Can social ontology save the world?

The International Social Ontology Society workshop "Can Social Ontology Change the World?" will take place October 30-31, 2026 at the Harbour Centre Campus of Simon Fraser University in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. 

In recent years, the sub-discipline of social ontology has undergone a decidedly political reorientation. In non-ideal, emancipatory, and critical social ontology, theorists explicitly ask whether our theorizing should have political goals or be relevant for political ends. An uptick in investigations on the metaphysics of race and gender has centered anti-racist, feminist, and trans struggles. These projects (e.g., Haslanger 2000; Dembroff 2016; Jenkins 2023; Richardson 2023) explicitly theorize with a political purpose, and so presuppose that social ontology can play a role in the struggle for social justice. But, taking a step back, this workshop questions the precise relationship between social ontology and politics. Are social ontologists changing the world, or merely interpreting it? Given the former, are there social ontological theories or methods better suited for direct political intervention, and, if so, what makes them better? Given the latter, what is the relationship, if any, between description and political intervention?   

We invite the submission of abstracts of 500-700 words for 20-minute presentations of papers related to the theme of the conference. Please send anonymized abstracts to [email protected]. The deadline for submitting is June 15th, with notice of acceptance by July 15th.  

Some travel grants and support for accommodations will be available for graduate students and faculty members who do not have access to research funds; please indicate in your submission email if you would like to be considered for support.