Dear NANS Friends,
I am writing to report on news important for the future of our society.
The first news is that our longtime Executive Director, Richard Schacht, has decided to step down from that role. He and I have been serving this calendar year as co-Executive Directors, and starting January 1, Dick will step back to a role on the NANS Steering Committee, after leading our society since the 1980s. We all owe him a profound debt of gratitude for making NANS what it is today, and for maintaining it (even through some troubled times) as an organization supporting a wide range of Nietzsche scholarship. I hope you will all join me in thanking Dick for his years of service to our society and our subfield.
Second, the Steering Committee has decided on a significant change to our strategy for supporting new work and scholarly communication in Nietzsche studies. Beginning with the coming year, we will sponsor a biennial conference devoted to Nietzsche scholarship. As you know, much of the society’s effort in the past was devoted to group meeting sessions at the three general national meetings of the APA. In recent years, however, attendance at the APA meetings overall (and at our group sessions, in particular) has been weakening. The Committee believes that a conference devoted specifically to Nietzsche studies will draw more participation from, and be more useful to, both established Nietzsche scholars and younger philosophers aiming to make contacts and orient themselves in our field. We will continue our publication relationship with the Journal of Nietzsche Studies, which will publish selected papers from the conference proceedings in a special issue.
I am very pleased to report that the first of these conferences will be held in New York City in October, 2016 (to coincide with Nietzsche’s 172nd birthday), and that Christa Acampora has agreed to take on the lead role in organizing it. Please watch for a Call for Abstracts inviting participation in the conference. I hope to see a large number of you there.
In conjunction with this new direction, NANS will be discontinuing group meeting participation at the Central Division and the Pacific Division APA meetings for the time being. We will continue to sponsor sessions at the Eastern APA (and to publish their proceedings with JNS), including an exciting session this January featuring Christian Emden’s recent book on Nietzsche’s Naturalism, with Peter Kail and Brian Leiter as commentators. I hope many of you will be able to attend that event as well.
Finally, third, I want to issue a special call to all of you to renew your commitment to NANS. All of us, me included, have relied heavily on Dick’s leadership of NANS for many years now, and no one person will be able to replace what he did for the society. In the time leading up to the 2016 conference, the Steering Committee will be thinking hard about how to organize society governance and leadership going forward. We welcome your participation and your ideas. There will be a business meeting at the conference to discuss these matters, but if you have ideas about the focus and organization of NANS for the Committee to consider as it prepares for that meeting, I urge you to communicate directly to me (lanier@stanford.edu). I look forward to your suggestions.
Please also visit us at our new website—https://philosophy.stanford.edu/research/north-american-nietzsche-society—where you will be able to find updated information about the activities of NANS.
With best wishes for a happy and productive new academic year,
R. Lanier Anderson
co-Executive Director
P.S. Of course, NANS also depends crucially on your commitment in the form of dues support, which underwrites all our activities, especially the new conference! Please re-join NANS for the 2015-16 academic year; dues are only $20 ($10 for students and for scholars who are retired or without regular academic employment), and they include a discount on your subscription to JNS. Dues may be paid by check made out to “North American Nietzsche Society” and mailed to
North American Nietzsche Society
c/o Department of Philosophy
Stanford University
Main Quad, Building 90
450 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-2155
A website portal for the receipt of electronic dues payments is currently under construction, and should be available for use before the new year. An announcement will be circulated to the NANS lists as soon as it is ready.
