Call for abstracts: The science of evolution and the evolution of the sciences

We invite submissions for papers to be presented at a two-day conference on The science of evolution and the evolution of the sciences, which will be held in Leuven, Belgium on the 12th and 13th October 2016.

Submissions should take the form of a 500-word abstract. Submissions on any aspect of the evolution of scientific theories are welcome, but contributions with a clear link to digital humanities are especially encouraged.

Aims and scope of the conference:

One of the longstanding debates in history and philosophy of science concerns how the sciences develop. Thomas Kuhn famously emphasized the role of scientific revolutions and so-called paradigm shifts. Other philosophers, including Karl Popper and David Hull, have offered a Darwinian account of the process of science. In their view, scientists create conjectures about the way the world works, and these conjectures undergo a process of selection as they are tested against the world. This is analogized with biological evolution: mutation and recombination creates novelty in the biological world, which then undergoes natural selection, driving adaptive evolution. In this conference, we will reexamine these ideas using new tools from cultural evolutionary theory and the digital humanities.

This conference explores recent attempts to move beyond mere qualitative theorizing about scientific cultures and their evolution and centers on the the question of the extent to which we can make quantitative predictions, extract quantitative data, or build quantitative models of and about scientific evolution over time. In addition to numerical models of cultural evolution drawn from the evolutionary sciences, quantitative data are also being extracted in the digital humanities. Cultural products like academic journal articles can be algorithmically mined in order to understand this body of work in a new light, offering data to help test hypothesis about scientific changes. By bringing together researchers with a common interest but with different disciplinary backgrounds and toolboxes, we hope to inspire cross-fertilization and new collaborations.

Questions addressed at this conference include:

*  What novel predictions do Darwinian accounts of science offer?

*  How can we test these predictions?

*  Can new work in the digital humanities, such as the automated mining and analysis of the scientific literature, shed light on Darwinian accounts of science?

*  Do formal evolutionary models or (quantitative) textual analyses permit a systematic approach to empirical issues in the realism-instrumentalism debate?

Keynote speakers:

Charles Pence (Louisiana State University)

Kimmo Eriksson (Mälardalen University and Stockholm University)

Mia Ridge (British Library)

Simon DeDeo (Indiana University & the Santa Fe Institute)

Abstracts must be received no later than June 7. Inquiries and abstracts should be directed to the conference organizers, Andreas De Block and Grant Ramsey, at the following addresses:

Andreas.deblock@hiw.kuleuven.be and grant@theramseylab.org

The conference receives financial support from the Institute of Philosophy (KU Leuven) and the FWO (Flemish Research Council).

_______________________

Grant Ramsey

www.theramseylab.org

grant@theramseylab.org

+1 574.344.0284

Call for Proposals

Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene: A Colloquium
May 13-14, 2017
New York University

As stewards of a culture’s collective knowledge, libraries and archives are facing the realities of cataclysmic environmental change with a dawning awareness of its unique implications for their missions and activities. Some professionals in these fields are focusing new energies on the need for environmentally sustainable practices in their institutions. Some are prioritizing the role of libraries and archives in supporting climate change communication and influencing government policy and public awareness. Others foresee an inevitable unraveling of systems and ponder the role of libraries and archives in a world much different from the one we take for granted. Climate disruption, peak oil, toxic waste, deforestation, soil salinity and agricultural crisis, depletion of groundwater and other natural resources, loss of biodiversity, mass migration, sea level rise, and extreme weather events are all problems that indirectly threaten to overwhelm civilization’s knowledge infrastructures, and present information institutions with unprecedented challenges.

This colloquium will serve as a space to explore these challenges and establish directions for future efforts and investigations. We invite proposals from academics, librarians, archivists, activists, and others.

Some suggested topics and questions:

• How can information institutions operate more sustainably?
• How can information institutions better serve the needs of policy discussions and public awareness in the area of climate change and other threats to the environment?
• How can information institutions support skillsets and technologies that are relevant following systemic unraveling?
• What will information work look like without the infrastructures we take for granted?
• How does information literacy instruction intersect with ecoliteracy?
• How can information professionals support radical environmental activism?
• What are the implications of climate change for disaster preparedness?
• What role do information workers have in addressing issues of environmental justice?
• What are the implications of climate change for preservation practices?
• Should we question the wisdom of preserving access to the technological cultural legacy that has led to the crisis?
• Is there a new responsibility to document, as a mode of bearing witness, the historical event of society’s confrontation with the systemic threat of climate change, peak oil, and other environmental problems?
• Given the ideological foundations of libraries and archives in Enlightenment thought, and given that Enlightenment civilization may be leading to its own environmental endpoint, are these ideological foundations called into question? And with what consequences?

