The ISHPSSB Off Year Workshop Committee is very pleased to announce the first approved off-year workshop of this cycle (and first ISHPSSB event in Africa).
Title: The Human Diversity Dilemma: Navigating the intersection of microbes, ethics and society in Africa
Date: October 1–3, 2025
Location: Stellenbosch University in Cape Town.
Abstracts are due Aug. 18.
Short program description:
Human microbiome research often categorizes populations by race, ethnicity, or lifestyle, reflecting both scientific practices and sociopolitical histories. Microbiome studies examine, among others, transitions from traditional non-Western to Western urban lifestyles and their associated health impacts. While such categories help define study populations, grasp human diversity, and represent especially marginalized groups, they risk oversimplifying complex factors, leading to epistemic errors and ethical concerns like stereotyping or discrimination.
Moreover, possibilities to do research and achieve international goals of global health vary locally. There are still important economic differences between countries in the Global North (and their historical colonial wealth) and those of the Global South (most of them ex-colonies) that translate into current scientific capabilities. These differences are experienced today as economic and infrastructural challenges and dependencies that directly or indirectly have an effect on the epistemic questions asked and the quality of the answers generated.
This interdisciplinary workshop aims to critically assess these issues, to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and to engage the public in a larger dialogue on (neo-)colonialism in scientific practice. We invite medical and ecological microbiologists, philosophers, historians, social scientists and neighbor disciplinary fields to join the conversation. We will generate a space of collaboration by having different interactive activities. We also encourage participants to check our call for abstracts and participate in the special issue and ‘writeshop’ that will take place during the event.
Matt Haber, Chair of the Off-Year Worshops Committee