2026 West Coast Plato Workshop
The 19th annual meeting of the WCPW will be held at Chapman University in Orange, California. Below are the meeting focus, dates, and keynote information.
Meeting focus
The workshop will focus on Books VIII and IX of Plato's Republic.
Keynote
The keynote speaker will be Mark Johnstone (McMaster University), author of "Tyrannized Souls: Plato's Depiction of the ‘Tyrannical Man’" and "Anarchic Souls: Plato’s Depiction of the ‘Democratic Man’".
Participants
We anticipate ten main papers and ten commentators. All who are interested in participating are welcome to submit an abstract (required for consideration for main papers) or to email the meeting organizer (Brennan McDavid, mcdavid@chapman.edu) to indicate interest in commenting.
Submit
Submissions are open for the 2026 meeting of the WCPW to be held at Chapman University in Orange, CA, on May 29 - May 31.
Last day to submit is December 15, 2025.
Preparing Your Abstract
Papers addressing any aspect of Books VIII and IX of the Republic, including the relationship of those books to the larger dialogue and to other works, both in Plato's corpus and beyond Plato, are welcome.
Only an abstract (not full paper) is necessary at this stage. Please limit your abstract to 500 words. Include a title and three keywords.
Your abstract should be prepared for blind review. Do not include your name in the document.
Acceptable file types:
- doc
- docx
Submission Instructions
Submit prepared abstracts to Brennan McDavid (meeting organizer) at mcdavid@chapman.edu by December 15, 2025.
All inquiries regarding submissions should be directed to Dr. McDavid.