Utrecht Leiden Winter School on Interdisciplinary Behavioural & Social Sciences

Ivo Giesen, professor in private law at Utrecht University, and In February 2019, Eveline Crone, professor of neurocognitive developmental psychology at Leiden University will chair a Winter School on Interdisciplinary Behavioural & Social Science. This winter school will be held on Thursday 7 February 2019 and Friday 8 February 2019, in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The crucial and central purpose of this event is to bring young and talented researchers in different disciplines together.

We cordially invite PhD candidates and Postdocs working in the field of Behavioural and Social Sciences (incl. Law) to register for this Winter School. Participation is free of charge, though there are some requirements for participation. During this two day Winter School, young and talented researchers from several disciplines will be educated and trained in order to strengthen their interdisciplinary research capabilities and to help them to address challenges in inter- and multidisciplinary research. We particularly aim to support the participating researchers in starting and developing specific interdisciplinary research projects. Besides, we hope to develop and strengthen an interdisciplinary mindset amongst the participants in general.

Central theme: “our (lack of) free will”
In order to bring focus to the Winter School, the discussion about the (nonexistence of) free will in inter alia law, philosophy, sociology and psychology etc., will constitute the recurrent substantive theme during the several sessions. For instance, many rules are based on the assumption that people are in control of their behavior. Insights from philosophy and psychology, however, give a less clear cut image and challenge this assumption. That, in turn, raises the question whether, and if yes how the law should be adapted according to such insights. This broad theme of the free will also allow us to address the growing body of scientific knowledge on processes within the human brain, such as emotions, heuristics and biases, and to discuss the mutual meaning of this scientific knowledge for several disciplines and possibly to explore undeveloped areas of interdisciplinary research.

More information can be found here.

Note that there are no places available anymore; the course is fully booked.