Month: August 2026

Job: “COST-X” (Turin, Italy)

Posted on by Alexander Max Bauer

The Department of Philosophy and Education at the University of Turin, Italy, is hiring a postdoc to work on the research project “The Epistemology of Costly Communication – Offline and Online” (COST-X), an ERC Starting Grant led by Neri Marsili. The position runs for two years and can be extended to three.

Expressions of interest are reviewed on a rolling basis. The job announcement reads:

Expressions of interest are invited for a 2-years postdoctoral position (extendable to 3) at the Department of Philosophy and Education (DFE), University of Turin, within the framework of the ERC Starting Grant project COST-X (The Epistemology of Costly Communication – Offline and Online, PI: Neri Marsili).

COST-X studies communicative norms and their epistemic import, offline and online: how communicative costs bear on the reliability of information, how speakers exploit deniability, and how these mechanisms operate in digital environments, especially on social media. The project combines philosophical work with experimental studies, which the team designs, runs and analyses.

Profile

Applications are welcome from candidates whose work fits either or both of the following profiles.

Research background:

  • philosophy of language, pragmatics, and linguistics;
  • social and applied epistemology;
  • experimental philosophy;
  • digital communication and pragmatics;
  • philosophy-adjacent profiles from related fields.

Methodological competencies:

  • experimental methods;
  • computational methods for the study of communication;
  • game theory, decision theory, agent-based modelling.

A PhD (or equivalent) in philosophy, linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, economics, or a related field is required by the starting date.

Terms

  • Duration: 2 years, extendable to 3 (subject to funding and to the applicable regulations)
  • Location: Turin, Italy
  • Working language: English
  • Expected starting date: October 2026 (TBC)

Expressions of interest

Please send a CV and a few lines on your research interests and their fit with the project to luca.borgonovo@unito.it. Informal enquiries about further details are equally welcome.

More information on COST-X: https://www.nerimarsili.com/costx.html

Call: “International Congress of Empirical Biomedical Ethics”

Posted on by Alexander Max Bauer

From January 28 to 29, 2027, the first International Congress of Empirical Biomedical Ethics will take place in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the theme “Explain, Justify, Defend.” The congress asks how empirical data can inform normative justification – how to bridge the gap between what people do, think, believe, or value and what ought to be.

Abstracts can be submitted until September 30, 2026. The call reads:

International Congress of Empirical Biomedical Ethics

28–29 January 2027, Lausanne, Switzerland

Explain, Justify, Defend

Empirical biomedical ethics is a research field that is both old and new. It builds on a long tradition of field exploration to ensure research questions remain relevant to concerned stakeholders, while also representing an emerging scholarly community working to structure its approaches and methodologies. Biomedical ethics is inherently plural, shaped by interdisciplinarity, diverse cultural backgrounds, national and local contexts, as well as various moral frameworks. Where philosophers and theologians first laid down conceptual and theoretical groundwork to address ethical concerns in medicine, the empirical turn in biomedical ethics saw the social and health sciences bring in their own perspectives and methods to ground ethical judgments in the realities of clinical experience, patient and family perspectives, and complex social contexts. Medical professionals themselves have started to train in and engage with the field. While it is sometimes thought to occupy too much space and resources within the medical humanities more generally, biomedical ethics is still seeking to find its unique place among the philosophy, history, geography or sociology of medicine or science. Its defining trait – its normativity – is both the source of its internal disarray and what unifies it, what sets it apart and what intertwines it deeply into other fields.

As an emerging academic field and community, empirical biomedical ethics attempts to find coherence and to structure itself around one central question: how to bridge the gap between the descriptive and the normative, between what is – what people do, think, believe or value – and what ought to be.

The first International Congress on Empirical Biomedical Ethics (ICEBE) aims to bring together researchers, medical professionals and other concerned stakeholders from diverse backgrounds. Our goal is to foster dialogue, share methodologies and build a cohesive community around the central challenge of bridging the descriptive and the normative. In order to do so, it proposes to focus on a theme that can be explored both from a methodological or from a content perspective: Explain, Justify, Defend. As an academic field, how does empirical biomedical ethics attempt to explain the relationship between facts and values? How does empirical data inform normative justifications? Can concerned stakeholders’ actual beliefs and ideals be used to defend normative judgements and, if so, to what extent? But also, for example, how do clinicians explain their decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment in intensive care units, and how do these explanations align with or diverge from the ethical principles and legal frameworks governing end-of-life care? How do healthcare professionals defend or justify the unequal distribution of emotional labour carried out by doctors, nurses or care assistants, and how does it relate to wider gender dynamics?

