18th Annual
Biosemiotics Gathering

Berkeley, California              June 17-20, 2018
Schedule and Abstracts

 


Register Here


Please also register for our final Wednesday evening dinner

You can also register for the Thursday June 21 Wine Tasting trip to Napa Valley here

Venue

International House, UC Berkeley


The University of California at Berkeley's International House is the perfect setting for biosemioticians to gather. Nestled at the top of UC Berkeley's campus, close to hotels and many restaurants, the location is eminently walkable.

 

Oakland Airport is closer, but SFO is also easily accessible by public transport to local lodging and the venue site. Take the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system to the Downtown Berkeley station, and public transportation, taxi, or a short walk will bring you to your hotel and the Gathering venue.




Venue Address: 2299 Piedmont Avenue,
Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

We are in the main auditorium, on the left side of the building.
San Francisco Bay Area
Join us in this unique spot of intellectual richness, culture, and natural beauty.

 Home of the Redwoods, wine country, hotsprings and surf, the Bay is a wonderful place to spend extra days.

Hub of digital innovation, visit Silicon Valley, UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCSF, and dozens of universities. 
The 2018 Biosemiotics Gathering schedule can be found here.

A gratis welcome reception overlooking the sunset on the Bay is the first evening, and a final dinner (cost extra) is on the last evening.

A bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge will be offered on Saturday (6/16), a final dinner at the end of the last day on Wednesday (6/20), and a Napa Valley winery tour will be offered Thursday (6/21) 

Call for Abstracts

The Scientific Advisory Committee of the 18th Gathering in Biosemiotics is pleased to invite scholars to submit abstracts on the fundamental mechanisms of meaning-making (semiosis) in living systems

 

Biosemiotics is, in the words of Jesper Hoffmeyer, “the signs of life and the life of signs.” As an interdisciplinary field, it emerged from the semiotics of Charles S. Peirce, and the theoretical biology of Jakob von Uexküll. It was finally distilled by Thomas Sebeok and many others. This Gathering, now in its eighteenth year, occurs under the auspices of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies.

 

Biosemioticians are biologists, philosophers, anthropologists, linguists, chemists, physical scientists, social scientists, humanities scholars, and more. We take a big tent approach to the field, and welcome thoughtful submissions based in any relevant discipline. 


We particularly welcome research in the following fields and areas: 


· Biosemiotic approaches to biology

· Biology utilizing biosemiotics

· Biosemiotics and ethology/phytology/ 

     mycology/zoösemiotics/microsemiotics

· The implications of biosemiotics to 

philosophy and humanities

· History and epistemology of biosemiotics

· Extended synthesis

· Semiotic approaches in theoretical 

biology

· Ontogeny of semiotic mechanisms

· Habits, codes and learning

· Typologies of semiosis and semiotic 

networks

· Modelling of semiosis

· Evolutionary anthropology & biosemiotics

· Methodology of biosemiotic research

· Umwelt research

· Biophenomenology

· Cognitive semiotics of nonhumans

· Evolution of semiosis

· Semiotic fundamentals of epigenetics 

and systems biology

· Semiotic thresholds

· Biosemiotics of health and disease

· Endosemiotics

· Interspecies semiosis

· Experimental biosemiotics

· Teaching biosemiotics

· Ecosemiotics 


Abstracts should be 300-600 words, in a standard word processing format or PDF and font size. One to three references (in Vancouver superscript) are permitted. 

Presentations are typically 30 minutes each, although this year, we will be introducing panels and alternative formats.

Abstracts should be submitted as single-space, single page files to the following address: 

biosemiotics2018@gmail.com 

and received no later than February 20, 2018

Please name the abstract file with the author’s (your) surname in capital letters, for instance SEBEOK.doc. 

Notification of acceptance date: February 28, 2018

 

N.B. The Host Committee is working to provide a small number of stipends partially covering travel costs for overseas graduate students with accepted abstracts. Those interested should indicate their desire in the body of the email containing their submission, adding one paragraph regarding need.

Napa Valley Winery Tour
Thursday June 21st, we invite you to join us after the Gathering on a tour of wine country with other Gathering participants. We'll spend the day in Napa and have wine tastings and lunch at V. Sattui Winery.