The 11th Annual Felician Ethics Conference will take place on Saturday, October 14, 2017 from 9 am to 6 pm at Felician’s Rutherford Campus, 223 Montross Ave., Rutherford NJ, 07070. Registration and the concurrent sessions will take place in the lobby of the Educations Common Building on Montross Ave, lunch is in “The Falcon’s Nest” nearby, the plenary session is in the Education Commons, and the evening reception is in the parlor of The Castle a few paces away. For more information click the specific tabs for “October 2017 Conference.” If you have a question that isn’t answered on the website, feel free to contact Irfan Khawaja at felicianethicsconference@gmail.com. (You’ll be receiving a folder with a name badge and all relevant information.)
SESSIONS
We’ll be running three sets of sessions, three concurrent sessions at a time (starting 9:30 am, 11:15 am, and 4 pm). Each concurrent session involves two presentations, 45 minutes each (roughly 25 minutes’ presentation time, 20 minutes for discussion). There are no official commenters: we move immediately from presentation to general discussion. Moderators are asked to read the papers for their session ahead of time, and are given the prerogative of keeping order in the session, directing the discussion in a fruitful way, and taking an active part in the session. Each room is equipped with a computer and “Smart Board” (for Power Point, Prezi-type presentations).
FOOD & DRINK
We’ll be serving a buffet-style continental breakfast with registration, and we’ll have tea, coffee, water, and juice all day in Martin 105. A complimentary lunch will be served in the Falcon’s Nest (out the back door of Martin Hall about 50 yards, then left about 100 yards), and there will be a wine and cheese reception after the conference, in the parlor on the first floor of “The Castle” (just behind the Education Commons building). A few of us are planning to go out to dinner after the conference; please email me if you’d like to join us. (The dinner is not an “official” part of the conference.) If you have specific dietary restrictions, please email Irfan Khawaja (felicianethicsconference@gmail.com) as soon as possible.
Here’s a single handy link for restaurant information, with our Rutherford campus located on the map. The listed restaurants are all on or around Park Ave, about half a mile from campus, an easy walk through a pleasant neighborhood. Click the map once, and it’ll zoom out enough to show Felician’s Rutherford campus.
Note: to the bafflement of outsiders, Rutherford is (for purposes of alcohol consumption) a “dry town.” The preceding hyperlink provides the official municipal definition and explanation. Feel free to take them up on their invitation for comments at the bottom of the page. (Yes, we’re open to receiving paper submissions on the legitimacy of the “dry town” idea.)
Directions: If you travel east on W. Passaic Ave for about half a mile (i.e., up the hill), you’ll come to Park Ave., landmarked by a traffic circle, war monument, and public library. I’ll call this “the Passaic/Park intersection.” To get to downtown Rutherford, take a left at the Passaic/Park intersection, and you’ll come upon all of the restaurants listed in the link, except for Cafe Matisse and Daruma, which are a right turn from Passaic/Park. There are also lots of Chinese take-out places in the same vicinity, a Dunkin Donuts, a Dairy Queen, as well as fast food places, liquor stores of various types, newsstands, etc.
For bars, keep walking past the rail station into East Rutherford; there are several bars on the proverbial “other side of the tracks.” Because Rutherford is a dry town (see above), but East Rutherford is not.
SERVICES
1. There are gas stations, a Rite Aid, and mini-mart type grocery stores along Park Ave. (take a right from the Passaic/Park intersection).
2. There is a UPS Store at 1 Orient Way (photocopying, Internet access, etc.; 201-939-5200), just across the street from the Rutherford rail station (a left from the Park/Passaic intersection). It is not certain that we will have access to a photocopier or to the Internet in our building, where the conference will take place (we’re working on it). You will be able to give Power Point demonstrations, etc. If you’re making handouts for a given session, I’d make about 20. (The plenary speaker is an obvious exception to this.)
THINGS TO DO IN RUTHERFORD
Fine dining and great philosophy aside, there is, to be entirely candid, not that much to do in the fair borough of Rutherford, New Jersey (“The Borough of Trees”). One of the more popular activities is leaving Rutherford for nearby New York City. For that activity, consult the “Travel” tab.
We would be shortchanging Rutherford, however, if we didn’t mention the Williams Center for the Arts, named after Rutherford resident William Carlos Williams.
Here’s a link of things to do in and around Rutherford.
If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Irfan Khawaja (felicianethicsconference@gmail.com). We’re looking forward to seeing you all here!
Last modified: October 9, 2017
Institute for Ethics and Public Affairs 