Call for Proposals: PSA

​The Philosophy of Science Governing Board has invited MAP to sponsor a session at their upcoming biennial meeting in Atlanta (November 3 – 5, 2016). If you'd like to submit a proposal within the philosophy of science broadly construed, please email us ([email protected]) with your interest but not a full proposal by 7/17. A full proposal will be due to the PSA by early August. 


From the PSA: 


The idea is to seek a broader representation of work in philosophy of science than has traditionally been represented on the regular program of our conference. We experimented with this at our 2014 conference, and based on the number of cognate societies that organized sessions (see list below), audience sizes, and feedback on surveys, we have concluded that it was very successful. We are planning to improve upon this success in 2016.


We have set aside half a day of programming for cognate societies. The surveys from our last biennial conference indicated that Sunday morning might not have been the best time for the cognate sessions. So this year, we have set aside the first morning of our conference, Thursday morning (November 3), for cognate society sessions. We plan to schedule two ninety minute periods for these sessions (starting at 9 am and 10:45 am). Each period will have approximately eight to ten parallel sessions (we will schedule ten parallel sessions during the main conference program). PSA will provide meeting rooms and AV equipment (as we do for our main conference program). Sessions and participants will be listed on the official conference program and on-line schedules. Of course participants must register for the conference.


Proposals should include information as described below. We will consider detailed proposals for sessions with structures different than those of traditional PSA symposia (e.g. panels):


Proposals must include:
·      The title of the proposed session
·      A short descriptive summary of the proposal (100-200 words)
·      A description of the topic and a justification of its current importance to the discipline (up to 1000 words)
·      Titles and abstracts of all papers, with up to 500 words for the title and abstract of each paper (or equivalent information for alternative formats)
·      A list of participants and either an abbreviated curriculum vitae or short biographical description (not to exceed 1 page) for each participant, including any non-presenting co-authors.
·      Institutional affiliation and e-mail addresses for all participants, including any non-presenting co-authors.
Please note that in accordance with current PSA policy:
·      No previously published paper may be presented at the PSA meeting.
·      No one will be permitted to present more than once at PSA2016. Thus, if a symposium proposal in which you are a presenting author is accepted, you cannot submit a contributed paper for which you are the presenting author. A scholar may appear as co-author on more than one paper or symposium talk, but may present at PSA2016 only once (excluding presentations at the poster forum).
·      Any individual can be part of only one symposium proposal in which he or she is a presenting author.
·      If an approved symposium subsequently loses participants, the cognate society should inform the PSA and send alternates to maintain the quality and coherence of the session and adherence to PSA policies including the once on the program.