Dear Friends and Colleagues
It has been another busy second quarter of the 2023 year for the Philosophy of Science Association and with many initiatives under way, I thought I should give you an update about a number of upcoming events.
However, before I do so, I wanted to express on behalf of the whole philosophy of science community my deep sadness at the news of Evelyn Fox Keller passing away. Fox Keller has been a towering figure in the field of science and technology studies and feminist philosophy of science. Her many books dedicated to the history and philosophy of biology have defined the field and left a long-lasting impact. My thoughts are with Fox Keller’s family, friends, colleagues, and students in remembering this extraordinary philosopher of science.
I expect more information and ‘in memoriam’ articles will appear in the next few weeks, and we will link to them in the next PSA newsletter.
Coming back to my PSA update, first of all, I am delighted to announce that the registration and program of the inaugural PSA Around the World 2023 is now available online. The conference will run on ZOOM for 3h on each of the following three days:
Sunday 5th November 9am Beijing time / Tokyo 10am / Saturday 4th Nov. New York EST 8pm / Sunday 5th November London 1am GMT
Saturday 11th November 5pm Beijing time / Tokyo 6pm / New York EST 4am / London 9am GMT
Friday 17th November 9am Beijing time / Tokyo 10am / Thursday 16th Nov. New York EST 8pm / Friday 17th November London 1am GMT
We are experimenting a new format with the first hour of each day dedicated to a plenary panel in-conversation session and the following 2h with over 100 contributed papers over three days that will run in parallel sessions via ZOOM breakout rooms.
The three plenary panel in-conversation sessions will have each a thematic focus on East Asia and South East Asia as follows:
Day 1, Sunday 5th November 2023. Philosophy of science in the institutional context of East Asia and South East Asia (Chair: Teru Miyake, Singapore).
Panellists:
Duoyi Fei (China)
Sang Wook Yi (South Korea)
Hsiang-Ke Chao (Taiwan)
Sayaka Oki (Japan)
Day 2, Saturday 11th November 2023. Researching and Teaching Philosophy of Science in East Asia and South East Asia (Chair: Natalja Deng, Seul)
Panellists:
Tetsuji Iseda (Japan)
Ilho Park (South Korea)
Wang Wei (China)
Yin Chung Au (Taiwan)
Day 3, Friday 17th November 2023. Traditions and cultures in the practice of philosophy of science in East Asia and South East Asia (Chair: Karen Yan, Taiwan)
Panellists:
RueyLin Chen (Taiwan)
Soraj Hongladarom (Thailand)
Li Jianhui (China)
Jing Zhu (China)
As already announced in the May 2023 newsletter, we received a high number of contributed papers for this CfP with a fantastic representation from East Asia and South East Asia but also more globally across the PSA community in the US, Europe, and everywhere else. The PSA Around the World 2023 Program Committee has worked very hard to finalise a program that is geographically diverse, wide-ranging in its topics, and genuinely exciting!
Thus, we very much invite all PSA members—wherever you are—to join us online for those dates in November, to celebrate the vibrant philosophy of science scene of East Asia and South East Asia and to get together one more time (even if online) before our next in person Biennial Meeting in November 2024.
Registration for this event is now open!
There is a small registration fee to cover admin costs incl. EasyChair (which is sadly no longer free to use) and ZOOM license but it can easily be waived by ticking the relevant box on the online form if you do not have institutional funding to cover for it.
Once again this new initiative is due to the tireless commitment and dedication of the PSA International Relations Committee with Hasok Chang (Chair), Chuang Liu, Teru Miyake and all the colleagues in the PSA AW2023 Program Committee that I had the pleasure and honour of chairing over the past year.
Hasok Chang, Natalja Deng, Zhu Jing, Chuang Liu, Qiaoyin Lu, Teru Miyake, Yuko Murakami, Jun Otsuka, Karen Yan, Sang Wook Yi, Wang Wei, Billy Wheeler, Jiji Zhang have all been working long hours over the past 12 months to organise PSA AW 2023. Needless to say, the PSA Executive Director, Max Cormendy, assisted by Ramy Amin in the Cincinnati office, have made everything possible for the organisation and planning of this event in all its details. My deep gratitude goes to them all. They have been a wonderfully collegial, enthusiastic, and dedicated group of colleagues to work with.
In other news, the Call for Symposia for the next Biennial Meeting of the PSA in New Orleans (14-17 November 2024) will soon be out, followed by Call for Contributed Papers and Call for Cognate Societies sessions. I am delighted to announce that the following colleagues have kindly agreed to serve in the following roles:
- David Danks (UC San Diego) PSA 2024 Program Chair
- Charbel El-Hani (Federal University of Bahia) PSA 2024 Poster Session Chair
- Mary Morgan (LSE) PSA 2024 Cognate Societies Session Chair
Many thanks to David, Charbel and Mary for their generous availability to help organise the next Biennial Meeting, with more announcements coming out soon via the PSA newsletter and PSA website.
Next, a quick follow-up on my earlier announcement about the PSA current work on a Strategic Plan which aims to lay out values and priorities for the PSA over the next few years. Following upon the creation of a dedicated task force group consisting of PSA Past Presidents, President-Elect, and current Chairs of various PSA Committees, the task force group started the work on the Strategic Plan document in late May. We have made progress in collectively drafting a document and we hope to be able to report back once this is finalised over the next year or so, including consultation mechanisms with the PSA community at large.
Finally, the PSA Office Hour initiative continues with a series of upcoming events in the fall 2023, which you can find here: https://philsci.org/psa_office_hour.php We invite all PSA members especially graduate students but also postdocs to join these online events by registering through the link above. We are grateful to the colleagues that have kindly given their availability to run these office hours. We welcome your suggestions for additional new office hours as we go into the new year.
I look forward to seeing many of you via ZOOM at the PSA Around the World 2023 conference in November. And in the meantime, I wish you all a productive new academic year.
Very best wishes,
Michela Massimi
(PSA President 2023-24)