Colin Allen

inquirer.comTime to reengineer democracy | OpinionIn 1787, the U.S. Constitutional Convention issued a blueprint for representative democracy. Today, we are in a crisis because democracy has failed to scale up to match population growth since.

Op-ed in Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer - subscribers’ link (next post has unofficial link): www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...

colinallen.dnsalias.orgcolinallen.dnsalias.org

25 June

Personal copy: colinallen.dnsalias.org/CV/PDFs/phil...

Colin Allen reposted

Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Association

@pamba.bsky.social

30 Apr

Wondering when the next Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Association meeting will be? PAMBA 2027 will be at the University of Warwick on April 27-29, 2027. Confirmed keynotes: Steve Butterfill, Marta Halina, Susana Monsó @martahalina.bsky.social @susanamonso.com Stay tuned for CFP!

hfa.ucsb.eduShaping the national conversation: UC Santa Barbara announces third cohort of Public Voices Fellows. | Division of Humanities and Fine ArtsThrough a year-long partnership with The OpEd Project, 21 UC Santa Barbara faculty members will translate their academic research into national impact and shape public discourse.

30 Apr

Now I have to write something :) hfa.ucsb.edu/news/shaping...

marcbekoff.comA Deep Dive Into Why Joy is Essential, Who Feels It, and WhyBy Colin Allen

Here's a link to the longer version of the interview: marcbekoff.com/marcs-essays...

Colin Allen@wileyprof.bsky.social

Conversation with Marc Bekoff about our animal joy project: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anim...

psychologytoday.comA Deep Dive Into Why Joy is Essential, Who Feels It, and WhyJoy—fleeting woo-hoo moments like "catching the perfect wave"—is felt by many diverse animals, and researchers want to know how they express it in various situations and why.

Conversation with Marc Bekoff about our animal joy project: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anim...

sciencenews.orgAnimals experience joy. Scientists want to measure itScientists have long focused on quantifying fear and other negative emotions in animals. Now they’re trying to measure positive feelings — and it’s a challenge.

Marc was following up on an article about our @templetonworld.bsky.social funded project in last Thursday's @sciencenews.bsky.social : www.sciencenews.org/article/scie...

He'll also be posting a longer version of the interview on his website later today and I'll post the link here when I get it.

Conversation with Marc Bekoff about our animal joy project: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anim...

psychologytoday.comDo Dogs Enjoy Playing More Than Cats, Rats, or Dolphins?Research on joy—those bursts of “woo-hoo moments”—is an exciting area of study across species. But the feeling of joy is tough to measure.

This chat with Marc follows up on his previous blog post www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anim...

storiesofimpact.orgDr. Colin Allen, Dr. Erica Cartmill, and Dr. Heidi Lyn: Animal Joy and the Science of ConnectionAre animals capable of feeling joy? How do we know? What is joy? Dr. Erica Cartmill wants to find out. She’s the Indiana University professor of cognitive science, …

19 Nov 2025

@storiesofimpact.bsky.social produced this...

Colin Allen@wileyprof.bsky.social

30 minute podcast showcasing our work on joy in animals w/ Erica Cartmill, Heidi Lyn (@heidilynphd.bsky.social) and me: www.storiesofimpact.org/dr-colin-all...

19 Nov 2025

30 minute podcast showcasing our work on joy in animals w/ Erica Cartmill, Heidi Lyn (@heidilynphd.bsky.social) and me: www.storiesofimpact.org/dr-colin-all...

royalsocietypublishing.orgPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1939

13 Nov 2025

Our special issue on Evolutionary Functions of Consciousness, coedited with Tecumseh Fitch and Adina Roskies, now online royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202... Contributions by (1) Irina Mikhalevich; (2) Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg; (3) Nicholas Humphrey; (cont'd)

13 Nov 2025

(4) Léa Moncoucy, Krzysztof Dołęga, Catherine Tallon-Baudry and Axel Cleeremans; (5) Kristin Andrews and Noam Miller; (6) Antonella Tramacere; (7) Yuranny Cabral-Calderin, Julio Hechavarria and Lucia Melloni; (8) Simon Brown and Jonathan Birch; (9) Jonathon Crystal; [cont'd]

