CFA - 3rd Peter Sowerby Interdisciplinary Workshop

3rd Peter Sowerby Interdisciplinary Workshop 

Call for Abstracts - Policy and intervention in crises, disasters and emergencies: Covid-19 and beyond  

The goal of this two day workshop is to explore philosophical, conceptual and epistemic problems arising from policy-making, decision-making and other forms of intervention in crises, disasters and emergencies. We aim to explore whether and to what extent health interventions in unprecedented environmental circumstances can be said to be “evidence based”, and what implications there are for knowledge production and decision making. We also want to investigate how values (including social and political considerations) feature in the production of the relevant evidence base, and how this interplay is best understood. Through this event, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of how these problems have featured in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and what lessons may be drawn for future public health emergencies, including the next pandemic and the as yet unknown public health impacts of global climate breakdown.

The workshop will conclude with Professor Neil Ferguson (Imperial) delivering the 2021 Annual Sowerby Lecture.

What follows is an indicative (but by no means exhaustive) list of questions we are interested in exploring: 

• How do values feature in pandemic and other emergency modelling?

• How do we make good time-sensitive policy decisions with an insufficient or inappropriate (but often rapidly improving) evidence base?

• What is the proper role of theorising and mechanistic thinking in assessing possible interventions?

• What lessons can we draw from the current pandemic in preparing for the next?

• How do we communicate scientific uncertainty and risk effectively in emergencies?

• How do we accommodate disagreements amongst experts and amongst the public without spiralling into completely parallel narratives of the truth?

• What does the Covid-19 pandemic tell us about preparing for the public health impacts of the climate crisis?

Confirmed Workshop Speakers: 

Dr. Sridhar Venkatapuram (KCL)

Dr. Robert Northcott (Birkbeck)

Dr. Stephen John (Cambridge)

Professor Trish Greenhalgh (Oxford)

Dr. Katherine Furman (Liverpool)

Prof. Quassim Cassam (Warwick)

We’ve allotted 75 minute slots to each of our speakers, with 45-55 minutes for talks and 20-30 minutes for Q&A.

Application: 

Please submit anonymized abstracts (as Word or pdf documents) of no more than 500 words for blind review to philandmed@kcl.ac.uk before midnight (in the UK) on 8 September 2021 with the subject line “CFA Submission: 3rd Peter Sowerby Interdisciplinary Workshop”. Please include a title with your abstract. Please also include a separate Word or pdf document with the following information:

·         Full name

·         Contact e-mail address

·         Academic Affiliation (if any)

·         Career stage (Master’s student/PhD student/Post-doc/Lecturer/Professor, etc.)

We especially encourage members of marginalized groups to apply in recognition of the underrepresentation in Philosophy and Medicine of members of certain marginalized groups, including ethnic minorities, women, persons with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and others, and the deficits this creates in philosophical and medical research and governance.

Furthermore, if you have any accessibility requirements, or caring commitments, or if there are any accommodations we can make that will help facilitate your ability to present at our workshop, please feel free to let us know either on your identifying application document, or when accepting an offer to present, so that we can be proactive in making these accommodations. It should not need saying, but this will of course in no way negatively affect the review or acceptance of your application.

We hope to notify successful applicants by 19 September 2021.

For any additional questions regarding application, please contact philandmed@kcl.ac.uk

Venue:

Strand Campus, King’s College London

*We currently plan to hold this Interdisciplinary Workshop in person, whilst also live-streaming the talks (including the Annual Sowerby Lecture). 

While we will do our best to ensure that this Interdisciplinary Workshop takes place in person, it is possible that due to Covid-19 related safety issues, we may have to move the workshop entirely online. If this occurs, we will be in touch with workshop applicants and attendees on how to participate in the digital workshop. 

Registration, Travel, Accommodation, and Meals:

This Interdisciplinary Workshop, and the Annual Sowerby Lecture, are free and open to the public, and all are very welcome to apply and to attend. 

We are also very pleased to cover reasonable travel and accommodation expenses and meals for our speakers.

With all best wishes,

The Organizers: Professor Elselijn Kingma, Dr. Winnie Ma, Harriet Fagerberg, and Eveliina Ilola