CogSci Affinity & Discussion Groups

The Cognitive Science Society considers an affinity group to be one that cultivates cohort and community building in cognitive science. Previous affinity groups at CogSci conferences included amongst others Women in Cognitive Science, SPARK, Queer in AI, and CogSci in Primarily Undergraduate Institutions. We welcome all proposals for affinity groups, including those not represented earlier.

CogSci 2024 also welcomes discussion groups. A discussion group is primarily organized around a technical issue in cognitive science. Previous successful discussion groups have included How to Apply for Grants, Neural Network Models of Cognition, and International Cognitive Science Group,  for example.

 

Submitting a proposal:

Proposals may be for an organized program of content and/or for a virtual space for free-form meeting and discussion. The Society will recognize each affinity group whose proposal is accepted, provide a time on the conference program, and work with the group to facilitate outreach.

Proposals should provide a group name, a list of individuals involved in the proposal, a designated point-of-contact, and a draft description of the group’s intended composition along with any planned activities. If there are any preferences regarding dates and times on the conference program, we will do our best to accommodate. The proposal submission form is due by May 17, 2024.

The Cognitive Science Society intends to function as a pro-actively anti-racist scholarly society and reserves the right to reject proposals inconsistent with these principles. All conference participants are expected to adhere to the Society’s Code of Conduct.

Implementation

A team appointed from members of the Diversity Committee will review each application received, communicate with each applicant, determine which proposals to accept and reject, and work with the conference organizers to determine a scheduled time for each affinity group on the conference program. There may be cases where multiple proposals come in by different groups that might be best off knowing about each other and potentially merging. In those cases, the team will seek consent from each group to put them in touch with the other(s) and put all consenting groups in touch with each other.

 

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated using the following criteria:

Significance

– Is the proposal applicable or of interest to CogSci audiences?
– Does the proposal have a clear aim / specific issue to be addressed? 

Preparedness

– Is the format / timeline of the proposed Affinity or Discussion group appropriately structured to meet their goals?

The Cognitive Science Society is pleased to announce the establishment of the CogSci Grove which aims to mobilise cognitive scientists to offset carbon emissions associated with their professional activities.