Pablo Fernandez Velasco

The ecological approach to culture The prevailing view in the literature treats cultural dynamics as fundamentally distinct from other ecological processes—governed by a second system o…

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Last year, Nicolas Baumard and I published a target article in EHB, where we propose that cultural phenomena emerge from feedbacks between evolved psychology and ecological legacies, the same mechanisms at work in any ecosystem:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A new Department of Cognitive Science is being created at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

Here is the call for a cluster hire (for around 10 faculty) in all areas of cognitive science, at both junior and senior levels:

www.unibocconi.it/en/faculty-a...

Deadline: May 4th, 2026

Lawyer: You don't regret that people might have lost income?

Cavanaugh (DOGE): No, I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from two trillion dollars to close to zero.

Lawyer: Did you reduce the federal deficit?

Cavanaugh: No, we didn't.

📌NEW PAPER - about how the UK asylum system actively promotes disorientation for asylum seekers - led by @robinfinlay.bsky.social with Matt Benwell and I from our HERA/AHRC funded work about refugee youth. @ncl-geography.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Lecturer in Philosophy of Cognitive Science at University of Sheffield Apply for the Lecturer in Philosophy of Cognitive Science role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.

Philosophy of cog sci job at Sheffield - 3yr post. Get in touch if you have questions! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQU853/l...
#philsky #Philosophy

She fought forIndigenous voices at the UN. Now she’s in a Russian jail cell. Observers say Daria Egereva’s case highlights the risks Native advocates face when they challenge the powerful.

Russian authorities have detained an Indigenous climate advocate, accusing her of participating in a terrorist organization in what international observers are calling “retribution” for her UN advocacy on behalf of Indigenous peoples.

My first-author review ‘Determinants of individual navigation ability’ is out in Nature Reviews Psychology, co-authored with the inspiring @hugospiers.bsky.social!!!! 🎉🧠

➡️ rdcu.be/e7KxG

#Neuroscience #Navigation @nature.com @natrevpsychol.nature.com @sfn.org @fens.org @ucl.ac.uk

Important news for our Italian colleagues: #PhiMiSci has been recognized as a Class A journal by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) in area 11/C2. We hope this will make #PhiMiSci an even more attractive venue for your work!

We're thrilled to announce the Ctrl-Z Award, a US$2,500 prize for researchers “who discover substantial errors in their published work and take meaningful steps to correct the scientific record."
Covered by @nature.com today; read more here: centerforscientificintegrity.org/2026/03/10/a...

I'm co-organising this workshop on the idea of rewilding digital infrastructure in Edinburgh on the 28/29th May - and am somewhat overawed by all the incredible people who've agreed to speak.

And you could be one of them... If you submit an abstract by the (new deadline) of the 31 March.

Plant knowledge among Congo Basin hunter-gatherers: Implications for cultural evolution: Hunter Gatherer Research: Vol 0, No 0 Plants have long been central to human life, from early hominins to contemporary hunter-gatherers and industrialised societies. In many communities, they remain a primary source of treatment alongside or in place of Western medicine. Beyond healing, ...

New paper out! Using data from 219 BaYaka HGs and 33 plant species, I find that plants used by more people tend to show stronger agreement on their main function. Drop me an email if you don't have access to the paper and would like a PDF copy.
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...

We have already filled 1/3rd of the places. Don't miss out on yours :)

Sites of meaning-making: Places of attachment afford psychological meaning Do the places we live offer a source of meaning? In five studies, we investigate whether the places people are attached to afford higher meaning. Spec…

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨

Think of a place you feel attached to; when you’re there, does life feel more meaningful? In our new article in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, we find that people report higher meaning in life in places they are attached to.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

When DOGE Unleashed ChatGPT on the Humanities

It was wrong and harmful - and quite possibly unlawful - to cut already approved NEH grants because Donald Trump hates "DEI."

But the way DOGE went about doing it was even dumber than you probably imagined.

They fed abstracts into ChatGPT and demanded an answer in fewer than 120 characters.

Call for expressions of interest — Trans Cosmologies 2: Art, Ritual & Memory - 30 Apr–1 May 2026
Artists, researchers & activists from across Scotland are invited to contribute to this two-day multimedia gathering exploring memory, ritual, cosmology and resistance.
Contact Safet safet.hm@stir.ac.uk

So excited to hear that this is in the works. Queer Phenomenology is a wonderful book, so I can’t wait for the sequel. Specially in such disorienting times.

They used a fucking *chatbot* to suggest targets?!? And 175 girls were killed when their school was bombed. Trump and Hegseth belong in the Hague. 🤬 #Trumpland #USFascism

There is just something deeply disturbing and offensive about watching a Labour govt keep kicking the most vulnerable in our society.

Human hippocampal theta–gamma coupling coordinates sequential planning during navigation

Impressive study from Dan Bush's Lab at UCL:

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The Max Planck #PostdocProgram offers top emerging talents a range of attractive measures and opportunities. The current call for applications is open from March 1st until April 13th, 2026. Please share or consider applying! 🙏
www.mpg.de/en/max-planc... #careerinscience #sciencecareer

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work.

This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public.

Please spread the word.

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A new paper co-authored by Centre researcher Dale Leorke rethinks the university library beyond the repository.

If the library is still the “heart of the campus”, what does it now embody?

doi.org/10.1080/0307...

Last novel I thoroughly enjoyed reading was Disorientation by @elainehsiehchou.bsky.social

Whatever the context, this is an eternal and undeniable truth:

A reminder of what some of these asylum policies are:

- giving refugees only 2.5 years of leave, meaning the Home Office has to review their status every 30 months
- quadrupling the time to settlement from 5 years to 20 years
- no automatic way to be reunited with close family members

This 'correction' from @lewisgoodall.com regarding accusations from Reform and the Conservatives that the Greens engaged in sectarianism, deserves to be widely read.

#c4news

Wrote up the by-election, the Green victory and the conferences for Labour at the @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...

This is massive, and disgraceful. No organisation called “Tactical Choice” appears to exist.

I'm hiring again!!
Two Postdocs in Philosophy of Mind (one ot two years), Centre for Philosophical Psychology, University of Antwerp

- to work with me!

Deadline: March 20, 2026

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