CFP: The Epistemology of Science Communication: New Directions

We are pleased to announce the second Applied Epistemology Project workshop, on the topic "The Epistemology of Science Communication: New Directions," and to invite applications to serve as a respondent at the workshop. The workshop will be held on September 22-23, 2023 at UNC Chapel Hill, and will feature talks by Nathan Ballantyne & Jared Celniker (Philosophy/Psychology, Arizona State), Justin Biddle (Public Policy, Georgia Tech), Carole Lee (Philosophy, University of Washington), Robin McKenna (Philosophy, Liverpool), Cailin O'Connor (LPS, UC Irvine), William Sandoval (School of Education, UCLA), and Dannagal Young (Communication/Political Science, Delaware).

Those interested in serving as a respondent should email a short CV to [email protected] by Wednesday, May 31st. Please also indicate if you have a preference as to which speaker(s) you would most like to respond to. All respondents will have their workshop meals covered. Respondents who are graduate students or untenured scholars and who do not have access to personal research funds will also be eligible to have accommodation and travel expenses covered. Please indicate with your application whether you meet these criteria.

A description of the workshop topic follows below:

In an age of widespread narratives about public distrust of scientific experts, researchers across the social sciences and philosophy have investigated how to enhance public trust in science and how to communicate scientific findings more effectively. But there are a range of normative epistemological questions underlying these discussions on which the literature is still nascent. Are there conditions under which distrust of scientific experts is rational? What institutional processes (e.g., peer review, evaluation of research, and open access) would make scientific work more worthy of public trust? How, if at all, should laypeople without scientific training approach the consumption of scientific research? This workshop will aim to explore these and related questions with a group of scholars across disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, education, and communication), and to crystallize an agenda for the epistemology of science communication.