Formats:
Lightning talk (5 minutes)
Paper (20 minutes)

Proposals are due August 1, 2016.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by September 16, 2016.
Submit your proposal here: http://goo.gl/forms/rz7uN1mBNM

Planning committee:

• Casey Davis is Project Manager at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting at WGBH and co-founder of ProjectARCC: Archivists Responding to Climate Change.
• Madeleine Charney is Sustainability Studies Librarian at UMass Amherst and co-founder of the Sustainability Round Table of the American Library Association.
• Rory Litwin is a former librarian and the founder of Litwin Books, LLC (Colloquium sponsor)

Call for papers: British Society of Aesthetics Connections Conference Aesthetics and the 4E mind

Organisers: Dr Tom Roberts & Dr Joel Krueger

4th & 5th of July 2016

University of Exeter

A recent trend in philosophy of mind and cognitive science has come to rethink the role played by the brain in determining the content and character of our psychological states. These “4E” approaches see the mind as embodied, embedded, enacted, and/or extended: an agent’s mental life depends upon both her physical embodiment and her situatedness within a wider material and cultural environment.

This conference aims to explore whether, and how, this 4E paradigm can be applied to the distinctive cognitive and perceptual phenomena that belong to the aesthetic domain: those implicated in the agent’s powers of creativity, expression and performance (on the one hand) and those involved in her appreciation of, and engagement with, objects of aesthetic significance (on the other). It seeks to encourage dialogue between researchers whose expertise lies in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, and those who favour 4E approaches in philosophy of mind, with a view to understanding how these two camps together might fruitfully inform topics such as the performance and appreciation of artforms including music and dance; the role of material culture in supporting artistic achievement; and the lived experience of designed objects and the built environment.

Guiding questions include: How are an individual’s creative virtues shaped and scaffolded by her engagement with a material environment? Do art-makers create an artistic niche, as a thinker may create a cognitive niche? Is the 4E conception of affective experience as embodied and enacted able to shed light upon our emotional responses to aesthetic entities? To what extent is our experience of architecture and landscape determined by how these spaces solicit and afford skilful, embodied activity? How do our bodily capacities for movement inform our appreciation of music? Are there aesthetic affordances?

Invited speakers include:

• Clare Mac Cumhaill (University of Durham)
• Lambros Malafouris (University of Oxford)
• Komarine Romdenh-Romluc (University of Sheffield)
• Barbara Montero (City University of New York)
• Bence Nanay (University of Antwerp & Cambridge University)
• Erik Rietveld (University of Amsterdam)
• Tom Cochrane (University of Sheffield)
• Elisabeth Schellekens (University of Uppsala)

There is room for three submitted papers on the program. Please send abstracts no longer than 250 words to Joel Krueger (j.krueger@exeter.ac.uk) by 2 May. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 9 May. Early-career and untenured scholars are especially encouraged to apply. There are some funds available to help defray travel and accommodation expenses.

Conference website: http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/sociology/events/aestheticsconnections/

The University of Westminster’s School of Media, Arts & Design seeks to hire one Lecturer and one Senior Lecturer in Media Theory.

Lecturer in Media Theory:

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ANA284/lecturer-in-media-theory/

Senior Lecturer in Media Theory:

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ANA279/senior-lecturer-in-media-theory/

Expertise in social media theory/research or television studies is welcome.

Application deadline: March 16, 2016

The Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS) www.westminster.ac.uk/wias is a newly created academic space at the University of Westminster in London for independent critical thinking beyond borders. Its inaugural research theme is Critical Digital & Social Media Research.

One of the WIAS’ key features is the Research Fellowship Programme that attracts and brings together current and future academic leaders. We invite applications for international junior and senior research fellows (from all academic backgrounds) who conduct fellowship research projects in the realm of Critical Social & Digital Media Research for the duration of 3 months in 2016. Several fellowships will be awarded as result of this call. The fellowships cover airfare and a contribution to accomodation and subsistence in London.

Funded scholarships are only awarded as a result of open calls. The WIAS invites both junior and senior fellows. Junior fellows are researchers who hold a PhD that has been awarded not more than 5 years before the date of the call publication. Senior fellows are researchers who hold a PhD that has been awarded more than 5 years before the call is published.

More details and application:

https://www.westminster.ac.uk/news/2016/call-for-applications-international-research-fellowship

Application deadline: February 29, 2016, 17:00 BST

Subscription to the WIAS newsletter in order to receive updates about events, future fellowship calls, calls of the book series “Critical Digital & Social Media Studies”, publications, etc. is possible here:

https://www.westminster.ac.uk/newsletter

The University of Leeds is seeking to appoint an outstanding research leader to the position of University Academic Fellow, to be based in Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied (Faculty of Arts), to work on the Ethics of Data Analytics (“Big Data”).

