Table
of Contents:
- Letter
from the PSA President
- Nagel
Award 2020
- Philosophy
of Science Editorship
- PSA
Around the World CFP
- DEI
Caucus
- UPSS
Session
- PSA
2024
|
|
|
Letter
from the President
|
It
is a great privilege to
have served the PSA as
President for the last two
years, in what have been
interesting times.
Despite some challenges,
as the worst of the
pandemic is beginning to
pass, I’m happy to report
that the PSA is now in
rude health. While the
Baltimore meeting included
many fine sessions and was
greatly enjoyed by those
who attended, it was a
smaller than usual affair
and rather under the
shadow of the virus.
Pittsburgh, with over 650
attendees, brought us
within a handful of our
record for pre-Covid
numbers. It was clear in
Pittsburgh that the PSA
had fully weathered the
storm.
I
should thank some of the
people who made this
happen. As many will
recall, our former
Executive Director
resigned just before the
Baltimore meeting, shortly
after we had, following
much debate, decided to
hold the meeting at all.
This was undoubtedly a low
point in my presidency.
However, with the help of
many members and friends
of the PSA, above all of
the tireless Jessica
Pfeifer, who had rashly
imagined that eight years
of service as PSA
Executive Director might
be enough, we got the show
on the road and, as
already mentioned, had a
small but successful
meeting.
We
then set about finding a
new Executive Director.
This process was led by
the indefatigable Angela
Potochnik, now officially
the Governing Board
Liaison with the Executive
Office, and the person
responsible for the
establishment of our new
office at the University
of Cincinnati. From a
number of excellent
candidates we were
fortunate indeed to
appoint Max Cormendy. In
half the normal time, and
from a standing start, Max
and his excellent team,
organised one of our best
ever meetings at
Pittsburgh. I would like
also to mention one member
of his staff, Taraneh
Wilkinson, who has
spearheaded the
professionalisation of our
fund-raising operations.
Taraneh and Max set new
benchmarks for support for
the Pittsburgh meeting,
and as funding in the
future looks increasingly
uncertain, philanthropy is
likely to be an
increasingly vital part of
the PSA economy. Overall,
the Executive Office is
now running like a
well-oiled machine.
My
very special thanks to all
the people mentioned so
far and also to the
Governing Board and most
especially to the
Past-President and
President-Elect, Alison
Wylie and Michela Massimi.
The Governing Board is the
heart of the PSA and as
President it has been an
ever-available source of
advice and leadership.
Alison, Michela and other
members of the Governing
Board have been involved
with all of the exciting
initiatives that have
transformed and grown the
PSA over recent years.
Finally,
having had the unique
privilege of being
involved as President in
two biennial meetings, I
have a strong sense of the
importance and demanding
character of the job of
Program Director. I first
observed this being
performed with
characteristic competence
by the aforementioned
Angela Potochnik, and then
was more closely involved
with an equally excellent
performance by Holly
Andersen. This is surely
one of the very biggest
demands the PSA makes of
individual members, and
they deserve our deep
gratitude.
It
is great to have our
biennial meetings back on
track, but this also
raises a concern that has
been much discussed by the
Governing Board for
several years, and has
been brought into new
focus by Covid, the carbon
footprint of our meetings.
A committee to explore the
issue was set up by Alison
Wylie and is now led by
Kerry McKenzie, a
passionate advocate for
more climate friendly
policies. Holly Andersen,
as many of you will know,
devoted a substantial part
of her honorarium as
program chair, to two
ecological regeneration
projects with substantial
carbon capture potential.
It’s not clear how
significant an impact this
kind of project could make
on our carbon footprint in
the future, but Holly’s
generous and exciting
projects give us a
starting point for
exploring this. Much of
our effort is currently
directed at the
measurement activities
that members will
recognise as the essential
preliminary to an informed
policy decision. There
are, of course, major
possible gains from
putting some or all of our
biennial conference
online. But polls of the
membership have shown a
clear consensus that no
online event could serve
the core purposes of our
meetings. And the
technology for hybrid
meetings remains
problematic and expensive.
So this is a topic very
much under continued
review.
An
vital and ongoing goal of
the PSA that has been very
much advanced by past
presidents is improvement
in our equality, diversity
and inclusion (EDI).
Various groups have been
established to try to
address this problem, or
set of problems, including
the Underrepresented
Philosophy of Science
Scholar Initiative
Committee (UPSSIC), the
Diversity and Climate
Committee, and the EDI
Caucus, until recently the
Women’s Caucus. Many PSA
members have made
invaluable contributions
to these efforts, but I
must single out Alicia
Bokulich for her
extraordinary efforts as
head of UPSSIC. The
project set up by her
committee, which provides
mentoring for scholars
from underrepresented
groups, is one of the
largest and most
successful of our current
initiatives.
Another
direction in which we
would like to improve the
PSA is in our growing
inclusion of scholars from
more of the world,
especially the developing
world. Under the
leadership of Hasok Chang,
the Internationalisation
Committee is making real
progress in this
direction. In
collaboration with Michela
Massimi a set of off-year,
online meetings based in
various parts of the world
less generally involved
with the PSA is being
established. I hope all
members will follow
announcements about these
closely and look out for
opportunities to get
involved.
