UConn cognitive scientists held a second ECOM reading group on Bermúdez’s Thinking Without Words.

• ECOM hosted its second annual workshop on “Expressive Language: Semantics, Pragmatics, and Origins”. Thanks to everyone who attended and participated, and to the Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences for funding for invited speakers.
• ECOM held a reading group this semester on José Luis Bermúdez’s Thinking Without Words.

• ECOM held a summer reading and workshop group, following up on drafts and topics from the Spring 2015 ECOM graduate seminar.

• ECOM director Dorit Bar-On started a year-long Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin fellowship. Congrats Dorit!
• ECOM member Hanna Gunn attended the International Interdisciplinary Summer School on “The Origins of Human Cooperation” with Michael Tomasello, bringing ECOM to Europe.

• ECOM’s inaugural UConn workshop, “What’s the Point? Pointing and Gestural Communication” was a massive success! Thanks to everyone who attended and participated, and to the UConn Humanities Institute and the UConn Cognitive Science Program for funding.

• Read a UConn The Daily Campus article about Professor Laurie Santos’ recent visit to ECOM to kick off our Spring 2015 Speaker Series! It’s available online here.

• Marc 28-29: Dorit Bar-On participated in a workshop she co-organized with Mitch Green at U Conn on the Evolution of Syntax.  The workshop brought together researchers from linguistics, psychology, and philosophy.
• ECOM student member Thomas Pendlebury has accepted an offer of admission to the graduate program at Harvard University.  Congratulations, Thomas!
• ECOM member Kate Nolfi has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Vermont.  Congratulations, Kate!

• ECOM is proud to announce its Fall 2014 Speaker Series! Visit our Speaker Series page for a full schedule and readings. Our speaker schedule includes:
  • September 26th – Philippe Schlenker (Cognitive Studies, Institut Jean-Nicod; Linguistics, NYU)
  • November 20th – Diane C. Lillo-Martin (Linguistics, UConn)
  • December 4th – Robert W. Lurz (Philosophy, Brooklyn College)

• ECOM will be co-hosting a reading group with the Language Evolution Reading Group (LERG) on pointing, gesturing and grammaticalization. We will be meeting Friday September 12th, Friday September 26th, Thursday October 9th and Thursday October 24th, Thursday November 6th and Thursday December 20th and Thursday December 4th. Check out the Reading Groups page under the Events menu above for day, time and room, as well as links to the readings.
• ECOM hosted a welcome reception to celebrate its move to UConn on September 5th from 1:30-3:00PM in Oak Hall 106, over light refreshments.

• ECOM has now begun to plan its events for AY 2014-15, including a recurring reading group and speaker series, as well as a workshop in the spring of 2015. Please keep on the lookout for more details about these exciting events!

• As of Summer 2014, ECOM has migrated north as its director, Dorit Bar-On, has accepted a position in the Philosophy Department at the University of Connecticut.  ECOM will be receiving support from the UConn Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and will become part of the UConn Cognitive Science Program as UConn “rises as center for language and cognition”.  ECOM at UConn will begin its speaker series this coming Fall.  Please stay tuned for more news!

• Marc 28-29: Dorit Bar-On participated in a workshop she co-organized with Mitch Green at U Conn on the Evolution of Syntax.  The workshop brought together researchers from linguistics, psychology, and philosophy.
• ECOM student member Thomas Pendlebury has accepted an offer of admission to the graduate program at Harvard University.  Congratulations, Thomas!
• ECOM member Kate Nolfi has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Vermont.  Congratulations, Kate!

• Conference on Concepts
  NC State’s Logic and Cognitive Science Initiative has organized a conference on Concepts for September 20-21.  For further information, see http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/phil_activities.html.
• Miroslav Losonsky will be replacing Jim Sias (who is now Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Dickinson College) as ECOM’s new coordinator.  Heartfelt thanks to Jim for his work for ECOM in the past three years, and a warm welcome to Miroslav!
• ECOM director Dorit Bar-On has won a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin. The fellowship will be served during the 2015-2016 academic year. Congratulations, Dorit!
• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, hosted a “Mind, Language, and Logic” workshop on May 30-31, 2013. Participants included ECOM director Dorit Bar-On, ECOM faculty member Bill Lycan, and ECOM student member Mike Deigan (as well as three other members of UNC’s philosophy department: Keith Simmons, Luke Elson, and Wesley Sauret).
• ECOM student member Mike Deigan recently accepted an offer of admission to the graduate program in philosophy at Yale University. He is deferring admission to Yale for two years so that he can complete the B.Phil. program at the University of Oxford. Congratulations, Mike!

• The ECOM Reading Group will be meeting this Summer, starting in June. All ECOM members and friends are welcome to participate. Further information about these meetings will likely be shared via the ECOM mailing list. If you are not currently a mailing list member and would like to receive these emails, please contact Jim (sias@live.unc.edu).

• ECOM Coordinator Jim Sias recently defended his dissertation “Emotion, Virtue, and Moral Perception: A Defense of Moral Intuitions.” Starting this Fall, he will be an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.  Congratulations x2, Jim!
• The “Making Meaning: Origins of Communication” conference was a great success! The conference was held at Duke University on April 18-20, 2013. For more information, see the conference website here.

• ECOM director, Dorit Bar-On, ECOM member, Mitchel Green, and Keith Simmons have accepted offers from the University of Connecticut.  Green will begin in Fall 2013; Bar-On and Simmons will begin in Fall 2014.  U Conn has offered substantial support for ECOM as part of a plan to expand its cognitive science program.

• The Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at UNC Chapel Hill are co-sponsoring a conference entitled “Cognitive Linguistics in the Triangle: Slavic and Beyond.” The conference will be held on Friday, February 22, 2013, and is free and open to anyone interested. For more information (including the conference program), click here.

• Our friends at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences (DIBS) have announced a conference to be held at Duke University on April 18-20, 2013. The title of the conference will be “Making Meaning: Origins of Communication,” and it is being co-organized by ECOM director Dorit Bar-On. Registration is now open (and free!).

• Registration is now open for the conference on “Mindreading, Understanding, and Emotion” (January 11-12, 2013). To visit the conference website, click here. (Attendance at the conference requires that you register. Registration is free for students, and $15 for everyone else.)

• ECOM has been awarded a grant from the Institute for the Arts & Humanities (IAH) to support a conferenceon “Mindreading, Understanding, and Emotion” to be held at UNC on January 11-12, 2013. To visit the conference website, click here.