2020 PTNCE Conference is cancelled / postponed
Dear PTNCE members and supporters,
We have been markedly silent on the topic of this year’s PTNCE conference, which has been planned to be held in autumn in Białystok. The reason is, unfortunately, all to obvious to everyone currently living through this pandemic. The future of how things develop is highly unpredictable and we had hoped that, if we hold off making any decisions, the situation in autumn will become clearer. Unfortunately, even now, it is impossible to plan for what the situation will be. It is far from clear that it will be possible to get the plenary speakers to Białystok in September, both because of the potential lack of flights or the price of tickets and the very real possibility that borders may remain shut. The same is true for other potential participants from outside of Poland, including our friends in Prague. Indeed, given the possibility of a resurgence of the epidemic in the coming months, it may well be the case that large gatherings, such as we would wish PTNCE 2020 to be, may not be held legally in autumn. Even in the best case scenario that all of these difficulties do not eventuate, there is the possibility verging on certainty that an event held this autumn would attract a dramatically smaller audience. It is therefore that we have decided to simply reschedule the PTNCE conference till the autumn of 2021. We will be informing you all of the new dates of the event at the appropriate time. In the meanwhile, we hope that everyone is safe and well and able to study the impact of communicative diseases upon the evolution of human physiology and behaviour.
PTNCE Steering Committee
Conferences of the Polish Society for Human and Evolution Studies (PTNCE) are international meetings which bring together a wide range of scholars who use in their research the evolutionary framework. They come from highly diverse backgrounds, such as anthropology, archaeology, behavioural sciences, cognitive science, linguistics, psychology, and primatology. PTNCE conferences are well known for their friendly atmosphere and the high quality of discussions and scientific results presented by participants.
Join us on 14-17 September 2020 in Białystok, the traditional meeting place of Polish, Jewish and numerous other cultures, the home town of Ludwik Zamenhof the inventor of Esperanto.
David Buss – one of the founders of the field of evolutionary psychology. His primary research focus is on strategies of human mating. He is most well-known for his studies on mate selection, tactics of mate attraction, infidelity, tactics of mate retention, tactics of mate poaching, and the mating emotions of jealousy, lust, and love. He has taught at Berkeley, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas.
His recent research focuses on the dark side of human nature, including conflict between the sexes, jealousy, stalking, intimate partner violence, and murder. He also has active research programs on the mating emotions and the psychology of prestige, status, and reputation. David has authored several books for wide audiences, such as The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating, and textbooks such as Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind.
Ben Jones – professor in the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow, runs the Face Research Lab with Dr Lisa DeBruine. His research investigates how people respond to social cues, particularly information that is visible in faces. Held a 5-year ERC Starting Grant to investigate the effects of exogenous hormones on women's perceptions, behaviours and appearance.
Marek Konarzewski – professor in the Institute of Biology at the University of Białystok. In 1991-1993 he was a scholarship holder at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he worked in Jared Diamond’s research team. His scientific interests focus on issues combining the disciplines of evolutionary ecology, physiology and genetics of birds and mammals.
Cristine Legare – associate professor of psychology and the director of the Evolution, Variation, and Ontogeny of Learning Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines how the human mind enables us to learn, create, and transmit culture. She conducts comparisons across age, culture, and species to address fundamental questions about cognitive and cultural evolution.