The
PSA is a remarkably active
organisation, and I fear
that by singling out some
of our current activities
I have inevitably risked
causing offence to some of
the many members involved
with other projects.
Please forgive me. If I
acknowledged all the
people who have worked
tirelessly to improve the
PSA, I would very soon
exhaust the reader’s
patience. You know who you
are and, on behalf of the
PSA, I thank you all.
One
final topic very central
to the PSA is our flagship
journal,
Philosophy of Science.
This has also been a place
of change. We have
completed the transition
from Chicago to Cambridge
University Press, which
will, I think, generate
significant benefits for
the PSA. We are also just
completing a change of
editor-in-chief. I know
the membership will all
want to thank Andrea Woody
for her wonderful work in
this role for the last six
years. The journal has
gone from strength to
strength in this time, and
I have no doubt it will
continue to do so under
the leadership of Jim
Weatherall, who has
generously agreed to take
on the job, moving the
editorial office to the
University of California,
Irvine.
Thanks
to the people mentioned
above, and many others, I
am confident that I am
handing on the Presidency
with the PSA in excellent
shape. If, as seems
plausible, the health of
an organisation can be
measured by the
willingness of its members
to contribute their time
and energy to it, the PSA
should feel very confident
in its future. It has been
a pleasure doing my own
little bit for it, and I
know it will be in
excellent hands with
Michela Massimi, to whom I
wish the very best of luck
with this new job to add
to her portfolio.
Season
greetings!
John
Dupré
|
|
|
The
PSA Awards Committee is
very happy to announce
that Katherine Creel has
been awarded the Nagel
Award for 2020, for her
paper “Transparency in
Complex Computational
Systems,” published
in Philosophy of Science.
The committee sincerely
regrets failing to
announce this award at the
bi-annual meeting. The
winner for 2021 was
Michael Miller, for his
paper, "Infrared
cancellation
and measurement.” The
Ernest Nagel Early-Career
Scholar Essay Award is
awarded annually to the
best single-authored essay
published in Philosophy of
Science during the award
year by someone who is
either a graduate student
at the time of publication
or received a Ph. D.
within the past five
years. The recipients
receive $250.
|
|
|
Philosophy of Science Editorship
|
Thank
you to Professor Andrea
Woody
The
PSA pays tribute to
Professor Andrea Woody, who
after six very successful
years is stepping down from
the role of Editor in Chief
of the journal
Philosophy of Science
as of 1 January 2023.
Established in 1934, the
journal
Philosophy of Science
has had a long and venerable
tradition of editors over
the decades, colleagues who
have selflessly dedicated
their expertise and
countless hours of their
time to serve the profession
in such an important job.
It
is no exaggeration to say
that Professor Andrea Woody
has done hers in an
exceptionally dedicated way.
Not only has she steered the
journal remarkably through
very challenging times
between the COVID pandemic
and the shift from
University of Chicago Press
to Cambridge University
Press earlier in 2022. But
she has also by all measures
grown the journal and made
the journal become a venue
where philosophers of
science from all traditions
could find a home for their
work.
The
PSA is deeply grateful to
Professor Woody’s strategic
vision for the journal that
over the years has continued
to expand its publications
on a wide-ranging array of
areas and topics. The
Editorship of Professor
Woody has been marked by a
profound sense of humanity,
dedication to her community,
and kindness, a rare
combination of editorial
qualities that she has
brought to the PSA editorial
office with help of the
entire team of Associate
Editors and the editorial
assistant, Kayla Mehl
Hutchinson. Professor Woody
leaves the journal in an
exceptionally strong
position as she moves on to
new pastures in her role as
Dean of the Social Sciences
at the University of
Washington. We wish
Professor Woody every
success in her new job as
Dean and we send her our
deepest thanks!
Welcome
to Professor Jim
Weatherall
In
spring 2022, President John
Dupré created a Search
Committee to find a new
Editor for the
Philosophy of Science journal.
A call for Expressions of
Interest went out in March
through the PSA website and
social media. The PSA thanks
the members of the Search
Committee: Anjan
Chakravartty, Max Cormendy,
Doreen Fraser, Michela
Massimi (Chair), Jun Otsuka,
and Dan Weiskopf.
As
a result of that search, the
PSA Governing Board has now
made its formal appointment
and is very delighted to
announce that the next
Editor in Chief of
Philosophy of Science
with effect from 1 January
2023 is Professor Jim
Weatherall from University
of California, Irvine.
Professor Weatherall is a
world-leading philosopher of
physics, and the author of
three books:
The Physics of Wall
Street; Void:
the strange Physics of
Nothing, and
The Misinformation Age
(the latest co-authored with
Cailin O’Connor). Among his
many responsibilities,
Professor Weatherall is the
Editor of the book series Cambridge
Elements in Philosophy of
Physics, and has been
for many years an Associate
Editor of the journal
Philosophy of Science.
