TOWARDS NEURO-SOCIAL SCIENCE: THE POLITICS AND PRAGMATICS OF COLLABORATION

he more we experiment on and with the human brain and nervous system, the more we realize that our neurobiological inheritances are bound up with cultural, semiotic, bodily, societal and aesthetic

‘webs’ – and vice versa. New forms of exchange between neuroscientists, social scientists, and humanities scholars are emerging, leading to experimentation with concepts of nature and culture, biology and society, affect and cognition, life and death beyond out-moded ideas of ‘nature versus nurture’. There are, however, few accounts of how such collaborations can or should be done, or of what it is like to experience them. The Neuroscience and Society Network Symposium will help to close this gap, by exploring the ‘politics and pragmatics’ of collaboration between the social sciences, humanities and life sciences with researchers invested and engaged in these 'interdisciplinary' exchanges. The symposium will offer empirically-situated and theoretical accounts of such collaborations, to assist and advise researchers, at all career levels, interested in establishing, sustaining, and interpreting, their own desires for, and experience of, knowledge exchange between the social sciences, humanities and life sciences. The Symposium is part of a wider programme of activity by the Neuroscience and Society Network to develop and support researchers skilled in empirical and conceptual experiment, engaging in collaborative exchanges between the neurosciences and the humanities and social sciences. The Symposium is open to participants at all career levels, but especially post-graduate and early-career academics working across the social sciences, humanities and life sciences.

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NEUROSCIENCE AND SOCIETY NETWORK (NSN) SYMPOSIUM DECEMBER 11, 2014 / 9.00am – 5:00pm

START TIME: 9 a.m. END TIME: 5 p.m. LOCATION: Room 1.71, Franklin Wilkins Building, Waterloo Campus, King’s College London MAP:

REGISTER:http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/neuroscience-and-society-network-7668743045?s=30725005   CONTACT: tara.mahfoud@kcl.ac.uk ORGANISERS: Sam McLean and Tara Mahfoud, PhD Candidates, SSHM

                     

TOWARDS NEURO-SOCIAL SCIENCE: THE POLITICS AND PRAGMATICS OF COLLABORATION

9:00 – 9:15 INTRODUCTION

Nikolas Rose, Professor of Sociology and Head of Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine (SSHM), King’s College London (KCL) & Sam McLean, PhD Candidate, SSHM, KCL

9:15 – 10:00 KEYNOTE: Social Life and The Microbial Brain

Allan Young, Marjorie Bronfman Professor in Social Studies in Medicine, McGill University

10:00 – 10:15 COFFEE BREAK 10:15 – 12:00 THE PRAGMATICS OF COLLABORATION Chair: Sam McLean, PhD Candidate, SSHM, KCL

Default Positions and Spontaneous Activity: Collaboration in the 24/7 Age Felicity Callard, Reader in Social Science for Medical Humanities, Department of Geography, Durham University & Daniel Margulies, Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Collective Intentionality: Theory and Practice Mattia Gallotti, Project Coordinator, The Human Mind Project, School of Advanced Study, University of London Beyond Neuronal Man: Interdisciplinary Research on the Social Uses of Neuroscience in France Sebastien Lemerle, Faculty Member, Université Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense

NEUROSCIENCE AND SOCIETY NETWORK (NSN) SYMPOSIUM DECEMBER 11, 2014 / 9.00am – 5:00pm Room 1.71, Franklin Wilkins Building, Waterloo Campus, King’s College London

                     

12:00 – 13:00 LUNCH BREAK 13:00 – 14:45 THE POLITICS OF COLLABORATION Chair: Tara Mahfoud, PhD Candidate, SSHM, KCL

Vital Concepts and Passionate Objects: The Dark Ontology of the Neuro-Lab Sam McLean, PhD Candidate, SSHM, KCL What do we Actually Mean by Neuro-Social Science? Des Fitzgerald, Research Associate, SSHM, KCL Between Entanglement and Critique: Embedded Philosophy of Neuroscience Philipp Haueis, Graduate Student, Berlin School of Brain and Mind

14:45 – 15:00 COFFEE BREAK

15:00 – 16:45 DEBATE: What Should the Future of Neuro-Social Science Look Like?

Chair: Ilina Singh, Professor of Science, Ethics & Society, SSHM, KCL Chris Frith, Professor Emeritus, Wellcome Trust Cenre for Neuroimaging & Visiting Professor, Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University Andreas Roepstorff, Professor, Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University Nikolas Rose, Professor of Sociology and Head of Department, SSHM, KCL Jan Slaby, Junior Professor in Philosophy, Free University Berlin

16:45 – 17:00 CONCLUSION/NEXT STEPS

Sam McLean, PhD Candidate, SSHM, KCL & Tara Mahfoud, PhD Candidate, SSHM, KCL

MAP:http://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/campuses/waterloo/Waterloo.aspx REGISTER:http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/neuroscience-and-society-network-7668743045?s=30725005   CONTACT: tara.mahfoud@kcl.ac.uk ORGANISERS: Sam McLean and Tara Mahfoud, PhD Candidates, Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine, King’s College London