Social Categories of the Future

Recent years have seen an explosion of work on social categories, including gender, race, disability, and sexual orientation. But little attention has been paid to what these and other categories might look like in the future. 

For example, trans philosophy is just beginning to broach the topic of futuristic social categories, while social metaphysics has just begun to investigate gender abolitionism (the view that gender categories should be abolished in a more just future.) Philosophers of AI have just begun thinking about how artificially intelligent entities will fit into human-constructed social structures, or whether they will develop their own social hierarchies.

We plan to bring together researchers from different approaches and viewpoints working on these and related topics. Topics for abstracts include, but are not limited to:

• The existence and nonexistence of gender categories in the future, and their level of grain

• Gender abolitionism

• Changing notions of ability, disability, and health given new technologies and scientific breakthroughs

• Changing notions of biological sex given advances in reproductive technology

• Racial, ethnic, and religious categories of the future

• Ameliorative construction and destruction of social categories 

• Social categories and hierarchies of artificial intelligent agents

This workshop is generously funded by the International Social Ontology Society and the Department of Philosophy at University of California, Santa Cruz.

Organizers: Sara Bernstein and Nico Orlandi

Please send extended abstracts of no more than 1500 words to [email protected]. Deadline: July 15, 2026 (anywhere in the world).

Small travel bursaries may be available for graduate students and precariously employed attendees. Please email the organizers to find out more.