2021- 22 Fellows Announced!

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The Center is pleased to announce our list of the Fellows who will be joining us for the 2021-22 academic year.  We’re especially happy to have some past visitors back with us in new roles.  Many more details will follow, but for now, here is the complete list:

Senior Visiting Fellow
Heather Douglas, Michigan State University

Fall Visiting Fellows
Brian McLoone, Higher School Economics (Moscow)
Anthony Beavers, University of Evansville
Matthew Parker, University of Western Ontario
Darrell Rowbottom, Lingnan University
Hyunduek Cheon, Seoul National University

Spring Visiting Fellows
Leonardo Bich, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
Laura Menatti Passages UMR 5319 CNRS (Bordeaux)
Eugen Fisher, University of East Anglia
Ruth Kastner, University of Maryland
Serife Tekin, UT at San Antonio

Postdocs
Ravit Dotan, UC Berkeley
Aydin Mohseni, UC Irvine

The Center’s Pandemic Response, Spring Term 2021

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As the University of Pittsburgh moves to the Spring semester, we are committed to providing the same challenging, stimulating programs for which the Center has been known for sixty years, albeit adapted to our new reality.
We will be fully complying with the University’s COVID-19 guidelines and operational postures as outlined here:
https://www.coronavirus.pitt.edu

 

As a result, we will be adopting the changes below for Spring 2021, beginning January 16:

 

Annual Lecture Series

All of the Annual Lecture Series talks scheduled in the Spring will be held online.
View the schedule here.

 

Lunchtime Talks

Lunchtime Talks will be online during the entirety of the Spring 2021 term.

 

Conferences

ANCESTRY: EVIDENCE, INFERENCE, AND IDENTITY (January 22, 2021 – January 23, 2021) will be held online.  Details here.

Nick Hugget’s Senior Visiting Fellow conference will be re-imagined as a series of online seminars. More details TBA.

 

Fellows

Our Fellows are the lifeblood of the Center and their wellbeing is of the utmost importance to us.

If the University of Pittsburgh adopts the guarded posture by early February, some Fellows’ activities will be moved to in-person on March 1. A decision will be made early in February.

If the University of Pittsburgh adopts the intermediate posture throughout the semester, all the Fellows’ activities will be online.

 

Staffing

In accordance with University guidelines, Center staff will continue to work remotely. If you need to contact any of our staff, you can find our email addresses here.

Welcome, Katie!

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As we say ‘Goodbye’ to Carolyn this week, we are also welcoming our new Assistant Director, Kathleen “Katie” Labuda.

Katie will be a familiar face to many of you, as she comes to us from the Departments of Philosophy & HPS, where she was the Graduate Program Administrator.  We know she’ll be a great addition to the Center team!

Farewell, Carolyn

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Carolyn Oblak, the Center’s Assistant Director, has retired!

Carolyn joined the Center in late 2015 and has helped usher in many changes and programs that have greatly enriched the Center, including the Pittsburgh Summer Program for Underrepresented Groups, a new website and newsletter, the Grünbaum Memorial conference, and the move to the 11th floor, all while also managing the Visiting Fellows program and keeping us on budget.

Though her last official day was September 30, Carolyn will be with us for a few more weeks helping to train her replacement, Kathleen Labuda.

The Center staff will greatly miss Carolyn’s efficiency, can-do spirit, friendly greetings, handmade gifts, and endless array of healthy smoothie recipes.  Our best wishes for a healthy and fulfilling retirement!

The Center Debates!

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“The Center Debates” is a new initiative of the Center for Philosophy of Science. Our goal is to promote serious, but respectful and constructive exchanges about controversial topics of interest to historians and philosophers of science, scientists, and the lay public. Typically two speakers with a different perspective on a given topic are invited to debate; each gives a 20-minute presentation, followed by two 10-minute responses to the other’s speaker presentation. This exchange will then be followed by a 30 minute Q&A.

The first entry in the series will take place on October 6, when Cailin O’Connor will face off against Hugo Mercier on the topic of “Fake News.”

Learn More

Call for Papers: Ancestry conference

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Ancestry: Evidence, Inference, and Identity

January 22-23, 2021

The aim of this virtual conference is to bring together anthropologists, biologists, historians, and philosophers of science to address the concept of ancestry in relation to scientific inferences about the evolutionary history of humans. In the past 50 years, ancestry and the inference thereof have become molecularized, automated, and commodified. This shift has profound implications. The history and philosophy of molecular systematics raises important questions about the epistemic priority of competing sources of evidence, the scope and limitations of computational phylogenetics, the challenges of representing relationships among taxa in both the past and present, the social epistemological dimensions of big data acquisition and analysis, and the possibility of specific legitimate and responsible role(s) for political values in postgenomic inference. Participants in this workshop are invited to explore how such practices both inform and interact with both phylogenetic and popular notions of identity.

