SEAL News: November 24, 2008 – Conferences, Writing Prizes, & Various
Dear SEAL Members:
As part of SEAL’s continuing effort to keep you informed of developments of potential linterest, you will below find information on the following subjects (to which you can quickly hyperlink by clicking on the subject):
- Seal 10 Conference: Reminder and Call for Talk Proposals;
- Student Note Prize;
- 3rd Junior Faculty Writing Prize;
- Link to 2nd Junior Faculty Writing Prize;
- Membership and Website Update;
- Incoming Interdisciplinary Officer — Robert Kurzban;
- Student Representative — Opening;
- SEAL Welcomes New Administrative Assistant — Christie Bishop;
- Some Useful Links;
- Journal of Interest;
- Delving Into Darwin;
- Job Announcement: Law and Neuroscience;
- Graduate Student Jobs
As usual, the links, journals, etc., have been added to the SEAL website at http://www.sealsite.org/ — a source for your research. And, as usual, if you have similar materials to recommend to the membership, just send me an e-mail at owen.jones@vanderbilt.edu.
Best regards,
Owen Jones
Director, SEAL
* * * * * * * *
1) SEAL 10 Conference: Reminder and Call for talk Proposals
The dates of SEAL 10 are April 16 to 18, 2009, at Vanderbilt University Law School. Renowned primatologist Frans De Waal is the Keynote Speaker. You can find more information about the conferenceHERE. Also, talk proposals will be accepted until January 20, 2009. For format and submission details, CLICK HERE
2) Student Note Prize
SEAL has awarded its first prize for the best student law review note or essay applying evolutionary analysis to legal issues. The prize goes to J. Matthew DeLesDernier for his paper entitled “Spite: Stable Strategy, Vestigial Heuristic”. This paper digs into behavioral economics to inform a legal model for how to think of and respond to spiteful behavior. It is a remarkably sophisticated project for a law student to undertake. Mr. DeLesDernier has undertaken great effort to bridge the scholarship in economics, psychology, and behavioral biology and to bring to bear their collective strengths to help solve current legal problems in a sophisticated fashion.
3) 3rd Junior Faculty Writing Prize
We are now accepting submissions for the 3rd Junior Faculty Writing prize. Applicants, who must be untenured at the time of their submission’s publication, should submit a citation to, or link to, a publication not previously submitted for this prize. Send applications to seal@law.vanderbilt.edu. Senior colleagues, please feel free to encourage junior authors to submit their work for this competition. Entries will be judged by a panel made up of professors in the disciplines of both law and biology, who will judge them on the bases of originality, breadth and depth of research, accuracy, creativity, and clarity of thought and expression. The Prize commemorates the multifaceted contributions of Margaret Gruter (1919-2003), founder of the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, former member of SEAL, inspiration and friend.
4) Link to 2nd Junior Faculty Writing Prize
You may recall from a prior announcement that Robin Bradley Kar won the Second Junior Faculty Writing Prize. His article The Deep Structure of Law and Morality is available here: http://ssrn.com/abstract=891491
5) Membership and Website Update
We are pleased to report that membership, across 24 countries, now exceeds 400 people. The website receives roughly 300 hits per day.
6) Incoming Interdisciplinary Officer — Robert Kurzban
As many of you know, John Lynch of Arizona State University has for many years ably served the Society as Interdisciplinary Officer. The SEAL Interdisciplinary Officer has, in the past, served on committees to review articles submitted for awards such as the Junior Faculty Writing Prize and the Student Note Prize, and has offered valuable advice on matters of SEAL governance and operation. We thank him for his service.
With the expiration of John’s term in April 2009, we are pleased to welcome Robert Kurzban into the position of Interdisciplinary Officer.
Rob received his PhD at the University of California Santa Barbara at the Center for Evolutionary Psychology, and received postdoctoral training at Caltech in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, UCLA Anthropology, and the University of Arizona’s Economic Science Laboratory with Vernon Smith.
He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Psychology. In 2003, he founded PLEEP, the Penn Laboratory for Experimental Evolutionary Psychology. Researchers at PLEEP draw on theory and methods from evolutionary psychology, experimental economics, and cognitive psychology, with occasional forays into cross-cultural psychology and neuroscience. Research in the lab is focused primarily, but not exclusively, on the array of specialized cognitive mechanisms designed to navigate a complex social world. Research by Kurzban and others has investigated the computational systems designed to solve adaptive problems associated with capturing the benefits associated with dyadic cooperation, social categorization, group cooperation, close personal relationships, and morality. His work has appeared in journals across a very wide range of disciplines, including the American Economic Review, Management and Decision Economics, the Minnesota Law Review, Trends in Cognitive Science, Psychological Review, Human Nature, Evolution and Human Behavior, Hormones and Behavior, the Journal of Theoretical Biology, and general science journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2008 Rob won the inaugural Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution from the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.
