Session board
Check existing proposals for Open Organized Sessions and contact the organizers. If you are interested in proposing an Open Organized Session and would like to invite others to contact you, follow this link.
Persons who propose an open session are responsible for closing the session (either because they have found the number of participants they need or because they have not) and then for asking us to remove it from the session board. They should do this well in advance of the deadline so that they will not cause any issues to those who have expressed interest, and they can submit their work as individual paper or participate in another organised session.
Regeneration Across the Scales of Complex Living Systems
Session organizer´s affiliation:
Marine Biological Laboratory
Session organizer´s email address:
Open session abstract:
How has regeneration been understood, defined, and utilized in scientific research at different scales of living systems, both now and in the past? This session will begin with the premise that all complex living systems maintain some capacity to repair and to maintain themselves in the face of events that cause disturbances or damage. For example, microbial communities can regenerate to achieve the same function even as species composition changes, spinal neurons in the lamprey can regenerate function even though their cellular wiring changes, and ecosystems can maintain a level of resiliency in the face of changing conditions. In all instances, while these biological systems undergo stress and damage, their parts can coordinate responses to provide repair. But do we mean the same thing by regeneration in each case? How do the regenerating parts “know” how to cooperate to make the individuals and systems healthy and whole again? How does an understanding of one level of regeneration inform the others? Is there an underlying logic of regeneration across complex living systems? Papers in this session will focus on the kinds of questions listed above, with respect to scientific research on regeneration.
Could this session be candidate for an "Interdisciplinary Organized Session" prize?:
Yes.
Articulating Ancestry in the Molecular Age
Session organizer's affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Session organizer's email address:
Open session abstract:
This session is open to papers that consider how both scientific and social understandings of ancestry and ancestors have been shaped by the rise of information from molecular biology and genomics. Contributions on ancestral genomics, molecular anthropology, race, ethnicity, and admixture are all welcome. I'd like to pull together at least one session with a diverse array of perspectives.
Could this session be candidate for an "Interdisciplinary Organized Session" prize?
Yes
Entangled roots: biology and value from bioethics to biopolitics
Session organizer's affiliation:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Session organizer's email address:
Open session abstract:
Biology is a scientific field which focuses on life as a property of certain systems and on the processes that are derived from or maintain such a property. However, in contrast to many other scientific subjects, statements about life motivate in us feelings which impinge upon conceptions about ourselves and about our fellow human beings. These feelings are usually translated into values or norms which are have often been construed as grounded in nature. Such aspect of biology has compelled people from humanities to ask about the prejudices, ideologies, and agendas that impinge upon biological research. On the other hand, this deep relationship between biology and society should motivate biologists’ concerns about the entangled nature of biological knowledge. This interdisciplinary organized session invites proposals from historians, philosophers, social studies researchers, and life scientists, which contribute to enlighten the relationship between biology and value. Among the aspects that could be explored are the following:
- Historical aspects of the relationship between biology and values. How much has it transformed from the 19th century until now? How has institutionalization affected such a relationship?
- The impact of values on biological research. Which values affect it positively? Which negatively?
- Diversity of values in biological research. Which values impinge on biological research more frequently? Are they related to some core of biological concepts or are they uniformly spread through biological thinking? Do they differ in each field of biology such as zoology, ecology, microbiology, evolutionary biology, etc.?
- Disciplinary relationships among biology and other fields which relate to biological thinking, such as ethics, politics, economics, etc.
- Biology and values from a personal point of view. What do life researchers value which impinges upon their scientific activity? A preference will be given to talks which focus on unexplored aspects of this relationship, or which approach the issue in interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary ways.
Could this session be candidate for an "Interdisciplinary Organized Session" prize?
Yes