily Stoic - Stoicism and Military Resilience (Workshop)
Col. Thomas Jarrett, developer of Warrior Resilience Training - Dealing with Difficult People At Work – Stoic Strategies (Workshop)
Dr. Greg Sadler, editor of Stoicism Today, co-founder of ReasonIO
Andi Sciacca, COO of Big Mind Institute, co-founder of ReasonIO - Introduction to Stoic Psychological Skills (Workshop)
Donald Robertson, author of The Philosophy of CBT: Stoic Philosophy as Rational and Cognitive Psychotherapy
4 – 4.30pm Afternoon break
4.30 – 5.15pm Keynote: Stoicism & Emotion
Prof. Margaret Graver, author of Stoicism and Emotion
5.15 – 5.30pm Closing
5.30 – 7pm Reception
For more information, please subscribe to this blog, follow us on Twitter, or on Facebook. As noted above, additional information about the conference will be announced in the coming months.
I’m excited about another stoicon. However, even though the theme is Work there is little in the plenary sessions (with the narrow exception of the military) about the application of Stoic philosophy and principles to the workplace. Think about the problems of job strain with high demand and low control, of the depression epidemic in the workplace and potential for CBT and also how one can accept with serenity and equanimity being replaced by robot?
We all work, we all have strong work identification especially those who are unemployed and wish and miss the mutual support and identification with the workplace.
If the conference has Work as a theme then Work should have a more robust presence rather than a token one.
Michael
Michael Wills MD FRCPC
Occupational Medicine
It wouldn’t be prudent to judge entire talks just by their one-line titles. I’m sure you’ll see plenty of discussion of the issues you raise in the plenary sessions by most of the speakers.
And, if you want something that focuses almost obsessively on that theme of the workplace, consider participating in the workshop Andi and I will be providing.
As Greg said, the titles are too brief to spell out in detail the connection with work but that’s the theme that all speakers have been asked to incorporate. We’ll be updating the information over time to provide more details and explain how most of the talks/workshops relate directly to the conference theme.
Very interesting! I’d love to attend if I can (will investigate logistics)!
One comment: as a woman interested in Stoic thinking and practice, I’ve noticed a dearth of women speakers and writers in this field (and at this event). I’d like to help change that as a writer myself.
Thoughts?
Unfortunately, there is something of a shortage of female authors who have written books on Stoicism. We’ve made a special effort to have a balanced line-up of presenters, though. There were two female speakers scheduled for this event: Andi Sciacca and Prof. Margaret Graver. We’ve now added the final speaker, who is Sharon Lebell, author of The Art of Living. So that’s three female speakers in total, including the keynote. I think that’s not bad given the fact that male authors just happen to be more numerous in this field. (We did invite several other female speakers, incidentally, who were unable to attend.)
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Hi! I was fortunate enough to attend the Toronto Stoicon last week. I am looking for the slides of the presentations, which I believe will be made available on this site? Thank you for having brought the Stoicon to Canada this year.
Yes – look for slides, handouts, videos, and so on to be posted in the coming weeks