CFP: Philosophy of Science Association 2022 Biennial Meeting

PSA2022: Call for Symposium Proposals

Twenty-Eighth Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association

November 10 – November 13, 2022

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Submission opens on January 5, 2022 for proposals for symposia to be presented at the PSA2022 meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 10-13, 2022. The deadline for submitting symposium proposals is 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on January 26, 2022. 

A call for contributed papers and a call for posters for the poster forum will be issued separately. Decisions will be returned on symposia submissions prior to the deadline for contributed papers. The call for session chairs will be sent out in late summer 2022. The conference will begin at 8:30 am on November 10 and last through 3:00 pm on November 13. 

A symposium should involve several presenters, typically 4-5, organized around a topic of interest in the philosophy of science (broadly construed). The PSA2022 program committee is committed to assembling a program with high-quality symposia on a variety of topics and diverse presenters that reflect the full range of current work in the philosophy of science. Symposia that make connections with current science, such as by including working scientists, or that make other connections outside philosophy, such as with history, sociology, or public policy, are warmly invited. We will not be considering “Author Meets Critics” sessions, but topical sessions that build upon recently published books are welcome. 

At the time of submission, proposers may choose to have their proposals considered for the Women’s Caucus Prize Symposium; for more information please see theWomen’s Caucus website.

Members of the PSA2022 Program Committee

Proposals must include sufficient supporting material to enable the program committee to evaluate the quality and interest of the symposium. Proposals for symposia should include:

1. The title of the proposed symposium

2. A short descriptive summary of the proposal (100-200 words)

3. A description of the topic and a justification of its current importance to the discipline (up to 1000 words)

4. A list of participants with institutional affiliations and e-mail addresses, including any non-presenting co-authors

5. Titles and abstracts of all papers (up to 500 words for each title and abstract)

6. Either an abbreviated curriculum vitae or short biographical description for each participant, including any non-presenting co-authors (up to 1 page for each participant)

See the meeting website for more information and to submit a symposium proposal after submissions open on January 5, 2022. Please note the compressed submission window - there are slightly fewer weeks between submissions opening and deadline for symposia proposals than usual, to accommodate the compressed timeline between PSA 2021 and PSA 2022.

The site also has a discussion page, which can be used to help organize and find participants for symposium proposals. To post on the discussion page or submit a proposal, you will need to first create an account, even if you’ve created an account in the past. (Click on “Create Account” on the top menu.) Each author of a symposium paper (whether a presenting author or not) and each symposium commentator will also need to create an account. 

The deadline for submitting symposium proposals is 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on January 26, 2022. Symposium organizers will be informed of the program committee’s decision prior to the deadline for submitting contributed papers (April 6, 2022). Please see important information below on the PSA policy regarding multiple submissions.

After the conference, symposium presenters may submit their papers for review for publication in a supplementary issue of Philosophy of Science. The submission deadline for symposium papers will be announced at a later date. Papers will be evaluated for publication individually. Authors are welcome to post their symposium papers as PSA2022 Conference Papers at philsci-archive.pitt.edu (a publicly accessible digital archive) prior to the meeting (note that submission to the archive does not count as prior publication for papers submitted to the supplementary issue). 

Please note that in accordance with current PSA policy:

1. No previously published paper may be submitted for presentation at the PSA meeting.

2. Any individual can be a presenting author in only one symposium proposal. Commentators are considered to be presenting authors. Multiple symposium proposals that include the same person as a presenting author will not be reviewed. 

3. No one is permitted to present more than once at each PSA meeting. Thus, if a symposium proposal in which you are a presenting author is accepted, you cannot submit a contributed paper for which you are the presenting author. Commentators that are part of symposia are considered to be presenting authors. A scholar may appear as co-author on more than one paper or symposium talk but may present at PSA2022 only once. This policy does not apply to the poster forum; a presenting author on a contributed paper or symposium paper may also present a poster in the poster forum.

4. If an accepted symposium subsequently loses participants, maintaining acceptance will be contingent on the symposium organizer developing satisfactory alternatives to maintain the quality and coherence of the session.

All questions about submissions should be directed to the Chair of the PSA2022 Program Committee, Holly Andersen, [email protected].