Conferences
The group staged its first international conference in Tallahassee in 1989, then Kingston (1992), Minneapolis (1995), Calgary (1997), Pavia (1999), Denver (2001), Winnipeg (2003), Leeds (2005) and Calgary (2007). The tenth conference will be held at Notre Dame University (2009).
The conferences are attended by about 200 researchers and teachers. On average about 25 countries are represented at each conference. Full Proceedings have been printed, or made available on CD Rom, for each conference.
CDs of Calgary, Denver and Winnipeg conferences are available for USD15 (air mail included). Ordering details are available at our Publications page. Proceedings of the 2005 Leeds conference are available on the web at http://www.ihpst2005.leeds.ac.uk/papers.htm
IHPST 2009 Conference
The University of Notre Dame's HPS Graduate Program and Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values will host the 2009 Tenth biennial IHPST meeting June 24-28, 2009 on the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana. It will continue the IHPST tradition of sustained and serious research being discussed in a collegial and convivial atmosphere.
Conference chair: Professor Don Howard, Philosophy Department
Conference Secretary: Greg Macklem, gmacklem@nd.edu or ihpst09@nd.edu
It is expected that about 200-250 educators, historians, philosophers, teachers, scientists and cognitive scientists from about 30 countries will engage with theoretical, curricular and pedagogical issues in contemporary science education.
More details, including registration, travel and accommodation, will be available at the conference web site: www.nd.edu/~ihpst09 or from the conference secretary: ihpst09@nd.edu.
The Springer Lecture
The Springer Lecture will be given by Robert T. Pennock who is an associate professor in the Lyman Briggs College and the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Computer Science at Michigan State University. He received his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1991. Pennock's research focuses on epistemic and ethical values as they relate to scientific methodology, and also on using the ‘behaviour’ of artificial life to examine processes of evolutionary change. He is the author of Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism (MIT Press, 1999), which provides a critical analysis of the significant developments in the creationist movement in the 1990's, and editor of Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics (MIT Press, 2001).
Among Pennock’s 2007 publications are articles on ‘Investigating the Emergence of Phenotypic Plasticity in Evolving Digital Organisms’, ‘Learning Evolution and the Nature of Science using Evolutionary Computing and Artificial Life’, ‘Models, Simulations, Instantiations and Evidence: The Case of Digital Evolution’, ‘God of the Gaps: The Argument from Ignorance and the Limits of Methodological Naturalism’ and ‘Biology and Religion’ the last in the Cambridge Companion to Philosophy of Biology.
Apart from scholarly pursuits, Pennock is a staunch defender of proper and sound science education. He was an expert witness in the critical Kitzmiller et al v. Dover Area School Board trial of 2005; he is president of Michigan Citizens for Science; and chair of the Education Committee of the Society for the Study of Evolution; he has long been on the Editorial Committee and a reviewer for 'Science & Education'.
The submission date for conference proposals is Sunday March 15, 2009. Panel proposals on thematic topics are welcome; ideally planning for such panels should begin now.
Questions in advance for the formal call for papers can be sent to the conference chair, Don Howard, Philosophy Department, University of Notre Dame, (dhoward1@nd.edu).