Keynote Speakers

Rob DeSalle (American Museum of Natural History and the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics)

Matt Haber (Philosophy Department, University of Utah)

Edna Suárez-Díaz (Science and Technology Studies, National University of Mexico)

 

Submission Guidelines

Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words by November 30,2020. Notifications will be sent in December 2020.

Abstract submission is electronic, and must be made through Easy Chair at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ancestry2020

We encourage early career scholars and individuals working in range of disciplines to submit their proposals for this conference. We particularly welcome submissions from members of underrepresented groups.

 

Organizing Committee

Michael R. Dietrich (History and Philosophy of Science)

Marina R. DiMarco (History and Philosophy of Science)

Jeffrey H. Schwartz (Anthropology)

All questions about submissions should be emailed to Michael Dietrich mrd98@pitt.edu

Announcing a New Journal: Philosophy of Medicine

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NEW OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL: PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINE

 

 

 

The mission of Philosophy of Medicine is to serve as the flagship journal for the field by advancing research in philosophy of medicine, by engaging widely with medicine, health sciences and the public, and by providing open-access content for all.

Website: https://philmed.pitt.edu

Sponsorship for the journal is provided by the Center for the Philosophy of Science.

The Center’s Pandemic Response, Fall Term 2020

Posted on by cheryl

As the University of Pittsburgh reopens for the Fall semester, we are committed to providing the same challenging, stimulating programs for which the Center has been known for sixty years, albeit adapted to our new reality.
We will be fully complying with the University’s COVID-19 guidelines and operational postures as outlined here:
https://www.coronavirus.pitt.edu

 

As a result, we will be adopting the changes below for Fall 2020:

Updated Sept.11, 2020
All events moved online for the term.

 

Annual Lecture Series

All of the Annual Lecture Series talks scheduled between Sept – Dec, will be held online.
View the schedule here.

 

Lunchtime Talks

Lunchtime Talks will be online during the entirety of the Fall 2020 term.

 

Conferences

The Problems of Cognitive Ontology conference has been re-imagined as a series of online seminars. More details and registration here.

The Particle and High-Energy Physics Conference has been cancelled.

 

Fellows

Our Fellows are the lifeblood of the Center and their wellbeing is of the utmost importance to us. Fall Fellows will participate virtually.

 

Staffing

In accordance with University guidelines, Center staff will continue to work remotely. If you need to contact any of our staff, you can find our email addresses here.

COVID-19 Update

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Due to concerns about the spread of coronavirus, the Center for Philosophy of Science along with the University of Pittsburgh, will be enacting changes to limit face-to-face group settings.

To this end, we are cancelling all Center events for the remainder of Spring term.  This includes:

  • The “Problems of Cognitive Ontology” conference
  • Annual Lecture Series talk scheduled for March 20
  • Lunchtime Talks

Please continue to check back here for any updates or notices of virtual programs, and continue to engage with us on social media.

For further information, here is the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s official statement on COVID-19 changes.

 

New! Summer Archival Fellowship

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We invite applications for a new month-long Summer Archival Fellowship supporting a visit in the Center and research at the Archives of Scientific Philosophy.

The Summer Archival Fellowship is available for June or July 2020.

The Summer Archival Fellow will be given an office at the Center and will receive a $1,500 stipend.

Please send by March 15, 2020 the following materials to Carolyn Oblak (cjo13@pitt.edu):

(1) A cover letter that indicates a Summer Archival Fellowship is sought and describes: the month of proposed residence in the Center; note previous fellowships at the Center.
(2) A description of the research to be undertaken at the Archives of Scientific Philosophy during residence (1500 words).
(3) A curriculum vitae.

We particularly welcome submissions from members of underrepresented groups in philosophy of science.

Farewell Joyce

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Joyce McDonald is retiring in February 2020.
Joyce has served the University of Pittsburgh, and the Center for Philosophy of Science for 25 years, having worked with four Center Directors (Jerry Massey, James Lennox, John D. Norton, and Edouard Machery), supported hundreds of Fellows, and been the organizing force behind countless Lunchtime Talks and Annual Lecture Series events.  Her warm and personal style has helped to make the Center a “home away from home” for our Fellows and many guests.