Theme: E-Approaches to Social Difference and Disparity
Type: Conference
Institution: University of Wollongong
Location: Wollongong, NSW Australia
Date: March 13th-14th
Submission Deadline: December 30th, 2018
We are soliciting applications for contributing speaker sessions our upcoming conference at the University of Wollongong: Given that embodied and enactive approaches to cognition put the lived body, intersubjectivity, and interaction at the very core of their research paradigms, discussions of how aspects of our lived identities can shape our cognitive processes would be a natural application. Topics in this literature often include how our socio-cultural situation influences how we think, how we comport ourselves, and how we perceive others who are similarly or differently situated. Despite this, there is a shortage of literature in which these frameworks are used to directly discuss the influence of gender, race, or sexuality on perception, social cognition, and other cognitive processes. This conference intends to address how we might take race, gender, and sexuality into account in answering core questions of philosophy of mind using enactive and embodied approaches to cognition. While work like this is important in itself, we are also interested in implications this research could have for issues in ethics and epistemology.
This conference invites contributors to address and evaluate how the differences that gender, race and sexuality have on cognitive processes, as well as explore how such discussions might bring clarity to important contemporary socio-political discussions. Topics could include (but are not limited to): – intersections and commonalities between feminist theory and/or critical race theory and enactive/embodied approaches to cognition.
– the influence of gender or race in social cognition
– enactive/embodied explanations of issues about testimonial or epistemic credibility
– enactive/embodied accounts of individual and group differences in perspectives
– enactive, embodied and interactivist approaches to in-group and out-group dynamics
– utilizing enactive, embodied and interactive resources to explain the development of implicit biases, stereotypes, and what to do about them
– enactive, embodied, and narrative accounts of group identities
– applying enactive and embodied resources to discussions of interaction and group dynamics within particular institutional settings
– examining the effects of the socio-cultural biases of researchers investigating cognition
Confirmed Speakers:
Shaun Gallagher (University of Memphis, University of Wollongong)
Elena Cuffari (Worcester State University)
Rob Wilson (La Trobe University)
Nick Brancazio (University of Wollongong)
We will have 4-6 spots for contributing speakers. Applicants are invited to submit an abstract of 500-700 words to jurgens.alan@gmail.com by December 30th, 2018. We will aim to notify applicants of acceptance by January 5th, 2019.
There will be no registration fee for the conference. We will not be able to provide bursaries or other financial support for contributing speakers.
This conference is organized by Alan Jurgens (University of Wollongong) and Nick Brancazio (University of Wollongong) and is funded by an Australasian Association of Philosophy Postgraduate Conference grant award and the Narrative Practices Research Network.
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Alan Jurgens, MA
Doctoral Candidate in Philosophy of Mind & Cognition
Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts (19.1066)
University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia
4E Cognition Group 