[Philosop] Call for Abstracts: Online Workshop on Poisoning the Well and Silencing in Argumentation

[Stevens, Katharina]

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The CTCE (Critical Thinking and Civic Engagement) Lab invites abstract-submissions to an online workshop on "Poisoning the Well and Silencing in Argumentation". Please see below for the full call with all information. See here for an associated call for papers at Topoi.

Please do not hesitate to contact either Amalia Haro Marchal (ahma...@fcsh.unl.pt) or me (katharin...@uleth.ca) with any questions - including if you would like our list of poisoning the well papers as a starting point for your research 🙂.

We hope to see you online in January!

Best

Kat Stevens and Amalia Haro Marchal

PS: If you are interested in becoming a visiting scholar at the lab and maybe collaborate on putting together a future workshop, look here!)

 

 

Call for Abstracts

Poisoning the Well and Silencing in Argumentation

 

Among the fallacies traditionally regarded as particularly dangerous and pernicious, poisoning the well stands out. The literature describes poisoning the well as an argumentative move that consists in providing or emphasizing information about an interlocutor to diminish the credibility of what they have already said, or will say, thereby “poisoning” their ability to contribute - silencing them.

In spite of the fallacy’s importance, work on it and on silencing in argumentation generally is limited. This is particularly surprising since work on silencing in the philosophy of language and social epistemology has long flourished. This workshop (and a coordinated call for papers at the journal Topoi) will be a first step towards filling this gap. We invite contributions related to poisoning the well, as well as voice and silencing in argumentation.

Possible topics include: Legitimate/illegitimate instances of poisoning the well; poisoning the well as a strategy for resistance; silencing effects of poisoning the well; intersectional approaches to poisoning the well; poisoning the well and voice allocation; norms of argumentation and poisoning the well; the role of biases in poisoning the well instances; poisoning the well and argumentative injustice; poisoning the well and meta-argumentative effects; normative pragmatics and poisoning the well; poisoning the well vs. ad hominem fallacies; epistemic injustice and poisoning the well.

 

Details

THIS WORKSHOP IS ONLINE, NO TRAVEL REQUIRED.

Five papers will be accepted for presentation at the workshop based on peer-reviewed abstracts.  Each paper will be assigned a student commentator. For this reason, papers need to be submitted at a minimum two weeks before the presentation date to allow commentators enough time to formulate their comments.

Presenters will have thirty minutes to present their papers. Commentators will have ten minutes to comment. While papers will only be presented in English, we encourage second language speakers to take advantage of this opportunity to try preparing and presenting in English with an understanding and compassionate audience.

Application

To apply, please send an abstract of 250-300 words to ahma...@fcsh.unl.pt by August 1, 2026. Completed papers should be no more than 8000 words excluding notes and bibliography.

If you are a student interested in being a commentator, please send an email with a list of your credentials, including the program you are enrolled in, and outlining your affiliation with argumentation.

 

Important Dates

- August 1, 2026 - Abstracts due

- January 8, 2026 - Papers due

- January 22, 2027 - Workshop

 

Sincerely,

Amalia Haro Marchal, Postdoctoral Researcher, NOVA University of Lisbon

Katharina Stevens, University of Lethbridge