Applicants are expected to have demonstrated research excellence, and teaching ability, in the broadly-defined field of ethics or practical philosophy, have a commitment to inter-disciplinary work, and a skill-set for inquiry into the specific ethical issues raised in the field of ‘big data’. This might include a research track-record in neighbouring areas of philosophical inquiry such as privacy, justice, consent, risk, the public interest, trust, procedural justice.

In outline, the prestigious position involves a 5 year period heavily weighted towards research and external engagement related to that research. Successful completion of this 5 year ‘probationary’ period will lead to an appointment as Associate Professor at grade 9, and a transition into that role at the end of the initial 5 year period.

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/news/article/4379/university_academic_fellow_in_the_ethics_of_data_analytics_big_data

Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to make informal enquiries about the role. Please contact Professor Chris Megone, tel: +44 (0)113 343 7888, email: C.B.Megone@leeds.ac.uk, or Dr Jamie Dow, tel: +44(0)113 343 7887, email: J.Dow@leeds.ac.uk.

Closing Date:      Monday 18 January 2016

—

Jamie Dow

Lecturer, IDEA Centre (Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied), University of Leeds

Tel: +44 113 343 7887

Email: J.Dow@leeds.ac.uk

Web: http://bit.ly/per6sR (staff profile, Philosophy) http://sullogismos.wordpress.com (White Rose Ancient Philosophy in Yorkshire)

http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ieajd/

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/leadingminds (Leading Minds Research Project

– the Ethics of Persuasion in Ancient Philosophy and Contemporary Leadership).

The Department of Philosophy of the University of Twente in the Netherlands is looking for two assistant professors:

Assistant Professor in Philosophy (2 years, full-time)

Assistant Professor in Philosophy (1 year, full-time)

The department of philosophy is internationally leading in the philosophy and ethics of technology, and in philosophy of science in practice. It currently includes seven tenured staff members, three tenure trackers, two postdocs, fourteen PhD students, and several temporary faculty members. The department participates in and directs the interuniversity 3TU.Center for Ethics and Technology (ww.ethicsandtechnology.eu). Both the department and the Center have a strong international orientation and include members from many different nationalities. The department is currently in need of two temporary faculty members, one for two years and one for one year, to support its teaching activities and to strengthen its research program.

The Challenge 

You teach (80%) philosophy for bachelor and master programs in engineering and social science. You may also teach philosophy courses in the master program Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society (https://www.utwente.nl/psts/). Courses may include a selection of the following, depending on your strengths and preferences, and on what is vacant: philosophy of communication, business ethics, computer ethics, philosophy of psychology, academic/research skills and methods, philosophy of (value sensitive) design, human-technology relations for engineers, philosophy of science for students in engineering and social sciences, argumentation theory and logic, professional ethics for engineers, and others. Some courses will be co-taught with other teachers. You perform research (20%) in the area of philosophy, with a focus on the role of science and technology in society. Your research will focus on philosophical issues in relation to science and/or technology, in particular on ethics of technology, human-technology relations, and/or philosophy of science in practice.  It. will be embedded in the department’s research program and in either CTIT (the Centre for Informatics and Information Technology) or MIRA (Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine). It may also be embedded in the 3TU.Center for Ethics and Technology.

Offer 

For both vacancies:  You are appointed as an Assistant Professor (full-time). The starting date is March 1, 2016 (negotiable). The gross monthly salary ranges from € 3.400,- up to € 4.654,- gross per month (based on experience) in accordance with the job profile for a “Universitair Docent-2”, under the University System for Job Classification (UJC). In addition, the University of Twente offers attractive employment conditions (for example, 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% end-of-year bonus on top of to the annual salary) and excellent facilities for professional and personal development.

Your profile 

You hold a Ph.D. in philosophy, preferably with a specialization in philosophical anthropology, (applied) ethics, political philosophy or philosophy of science (in case of the latter, preferably with specialization in social sciences), and an interest in technology and technological developments and/or in epistemological issues of the engineering and social sciences.

You have broad experience in teaching at a university level, preferably including students in science & engineering, social science, or other non-philosophical fields. You have demonstrable didactic skills in teaching, good teaching evaluations, and a passion for teaching. You are able and willing to teach in areas of philosophy outside your philosophical specialization, both in philosophy at large and in the philosophy/ethics of science and technology.

You have either had a focus on technology in your past research or you have a demonstrable interest in focusing on technology for your future research. You have published in peer-refereed journals, and have relevant international experience.

You have a strong command of the English language. All master programs at the University of Twente are taught in English, and English is the official language at departmental meetings. Bachelor teaching is often in Dutch, but in almost all cases teaching in English is allowed.

We want to stress that candidates with an all-round, broad experience in teaching (diverse courses) take precedence, since the main part of the position consists of teaching.