13 Nov 2025

(10) Lars Chittka, Sarah Skeels, Olga Dyakova and Maxime Janbon; (11) Masanori Kohda, Shumpei Sogawa and Redouan Bshary; (12) Gianmarco Maldarelli and Onur Güntürkün; (13) Joseph LeDoux; (14) Colin Klein and Andrew B. Barron; (15) Albert Newen and Carlos Montemayor. Thanks to all!

theopinionpages.comHarvard should leave the United States | The Opinion PagesHarvard is preparing for its four-hundredth anniversary in 2036, just as the federal government is trying to eviscerate higher education. Unfortunately, Harvard shows signs of succumbing to the govern...

19 Sept 2025

A suggestion from me and Adina... theopinionpages.com/2025/09/harv...

youtube.comDiverse Intelligences: The Search for Joy in AnimalsYouTube video by Templeton World Charity Foundation

9 Sept 2025

In case you’re wondering where this link went, there had to be some re-editing so the new *permanent* link is this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS_g...

Colin Allen@wileyprof.bsky.social

Have you been wondering what we've been doing in our TWCF @templetonworld.bsky.social project on animal joy? This video wonderfully produced by Richard Sergay @storiesofimpact.bsky.social explains all! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TkY...

youtube.comDiverse Intelligences: The Search for Joy in AnimalsYouTube video by Templeton World Charity Foundation

youtube.comDiverse Intelligences: The Search for Joy in AnimalsYouTube video by Templeton World Charity Foundation

14 Aug 2025

Colin Allen reposted

Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Association

@pamba.bsky.social

9 Dec 2024

We are pleased to invite submissions for the 2025 PAMBA Prize essay contest in the philosophy of animal minds for early-career researchers. The winning paper will be published in Biology & Philosophy and presented as a keynote at the meeting in Santa Barbara. For details: www.the-pamba.com/prize

the-pamba.comPAMBA Prize — PAMBA

29 Aug 2023

Nice commute :)

CfP for February workshop "Prediction and Punishment: Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Carceral AI" that Dasha Pruss (with a tiny amount of help from me) is organizing at the Pitt Center for Philosophy of Science. Please forward widely and consider submitting something. More info in posts below

Keynote speakers: Megan Stevenson, University of Virginia Law School Shakeer Rahman, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition Pablo Nuñez, Centro de Estudos de Segurança e Cidadania (CESeC) Gabbrielle Johnson, Claremont McKenna College, Department of Philosophy

Submission deadline: September 30, 2023. Submissions should include: (1) a 1-2 sentence biography of the participant, (2) a 1-2 sentence statement of interest for attending the workshop, and (3) an abstract or a description of your proposed contribution of no more than 500 words.

how such technologies both inform and interact with topics including incarceration, policing, migration, privatization, surveillance, racial and gender justice, and resistance. We welcome contributions from civil society organizations and academic researchers from disciplines including ...

but not limited to philosophy, law, and the social sciences. Participants will be invited to contribute to a special report on carceral AI.

electronic monitoring, and audio gunshot locators. Such technologies are often introduced as 'smart', 'evidence-based', or 'data-driven' reforms that claim to reduce bias and increase efficiency, such as 'evidence-based' sentencing and 'smart' borders. In practice, however, ...

AI systems can interact in complicated ways with existing social and legal structures, reinforce or mask existing structural injustices, and expand the reach of carceral systems under the guise of scientific rigor. Participants in this workshop are invited to explore ...

Prediction and Punishment: Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Carceral AI February 9-10, 2024 This cross-disciplinary workshop will provide an interactive meeting point for researchers to address the expanding use of AI in criminal legal contexts. We use the term 'carceral AI' to refer to ...

a broad class of algorithmic and data-driven practices implicated in the control and incarceration of people. Examples include predictive policing, facial recognition, recidivism risk assessment instruments, automatic license plate readers, border surveillance systems, biometric databases, ...