Please join us in welcoming Rob, who can be reached at: kurzban@psych.upenn.edu
7) Student Representative — Opening
The position of student representative is now open. The student representative serves as liason between student members and society leadership and helps to grow the student membership. Interested applicants can find information HERE. If you know of a student who might be interested, please encourage him/her to apply.
8) SEAL Welcomes new Administrative Assistant — Christie Bishop
Following the retirement of Janelle Steele, after many years of good service, SEAL now welcomes Christie Bishop as our new Administrative Assistant. Christie is eager to help SEAL continue to grow and thrive. Please contact her directly for all your SEAL administrative needs at: seal@law.vanderbilt.edu
9) Some Useful Links:
Worldwide Darwin 2009 Commemorations : http://darwin-online.org.uk/2009.html
The Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k13943&pageid=icb.page63708
Evolutionary perspectives on behavior are cropping up more and more frequently in medical schools. Here’s an example: Evolutionary Neurobehavior Laboratory, Boston University Medical Campus: http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Content.aspx?DepartmentID=481&PageID=9977
Bibliography of Books on Biology and Human Behavior (on the website of the European Sociobiological Society): http://rint.rechten.rug.nl/rth/ess/books1.htm
The latest articles from Evolutionary Psychology: http://www.epjournal.net/
The Complete Works of Charles Darwin On-Line: http://darwin-online.org.uk/
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center: http://www.nescent.org/index.php
10) Journal of Interest
Adaptive Behavior: Animals, Animats, Software Agents, Robots, Adaptive Systems
Peter M. Todd of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, heads the editorial board for Adaptive Behavior, a highly ranked, international peer reviewed journal that publishes original research and review articles on adaptive behavior in animals and autonomous artificial systems. For over 10 years it has offered ethologists, psychologists, behavioural ecologists, computer scientists and robotics researchers a forum for discussing new findings and comparing insights and approaches across disciplines. The journal explores mechanisms, organizational principles, and architectures that can be expressed in computational, physical, or mathematical models. Electronic access: Adaptive Behavior is available electronically on SAGE Journals Online at http://adb.sagepub.com
11) Delving Into Darwin
Here is an interesting note from SCIENCE VOL 320 25 APRIL 2008, p.429:
With everything from his field notebooks to his college admission notice already on the Web, you might think there aren’t many Darwin-related documents left to post. But last week, another 20,000 items—previously available only to scholars—were poured onto the Internet by The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online, hosted by the University of Cambridge in the U.K.
Included in the new stash are background information for his writings, book drafts, and a collection of contemporary caricatures (above). There’s also a manuscript of the 1842 essay that first lays out Darwin’s evolutionary theory, allowing readers to compare the never-published original with the posthumously released version transcribed and edited by his son Francis. Another item undercuts the standard image of a fearful Darwin concealing his heretical thinking. He originally floated the possibility that species change not in some secret notebook but in a synopsis of his bird collections, “a document intended for somebody else” to read, says the site curator, Cambridge science historian John van Wyhe.
The additions aren’t all hard-core science. Visitors can check out the cream-heavy dishes in his wife’s recipe book and browse her diary.
12) Job Announcement: Law and Neuroscience
Postdoctoral Research Position, MacArthur Foundation Law And Neuroscience Project
Area of Research: Law and NeurosciencePosition open until filled.
The MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Project, based at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, is currently accepting applications for
post-doctoral fellows for July 2009 to July 2010. We are seeking
researchers who are interested in the intersection of law and
neuroscience with experience in law, neuroscience, philosophy and/or a
combination of those fields. We are currently exploring issues of
criminal responsibility, prediction, and the use of neuroscience in
legal decision-making. Various research projects led by or including
prominent scholars and judges at over two dozen leading institutions
are currently being launched. The program operates under a $10
million three-year grant and we are currently in year two of the
project. Candidates must be willing to relocate to Santa Barbara.
The position pays between $45,000 and $50,000 annually for a full time
fellow. Half time positions may also be offered. The University of
California is an enthusiastic participant in affirmative action and an
equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications form those who
embrace our commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and public
service. For more information see:http://www.lawandneuroscienceproject.org
. Please email a resume and three recommenders to Andrew Mansfield at amansfield@lawneuro.org
13) Graduate Student Jobs
This notice is specifically aimed at grad students:
GENERAL RESEARCH GRANTS
LEAKEY FOUNDATIONAmount: $22,000
Deadline: Jan 05, 2009 (spring cycle)
Abstract: Priority is given to the exploratory phases of promising new research projects that increase scientific knowledge and public understanding of human origins, evolution, behavior, and survival. The majority of the foundation’s general research grants to doctoral student are in the $3,000 to $13,500 range; however, larger grants, especially to senior scientists and post-doctoral students, may be funded up to $22,000.
URL for more info: http://www.leakeyfoundation.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=11227
Sponsor Contact Info: Paddy Moore, Grants Officer
Address: Leakey Foundation
P.O. Box 29346
1003B O’Reilly Avenue
San Francisco
California 94129-1359
(415) 561-4646
(415) 561-4647 faxEmail: grants@leakeyfoundation.org
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