Gatherings in Biosemiotics 2024

Dear all,

The website for the Gatherings in Biosemiotics 2024, to take place in Bloemfontein, South Africa, is live on Gatherings in Biosemiotics 2024 (ufs.ac.za)

24th GATHERINGS IN BIOSEMIOTICS: FINAL CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Online and face-to-face

Held under the auspices of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies, the 24th annual Gathering will take place at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa.  As this Gathering will be held in the Global South, it might offer a good opportunity to consider the role of global geopolitical contexts in biosemiotics. As much as one would expect biology to be a study that does not need to consider context, or perhaps it does, ecosemiotics, the relationship between biosemiotics and culture, and the emergence of biosemiotics as a field of study itself may benefit from considering different contexts. Apart from the normal presentations related to biosemiotics, we therefore in particular welcome reflections on geopolitical, cultural, and social contexts in biosemiotics.

The Gatherings in Biosemiotics is the annual meeting for the study of sign processes in life processes. Researchers interested in the intersection of meaning-making and biology are the backbone of our
interdisciplinary undertaking, and we welcome thoughtful submissions from scholars in any discipline relevant to a deeper understanding of the role of signs in life.

The conference will take place from 17-21 June 2024.

We particularly welcome conference presentations in the following research areas:

  • Biosemiotic approaches to biology
  • Biosemiotics and ecosemiotics in the Global South
  • The implications of biosemiotics to philosophy and the humanities
  • History and epistemology of biosemiotics
  • Semiotic approaches in theoretical biology
  • Evolution and ontogeny of semiotic mechanisms
  • Modelling of semiosis and semiotic networks
  • Endosemiotics
  • Interspecies semiosis
  • Experimental biosemiotics
  • Ecosemiotics
  • Biosemiotics of health and disease
  • Umwelt studies and phenomenology
  • Cultural implications of biosemiotics

Abstracts should be 300-600 words, with your full name, email address and affiliation below the title, and submitted as single-space, single page files in the doc, docx, rtf, or odt formats (please do not send PDFs), with a maximum of three references permitted. All abstracts should be e-mailed to biosemiotics2024@ufs.ac.za no later than 4 March 2024. Please filename the document with your surname in capital letters, for example: SEBEOK.doc. Please also indicate if you will be attending online or in person.

The tentative notification of acceptance date will be early March 2024. Additional information about the Gathering can be found here.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Gathering!

The organising committee of the 24th Annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics:

Kobus Marais

Xany Jansen Van Vuuren