Kino Zhao @kinozhao@fediphilosophy.org

Neuroscience needs new ideas. So there is a whole summer school (in Waraw) on making them: https://nenckiopenlab.org/school-of-ideas-2023/ - such a wonderful idea

We are happy to have just published four new papers.

The Musicality of Speech, by James Lewis - https://doi.org/10.3998/phimp.643

Essentialist Non-Reductivism, by Taylor-Grey Edward Miller - https://doi.org/10.3998/phimp.1205

Darwin's Causal Argument Against Creationism, by Hayley Clatterbuck - https://doi.org/10.3998/phimp.930

Does Compositionality Entail Complexity?, by John Adorno Keller - https://doi.org/10.3998/phimp.2977

Dear colleagues, I want to share my most recent translation project coauthored with Uladzislau Harbacki from the European Humanities University. We undertook a translation from English into Belarusian of a zine - an informal popular science booklet - about the Sexual Configurations Theory (SCT). The theory itself was developed by Prof. Sari van Anders, and the English original was created by Alex Iantaffi, Meg-John Barker, and Jules Scheele. SCT proposes a broader range of terms to discuss gender identity and sexual orientation. What exists beyond the binary classes of men and women, gays and straights, vanilla and kink? What space does the diversity of gender/sex identities occupy and how to find oneself in that space? These are the mapping questions that SCT addresses.

This translation was a challenge for us to develop Belarusian vocabulary for gender discussions. In many questions - especially the graphical diagrams - the zine only scratches the surface and doesn't include the rich empirical results of newest studies. However, for people who don't fit in the cis-hetero paradigm even such a short popular text can be a great discovery of a whole wide world of alternative options for self-identification.

There is a lot of work left in what concerns the pronouns, gendered forms, vocabulary surrounding people of nonbinary gender, which is very hard to work with in gendered languages such as Belarusian. In English it is easy to introduce the pronoun "they" and everything works from there on, but in Belarusian and other continental European languages one needs to think a lot about new grammar. I hope this zine becomes a good starting point for individual gender journeys.

For those who don't read Belarusian, I highly recommend either reading the English original or one of the other translations (French/Spanish/Italian), or undertaking your own translation into your own language for an exercise.

https://www.queensu.ca/psychology/van-anders-lab/sct.html#zine!

Here's my introduction post!

I'm a #survey methodologist and professor of #sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I also direct our academic survey center, the Bureau of Sociological Research. And I edit the survey methods side of the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology.

My work is on mixed-mode surveys, interviewers, qnaire design, and nonresponse.

I will post about survey #methods work.

There's also something especially obscene about the contrast between OpenAI's reported incipient valuation at $29 Billion and the sums mentioned in this article ($200,000 for the whole contract).

That throws into stark relief what kind of tech labor is valued and what kind is considered incidental. See also: @maryLgray
and Suri's _Ghost Work_, @ubiquity75 's _Behind the Screen_ and this piece from @adrienneandgp @milamiceli & @timnitGebru

https://www.noemamag.com/the-exploited-labor-behind-artificial-intelligence/

Philosophy colleagues: it’s time to spread the word. We’re hiring again at St Andrews. Two continuing lectureships, starting September 2023.

One position in Social Philosophy, esp. Feminist Philosophy and Philosophy of Gender.

https://www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/5275/0/377736/889/lecturer-in-philosophy-ac2358nb

The other, in Applied Philosophy.

https://www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/2441/0/377731/889/lecturer-in-philosophy-ac1927nb

St Andrews is a great Department to work in, so please spread the news to qualified candidates.

The closing date is soon (February 13), so don't delay.

This week, a bailiff stopped me and acted as though I was in the wrong place as I walked through a portion of the courthouse that is restricted to attorneys and judges.

I'm an attorney. I was wearing a suit and conducting myself just like every other attorney in that area.

This is not the first time that has happened. I can think of several other instances in various counties where courthouse security has assumed that my black skin means I must not be an attorney.

I'm tired of it.

#racism