CFP: From Minds to Movements: Foresight in Cognition and Activism

From Minds to Movements: Foresight in Cognition and Activism

Interdisciplinary graduate conference 

Submission Deadline: 10.03.2025

Notification of Acceptance: 11.04.2025

We are announcing a PhD symposium on Future Thinking from May 8th 2025 - May 10th 2025, at the University of Vienna. 

The first day of the conference will focus on theory, covering empirical and philosophical research on cognition and its interpretations. The second day will focus on various political, social and epistemic issues considered through the lens of empirical research. Both days will begin with a workshop, followed by oral presentations by PhD students. On the third day, the conference will be centered around future directions of research in cognitive science, and its broader implications. PhD students will have the opportunity to present their work on the topic and review the work presented throughout the conference during a roundtable discussion at the end of the last day. 

The conference will coincide with the Cognitive Science Hub’s Annual Lecture, given byHelmut Leder, which will take place in the Großer Festsaal on one of the two nights of the symposium. The participants of the conference will also be invited to attend the lecture and the proceeding reception.

Conference Themes and Questions   

The two workshops will cover the topics of conceptual change and activism in science, respectively. We warmly encourage interested parties to volunteer for running the workshops. Volunteers will have 15 to 20 minutes in total to introduce their ideas, which will then be discussed in a group setting. 

We also invite contributions on the following topics: 

• Predictive Processing

• Free energy, modelling, active inference

• Anticipation and Perception

• Causal reasoning, representations of momentum and change, biased perception, how goals impact perception

• Uncertainty and Reasoning

• Knowledge and belief, justification, practical and moral reasoning, emotions and cognition (epistemic anxiety and doubt), understanding, evidence, accuracy, reliability 

• Epistemic Trust 

• Testimony, epistemic authority, epistemic injustice, source trust

• Addressing Climate Change

• Climate misinformation, integration of cognitive science research in policy making, climate belief formation, motivating climate action 

• The Erosion of Democracy

• Personal, social, and political identity, motivated reasoning, mis and disinformation, perceptions of democracy and ethics

• Future Directions

• Understanding reality, subjectivity and the limits of human knowledge, unified theory, political change, science in action 

Presenters will have 15 minutes for their talk, followed by a 5-minute Q&A session with other speakers in the block, and a 15-minute panel discussion with the audience. 

Submission Guidelines

We welcome submissions from PhD students as well as postdoctoral researchers at early stages of their career. Contributions need not be limited to empirical research and can address the aforementioned issues from broadly philosophical and political perspectives. However, we expect applicants from other disciplines to have a background or interest in cognitive science.

Applications can be sent here: https://forms.gle/qUa6iuYaQQwCMRsd6. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words, and must be prepared for anonymous review. The deadline for submission is 10.03.2025. We will notify you of your decision by 11.04.2025. 

Funding opportunities

We can offer partial financial support to participants, whose home institutions do not cover their travel and accommodation expenses. To submit a funding request, please follow the instructions in the application form. 

Diversity statement 

We strongly encourage submissions from individuals from disadvantaged and underrepresented groups. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment and providing meaningful support to minority members throughout the application process. 

Organizing Committee:

• Ohan Hominis (Central European University)

• Maria Fedorova (University of Vienna)

• Xueyi Yao (Central European University)

• Bojin Zhu (University of Vienna)

If you have any inquiries, contact: [email protected]

The conference is supported by the Vienna Cognitive Science Hub & Gesellschaft für Kognitionswissenschaft.