The PSA warmly welcomes
Professor Weatherall and is
deeply grateful for the
willingness to serve the PSA
in such an important
editorial role.
|
|
|
The
Philosophy of Science
Association is delighted to
launch a new initiative
called
PSA Around the World. The
aim of the initiative is to
reach out to the global
community
of philosophers of science
and spotlight the rich
diversity of practices and
traditions in
the field of philosophy of
science via fully online
conferences with a dedicated
regional
focus, running in the years
when the Biennial Meeting of
the PSA does not take place.
Our inaugural PSA 2023
Around the World has a focus
on East Asia including South
East Asia.
The conference will run
fully online on ZOOM for
three days and different
time slots to
accommodate a global
audience on various time
zones: Sunday 5th November
2023;
Saturday 11th November 2023;
Friday 17th November 2023
(precise timing for each
day TBA).
Contributed papers may be on
any topic in philosophy of
science and the conference
is open to all PSA members
worldwide. Given the time
zones constraints, and with
an
eye to increasing diversity
of topics, we regret that
there is no call for
symposia for this
conference.
The PSA 2023 Around the
World Committee is committed
to assembling a program
with high-quality papers on
a variety of topics and
diverse presenters that
reflect the
full range of current work
in the philosophy of
science. Scholars working in
East Asia
are particularly encouraged
to submit papers, and papers
exploring the philosophy of
science in East Asian
contexts are most welcome.
Submissions should consist
of a 1000 word abstract and
should be prepared for
anonymous review with no
information identifying the
author in the body of the
abstract. For co-authored
papers, the presenting
author should upload the
abstract.
Abstracts should be
submitted using the
conference EasyChair link:
https://easychair.org/cfp/PSA_2023_Around_the_World
The deadline for submissions
is 11:59 PM Pacific Standard
Time on 31 March
2023.
The Program Committee
expects to announce its
decision on papers accepted
for presentation by the end
of June 2023. Authors of
accepted abstracts are
encouraged to post
full-length papers as PSA
2023 Around the World
Conference Papers at
philsci-archive.pitt.edu
(a publicly accessible
digital archive) prior to
the meeting if they wish to
do so. Paper presentation at
the conference should take
no more than 15 minutes to
allow 15 min for questions
(30 min time slot per
paper).
In accordance with current
PSA policy no one is
permitted to present more
than once
at each PSA meeting. A
scholar may appear as
co-author on more than one
paper but may present only
once at PSA 2023 Around the
World.
General questions about
contributed papers should be
directed to the Chair of the
PSA 2023 Around the World
Program Committee, Michela
Massimi, at
michela...@ed.ac.uk.
To maintain anonymity in the
review process, questions
about specific submissions
should be sent to
off...@philsci.org, as
this address
will be monitored by someone
not involved in the review
process.
|
|
|
The
aim of the PSA Diversity,
Equity, and Inclusion
Caucus is to support all
marginalized scholars in
philosophy of science
including, but limited to,
scholars who are women,
POC, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse,
disabled, non-TT, First
Gen, ESL, caregivers, and
allies. If you are
interested in joining the
caucus, please sign up for
our listserv by clicking
here.
|
|
|
The
UPSS Session at the PSA 2022
Conference was a fantastic
success. Four up-and-coming
young scholars presented
their work during the
session: Ge Fang, graduate
student at Washington
University in St. Louis, Dr.
Chia-Lua Lin, who just
started their career as an
assistant professor at
Fairfield University, Yosef
Washington, Ph.D. candidate
at the University of
Pennsylvania, and Jennifer
Whyte, Ph.D. candidate at
the University of
Pittsburgh. The energy was
high and the atmosphere
convivial as the room
discussed a wide range of
fascinating topics: cultural
evolution, transdisciplinary
modeling, the ontology of
race, and communication with
extra-terrestrial
intelligence. The mood
became full-on cheerful when
Dr. Lin heartfully thanked
the UPSS committee and their
UPSS mentor, Dr. Julia
Bursten, University of
Kentucky, for the help and
support they received during
their journey to a first
tenure-track position in the
US. Dr. Lin’s success story
will remain a point of pride
and fulfillment as the UPSS
committee continues their
work towards a more
inclusive philosophy of
science community.
The
Philosophy of Science
Association's
Underrepresented Philosophy
of Science Scholars'
Committee awarded Naftali
Weinberger (Munich Center
for Mathematical Philosophy)
the 2022 recipient of the
PSA Prize in Philosophy of
Science & Race, for his
forthcoming article in Ergo,
"Signal
Manipulation and the
Causal Analysis of Racial
Discrimination" . The
prize is awarded
biennially for the best
book, article, or
chapter published in English
within five years prior to
the prize year/PSA meeting
year that integrates
philosophy of science with
discussions of race,
ethnicity, and/or
racism. Naftali's
paper provides a novel
proposal for how to model
discrimination,
while artfully integrating
the work
of both philosophers and
statisticians on the causal
status of race. For
his article, Naftali will
receive a $500 cash prize,
which is made possible
through generous donations
to the UPSS initiative.
|
|
|
Thanks
so much to everyone that
attended PSA 2022 in
Pittsburgh. It was a great
meeting that was made
possible by all of you! Mark
your calendars now for PSA
2024.......
|
|
|
|
