Other Research Groups

Collaborative Research Groups

Reproducibility Working Group

The Reproducibility Working Group is an interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, post-docs, and graduate students in philosophy, psychology, statistics, and other areas that coalesced at the end of the spring semester after biweekly discussions on questions about reproducibility in psychology hosted by the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science's Center Discussion Group. Current activities can be found on the Many Faces of Reproducibility website.

Past (Inactive) Research Groups

Biological Interest Group—Works in Gestation

BIG–WIG (Biological Interest Group–Works in Gestation) is an interdisciplinary research group for students interested in biology and biologically relevant topics. It is a space to develop ideas and discuss works in progress (chapters of the dissertation, proposal drafts, conference papers, and talks, or new ideas you would like to expand on). Participants are expected to present in a block of two to three weeks to provide context for their ideas and then discuss these with the group or pose a working question for everyone to develop. (The first week will introduce the format and discuss a few background readings.) This space is intended to inspire and even seed collaborative work between its members and serve as a welcoming space to work out ideas and papers. BIG–WIG was organized by Max Dresow.

Empirical Philosophy Interest Group

The empirical philosophy interest group will read and discuss work that employs experimental approaches to advance the discussion of various philosophical topics including topics in metaphysics, moral philosophy, and epistemology. The group will begin by reading and discussing Kwame Anthony Appiah's Experiments in Ethics (Harvard 2008). Faculty and graduate students from the University of Minnesota and area colleges and universities are welcome to attend whenever they would like (without invitation) and without giving advanced notice. Undergraduates are included by invitation. For more information, please contact Valerie Tiberius ([email protected]).

Individuality and Modularity Interest Group 

The Individuality and Modularity Interest Group is a graduate student seminar on individuality, organismality, modularity, and levels of selection that was organized by Maria Rebolleda-Gomez during her time as an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellow.

Technical Individuation Interest Group

This reading group draws on work from both the philosophy of technology and political history in order to explore an urgent anthropological question: how do understandings of technical individuation, or how certain philosophies define the relationship between individuals and technology, come to color how we understand the power of 21st century mass surveillance and social media experiments to change human behavior or govern? This group was organized by Megan Moore (anthropology) during her time as an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellow.