Experimental entanglements in cognitive neuroscience (Workshop, Berlin, 25-26 October 2012)

The CMH blog post “Medical humanities and cognitive neuroscience: trandisciplinary openings and endeavours” explored how several people at/associated with the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham (CMH) are interested in grappling with how the medical humanities as a domain can productively engage not only with the interpretation of science that is being pursued in fields close to medicine, but in its production.

As part of this exploration, I am co-organizing a 2-day, transdisciplinary workshop in Berlin this October that focuses on the experimental settings of cognitive neuroscientific experiments — particular as regards the relations between researcher and research subject. CMH Affiliate Charles Fernyhough is one of the guest speakers, and CMH Staff member Angela Woods is a chair and rapporteur. We welcome delegates to the first day of this workshop (see details regarding registration below).

Experimental entanglements in cognitive neuroscience

Berlin, 25-26 October 2012

Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin

Funded by the European Platform for Life Sciences, Mind Sciences, and the Humanities, an Initiative of the VolkswagenStiftung

Guest speakers:

Aikaterini (Katerina) Fotopoulou

“Can social scientists and neuroscientists think collaboratively about research subjects’ own assessments of their mental processes in the course of an experiment? Will this tell us anything about the ‘social’ nature of all experiments, in both design and interpretation? And can these questions be pursued through experiment, and not just discourse? By using the phrase ‘experimental entanglement’, we signal a desire to entangle ourselves with, and diffract our ideas through, some other science; we aim to show that calling attention to these questions, and doing experiments, do not have to be mutually exclusive practices.”

Programme committee:

Felicity Callard, Medical Humanities

Des Fitzgerald, Sociology

Simone Kühn, Cognitive Neuroscience

Ulla Schmid, Philosophy

An ‘Intersubjectivity interrupted’ workshop with:

Joel Krueger

Josephine Lenssen

Amanda Taylor Aiken

Participation is free, but spaces are strictly limited. The workshop is open only on October 25. (On October 26, the speakers and convenors go into a closed session.)

If you would like further information, or to register to attend on 25 October, please contact: Des Fitzgerald and/or Felicity Callard.

Please include your name, position, affiliation, email and 1–2 sentences on why you would like to attend.