Information and application 

For more information, please contact prof.dr. C. Aydin (Chair Department; o.aydin@utwente.nl; phone +31-53-4893391) or prof.dr. Philip Brey (full professor and member of Daily Board; P.A.E.Brey@utwente.nl; phone: +31-53-4894426). Your application should reach us by January 17 2016, and should include a CV, a letter of application (including teaching evaluations), a summary and table of contents of your dissertation (or your full dissertation), a relevant research publication, and contact information for 2 or more references. Interviews will ideally be held between January 19 and January 29 depending on availability of selected candidates. Skype interviews are a possibility. Applications should be uploaded via www.utwente.nl/vacatures/en.

Please indicate if you want to be considered for the ‘one year position’ or the ‘two-year position’.  Depending on the financial situation of the department, there is perspective on extending the ‘one year position’ with an additional year.

About the university and region 

The University of Twente. We stand for science and technology, high tech, human touch, education and research that matter. New technology which drives change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university in the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programs. The University of Twente has a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out pioneering research. The Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences strives to hold a leading position in their fields in relation to the science and technology research programs of the University of Twente. In all these fields, the faculty provides bachelor, master and professional development programs.

The city of Enschede, in the east of the Netherlands, is a lively city of 150,000, located in beautiful countryside and near spectacular nature areas. It is only two hours away from major European cities like Amsterdam, Cologne and Düsseldorf, three hours from Brussels and also close to London, Paris and Berlin.

Every spring, Graduate Arts and Sciences at Villanova publishes outstanding graduate student articles in all disciplines in its interdisciplinary journal CONCEPT.  Under the guidance of Dr. Lisa Sewell (English), graduate students serve as editors and peer reviewers for the journal.

Call for Papers

The journal is now accepting article submissions. The author of the best article in the 2016 issue will receive the Graduate Student Research Prize. The deadline for submission is Monday, February 1, 2016. Authors should register with the website, https://concept.journals.villanova.edu/ and follow the instructions there for posting their submission. (An author may submit no more than 1 article for consideration.) Any questions should be directed to the faculty editor-in-chief, Lisa Sewell (lisa.sewell@villanova.edu). Papers in all disciplines are welcome.

Call for Volunteers

The journal is now seeking volunteers to serve as editors and peer-reviewers. A board of five graduate student editors from across the disciplines participate in the editorial process, reading and making the final decisions on the contents of the print and on-line versions of CONCEPT. Peer reviewers contribute to the process of determining the short-list of essays that will then be assessed by the editorial board.  Peer reviewers may also submit work for consideration. The deadline for submission is Monday, February 1, 2016. If you are interested in serving as an editor or peer reviewer for CONCEPT for its 2016 issue, please contact co-editor Dr. Sewell (lisa.sewell@villanova.edu) directly.

http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/graduate/currentstudents/concept.html

Is the Brain Bayesian?

REGISTER HERE

On December 4-5, the NYU Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness will host a conference on “Is the Brain Bayesian?”.

Bayesian theories have attracted enormous attention in the cognitive sciences in recent years. According to these theories, the mind assigns probabilities to hypotheses and updates them according to standard probabilistic rules of inference. Bayesian theories have been applied to the study of perception, learning, memory, reasoning, language, decision making, and many other domains. Bayesian approaches have also become increasingly popular in neuroscience, and a number of potential neurobiological mechanisms have been proposed.

At the same time, Bayesian theories have been controversial, and they raise many foundational questions. Does the brain actually use Bayesian rules? Or are they merely approximate descriptions of behavior? How well can Bayesian theories accommodate apparent irrationality in cognition? Do they require an implausibly uniform view of the mind? Are Bayesian theories near-trivial due to their many degrees of freedom? What are their implications for the relationship between perception, cognition, rationality, and consciousness?

All of these questions and more will be discussed at the conference. The conference will bring together both scientists and philosophers, and both proponents and opponents of Bayesian approaches, to discuss and debate a number of central issues. Speakers and panelists will include:

Jeffrey Bowers (Bristol), David Danks (Carnegie Mellon), Ernest Davis (NYU), Karl Friston (University College London), Weiji Ma (NYU), Larry Maloney (NYU), Eric Mandelbaum (CUNY), Gary Marcus (NYU), John Morrison (Barnard/Columbia), Nicoletta Orlandi (UC Santa Cruz), Michael Rescorla (UC Santa Barbara), Laura Schulz (MIT), Susanna Siegel (Harvard), Eero Simoncelli (NYU), Joshua Tenenbaum (MIT) and others

The conference sessions will run from 9:30am to 6pm on Friday and Saturday December 4-5. Friday sessions will be in Kimmel Center 914 (60 Washington Square South) and Saturday sessions will be in Jurow Hall in the Silver Center (100 Washington Square East). Conference registration and coffee will begin at 9am both days. A full schedule will be circulated closer to the conference date.

Registration is free but required. REGISTER HERE.