Call for Participants: Society for Research in Child Development-Jacobs Foundation Series on Social Learning

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Overview

Social learning is ubiquitous to humans, and is critical to our survival and success as a species. Given its importance we have seen a significant body of work in recent years examining social learning through different lens (for example, low level action reproduction, debates around imitation and emulation, the role of the model or action on replication, transmission of cultural norms) and different frames (neuroscience, anthropology, biology, philosophy, psychology). In this series of workshops we aim to bring together researchers from the broad field of social learning with researchers in related areas, including technology use, health, business, education, to extend the boundaries of our understanding of social learning in everyday contexts. Our proposed outcomes are to:

develop creative and innovative research proposals which extend current thinking in the social learning field and beyond
invest in early career researchers within the field of social learning
develop constructive connections from the field of social learning to related fields (e.g. education, social policy, health)
improve the dialogue between potential funders and academics within this area
disseminate our work within this field to a wider community

Activities

Through a series of three workshops, with 40 participants, we aim to bring together exceptional researchers across the academic career span to meet our proposed outcomes.

Workshop 1 will overview the rationale for the workshops, allowing all the participants to introduce themselves and their area of research. Through an examination of some ‘grand challenges’ we face, we will encourage all participants to move away from their direct areas of enquiry to begin to work together to create something new and exciting. This workshop is scheduled for September 2019 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Workshop 2 will facilitate the work of smaller groups to develop some of the ideas that came out of the first meeting. The workshop will allow the time, space and face-to-face contact to develop, extend, and refine the new ideas.
Workshop 3 will allow further development of the research proposals through pitch to peer sessions and advice from funders and those experienced with funded projects. For some projects the outcome will be a funding proposal, for others it may be development to a point project or proof of concept.

We will also work on a special issue for a journal aimed at overviewing the potential avenues for further research developed through these sessions.

Co-Organizers

Emma Flynn (Queen’s University, Belfast)
Wouter van den Bos (University of Amsterdam)

Other Participants

Mhairi Gibson (University of Bristol)
Alex Mesoudi (Exeter University)
Stephanie Hoehl (University of Vienna)
Jennifer Watling Neal (Michigan State University)
Kathleen Corriveau (Boston University)

We have up to 20 spaces for early career researchers to attend the workshops. All travel costs will be covered for all participants.

Eligibility

Applicants must:

have completed a PhD (or equivalent) by September 2019, but no earlier than June 1, 2014,
work within the broad area of Social Learning, but to be willing to extend your knowledge into new fields, and
be willing and able to attend all three workshops, which will be held over the next 18 months.

To apply to participate in these workshops please send a single document with the following information (no more than 750 words total) to scholar@srcd.org:

Personal contact information including your name, affiliations and communication details
An overview of your academic career (e.g., education, jobs)
An overview of your research interests and findings to date, including the methods used
An overview of your approach to interdisciplinary research
An overview of the future direction that you would like to take within your research
What you feel you will gain from participating in the workshops

Diversity: the organisers and funders are committed to seeing a diverse range of participants. If you believe that there are personal circumstances that impede your attendance that can be attenuated, then please include details in your application (you can use additional space), and if selected we may release funds to allow mitigation of these circumstances.

Deadline for applications: May 30, 2019, 11:59 pm ET. We anticipate notifications by June 30, 2019.

Applications, questions, or concerns should be submitted to scholar@srcd.org.