We invite you to join us on January 28th and 29th in Lausanne, Switzerland to explore these questions, share your work, and shape the future of empirical biomedical ethics. Together, we can advance our understanding of how to explain, justify, and defend ethical judgments in medicine.

Scientific Committee

  • Brenda Bogaert (Institute for Humanities in Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne)
  • Pr. Richard Huxtable (University of Bristol, Bristol Medical School (PHS), Centre for Ethics in Medicine)
  • Pr. Jonathan Ives (University of Bristol, Bristol Medical School (PHS), Centre for Ethics in Medicine)
  • Agnes Kandlbinder (Institute for Humanities in Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne; University Research Priority Program: “Human Reproduction Reloaded,” University of Zurich)
  • Cristina Murano (Department of Philosophy and Society, Faculty of Philosophy, University Complutense of Madrid)
  • Sophie Püchel (Institute for Humanities in Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne)
  • Morgane Romero (Université de Lausanne, Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches en Éthique (CIRE))
  • Silke Schicktanz (Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine at the University Medical Center Göttingen)
  • Julia Tinland (Aix-Marseille Université, SESSTIM, CaLIPSo)

Call for Abstracts

  • Word length: <300 words
  • Format: Word, author(s)’s name(s), discipline(s) and affiliations on a separate 1st page
  • Deadline: September 30th, 2026
  • Submit to: https://icebe.sciencesconf.org/submission/submit
  • Results: October 20th, 2026
  • Registration fees: 65 CHF

Job: “Hearing and Remembering” (Turin, Italy)

Posted on by Alexander Max Bauer

The Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences at the University of Turin, Italy, is hiring two postdocs to work on the research project “Hearing and Remembering,” led by Elvira Di Bona. The project investigates the relationship between sound and memory, combining philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science.

Applications are possible until August 31, 2026. The announcement reads:

The Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences at the University of Turin (Italy) invites applications for two 30-month Postdoctoral Fellowships in Philosophy of Mind, funded by the FIS 5-year Project “Hearing and Remembering (HeaR)” (FIS – Fondo Italiano Scienza). The project, led by Prof. Elvira Di Bona, investigates the relationship between sound and memory through an interdisciplinary approach combining philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science. It examines the temporal experience of sounds (including environmental sounds, speech, and music), compares auditory and visual perception, and investigates the nature of auditory memory.

Position 1: Philosophy of Memory (BANDO 28/POST DOC)

Salary: €36,622.37 gross per year

The successful candidate should have demonstrated expertise in philosophy of memory. Responsibilities include:

  • conducting research in philosophy of memory within the analytic tradition;
  • producing at least three research publications during the fellowship;
  • teaching, in English, an introductory course in philosophy of mind;
  • contributing to the organization of public engagement, outreach and dissemination activities related to the HeaR project (https://sites.google.com/unito.it/hear/home-page).

The provisional starting date of the job is Fall 2026. Applications have to be made via the PICA online system (“Piattaforma Integrata Concorsi Atenei”, https://lavorainateneo.unito.it/details.html?id=f6f6e24b-eed4-46de-a6b2-285da1d17722).

The deadline is August 31st 2026.

Position 2: Philosophy of Perception (BANDO 27/POST DOC)

Salary: €35,174.00 gross per year

The successful candidate should have demonstrated expertise in philosophy of perception. Responsibilities include:

  • conducting research in analytic philosophy of perception on the relationship between temporal perception and auditory and/or visual perception;
  • producing at least three research publications during the fellowship;
  • contributing to teaching activities, including teaching a seminar, and undergraduate and graduate student supervision;
  • contributing to the organization of public engagement, outreach and dissemination activities related to the HeaR project (https://sites.google.com/unito.it/hear/home-page).

The provisional starting date of the job is Fall 2026. Applications have to be made via the PICA online system (“Piattaforma Integrata Concorsi Atenei”, https://lavorainateneo.unito.it/details.html?id=bf535331-c0c6-4db3-8721-7bde3653424b).

The deadline is August 31st 2026.

Both postdoctoral researchers will work closely with Prof. Elvira Di Bona, collaborate with members of the MUMBLE group, and contribute to the research activities of the HeaR project. The working language of the project is English.

Prospective candidates are welcome to contact Prof. Elvira Di Bona (elvira.dibona@unito.it) with informal questions about the research positions. Questions regarding the call or the online application procedure should be addressed to: assegniricerca@unito.it.