Call for Applicants: Applied Epistemology Public-Facing Writing Workshop

Overview and format

The Applied Epistemology Project (the AEP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is convening a working group for scholars interested in doing public-facing writing on topics in applied epistemology. The group is aimed at helping such scholars develop their skills in writing (and pitching) for a public audience, and to help them develop and workshop a piece of public writing. We aim for a group of eight to ten scholars, with about half drawn from existing AEP Fellows at UNC, and the remaining half open to scholars from any institution.

The group will consist of four Zoom sessions over the course of the summer followed by an in-person capstone workshop at the beginning of the Fall semester, taking place at UNC-Chapel Hill on Saturday, September 6th. The Zoom sessions will include opportunities to brainstorm topics, receive feedback on writing, and interact with experts on writing and pitching philosophy for public audiences. The in-person capstone will bring the group together to discuss (pre-circulated) drafts of public-facing writing and receive additional feedback. 

At the in-person workshop, Dr. Eleanor Gordon-Smith will act as special guest and facilitator. Dr. Gordon-Smith is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University, where she received her PhD in philosophy. Starting Fall 2025, she will be Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. Her academic work focuses on the ethics of doubt and inquiry and has been published in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy and the Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy. On the public-facing side, she is the author of Stop Being Reasonable, a book recounting “seven true stories of people changing their minds in high stakes ways and what they teach us about rationality and persuasion.” Stop Being Reasonable has been translated into seven languages, reviewed in The Observer, and featured on This American Life. Dr. Gordon-Smith also writes a weekly ethical advice column, entitled ‘Leading Questions,’ for The Guardian Australia, which is read by up to 800,000 readers per column. 

Additional special guests for (some of) the Zoom sessions are to be announced.

Funding

For the in-person capstone workshop, we will cover two nights of accommodation in Chapel Hill and contribute up to $500 in transportation costs (flight, ground transportation, etc.) for each participant that is selected. 

Lunch will be provided at the capstone workshop, and we will also cover the costs of a group dinner at a local restaurant on the evening of the workshop. 

Eligibility and application 

The workshop is open to scholars of all career stages. To apply, please send the following to [email protected] by April 15th, 2025:

• a CV
•  a 300-500 word description of a public-facing writing project, related to applied epistemology, that you would like to develop over the course of the group’s meetings