Biosemiotics

26/11/2024

The 25th Annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics (GIBS)

In Rotterdam, The Netherlands

25-29 August, 2025

The Gatherings in Biosemiotics is the annual meeting of world scholars studying sign processes in living systems. Since 2001, these meetings have taken place, and they also serve as the annual meeting of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS).

On behalf of the Feral Ecologies Lab, Erasmus School of Philosophy, and the Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Initiative, Erasmus University Rotterdam welcomes researchers in any academic discipline with an interest in biosemiotics to join us in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for the Silver Anniversary of GIBs.

The last possible date to submit your abstract is 17 March, 2025.
Please submit your abstract here: https://forms.gle/ABVBTJKsqZurxZY87

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

As always, we welcome paper proposals on all themes in biosemiotics, semiotic concepts and models of living systems. Proposals related to these themes are especially welcome:


Empirical work in biosemiotics:
EES, Eco-Evo-Devo methodologies and biosemiotics
Quantitative methodologies
Qualitative methodologies
Warm Data’s challenges to traditional biological methods (and biosemiotic aspects)
Biosemiotics in Ethology, Botany, and other Natural Sciences

Philosophy of biology & biosemiotics:
Biosemiotic Ethics
Umwelt Theory and Studies
Meriology, Taxa, and Biosemiotics
Biosemiotic interpretations of and contributions to Plant/Fungi Philosophy

Ecosemiotics and Human Institutions:
Luhmann, Social Systems Theory, and Biosemiotics
Simondon, Individuation, and Collective Systems
Environmental Justice dimensions of biosemiotics
Ecosemiotics of Climate Change
Schismogenesis and the Double Bind in Environmentalism
Cultural implications of biosemiotics
Indigenous biosemiotics

Applied Biosemiotics:
Applying biosemiotics to different fields/disciplines
Biosemiotics of Wild Food/Agriculture
Medical biosemiotics
Commercial biosemiotics

Peirce and Beyond:
Biosemiotics beyond traditional semiotics (including minor or upcoming authors)
Battles of typologies (e.g., Deacon’s Symbolic Species v. Stjernfelt’s Natural Propositions)
Contributions of other disciplines to semiotics/semiotic approaches to design, architecture, human sensory perception, non-western forms of perceiving, etc.



Centrally located in Europe with direct flights to Schiphol from all over the world, and Amsterdam just a 40 minute train ride away, Rotterdam is easily accessible. Trains from the airport to central Rotterdam take less than 30 minutes and run every 15 minutes. High-speed rail runs from Paris (2h 30m), London (3h 15m), and Brussels (1h 10m) straight to Rotterdam.

Conveners: Yogi Hale Hendlin and Constantijn-Alexander Kusters, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Please address questions to: [email protected]

11/09/2024

Photo gallery of Biosemiotics at the 16th World Congress of the IASS/AIS:

Authors, associate editors and members of our editorial board convened at University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Applied Linguistics. They had the opportunity to network with members of fellow journals during the 16th World Congress of the IASS/AIS (September 2-6). Our journal is thriving thanks to the semiotic community supporting it. Thank you!

We also remind you that our brand-new special issue is out: Umwelt Theory and Phenomenology.

04/09/2024

Celebrating the great Kalevi Kull 🥂

16/08/2024

Snapshots from Annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics 2024:

Thirty five colleagues from around the world gathered virtually and in situ at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. This hybrid conference took place between June 17-21, considering the role of global geopolitical contexts in biosemiotics.

The Global South was proposed as the focal topic the agenda, bringing together colleagues from 14 countries, including Zimbabwe, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Czechia, The Netherlands, Estonia, Norway, the United States of America, Mexico, Switzerland, Russia, Brazil, Argentina and Italy.

A big shout-out to PhD student Heidi Campana Piva for winning the Biosemiotic Achievement Award for the Year (2023), for her published paper “Semiotically Mediated Human-Bee Communication in the Practice of Brazilian Meliponiculture”. Congratulations!

The next (25th) Gatherings in Biosemiotics will take place in July 2025 at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. We are very looking forward to seeing you there as well!

31/07/2024

The new Special Issue on Umwelt Theory and Phenomenology is live

It is an exceptional collection of papers from renowned scholars. Please spread the word.

The English term ‘phenomenon’ relies ultimately on the Greek root phainein, ‘to appear’; starting from here, phenomenology has explored and continues to ...

25/06/2024

The journal of Biosemiotics now has an impact factor of 2.1. Congratulations team! Keep submitting!

29/04/2024

The Special Issue The Biosemiotics of Waste is now complete and available for reading online:

With the symbolic shadow of colonial efficiency looming large on the semiotic landscape of all life, pollution occupies and influences the agency of (nearly) ...

21/04/2024

https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/nydeclaration/background

Recent rapid advances The last ten years have been an exciting time for the science of animal cognition and behavior. Striking new results have hinted at surprisingly rich inner lives in a very wide range of other animals, including many invertebrates, driving renewed debate about animal

05/03/2024

Job Posting for Applied Biosemiotics:

We are seeking a dynamic, insightful and results-driven strategy consultant to join Luminous. As Consultant, you will play a pivotal role empowering organizations in the life sciences. You will drive project deliverables & client success around insights, strategies and capabilities that lead to better outcomes for patients, business, and society. This role requires a blend of project ex*****on, insight, foresight and strategic skills, and excellence in presentation and client management. We are looking for experience in life sciences and a demonstrated passion for serving as a trusted partner to clients. We are also seeking people who are genuine, courageous and able to drive business growth. In this role you will have the opportunity to shape thought leadership in healthcare and the life sciences, bringing transformative insights to drive health and business outcomes on behalf of manufacturers of therapies and devices. You will be part of a dynamic global team applying models from behavioral science, biosemiotics and systems thinking to identify how the ecosystem of care needs to change to improve patient lives.

For more about us and what we look for visit

Luminous is a consultancy that enables transformation in the life sciences industry through insights, strategies, and capabilities.

20/02/2024

24th GATHERINGS IN BIOSEMIOTICS: FINAL CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Online and face-to-face

Held under the auspices of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies, the 24th annual Gathering will take place at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. As this Gathering will be held in the Global South, it might offer a good opportunity to consider the role of global geopolitical contexts in biosemiotics. As much as one would expect biology to be a study that does not need to consider context, or perhaps it does, ecosemiotics, the relationship between biosemiotics and culture, and the emergence of biosemiotics as a field of study itself may benefit from considering different contexts. Apart from the normal presentations related to biosemiotics, we therefore in particular welcome reflections on geopolitical, cultural, and social contexts in biosemiotics.

The Gatherings in Biosemiotics is the annual meeting for the study of sign processes in life processes. Researchers interested in the intersection of meaning-making and biology are the backbone of our
interdisciplinary undertaking, and we welcome thoughtful submissions from scholars in any discipline relevant to a deeper understanding of the role of signs in life.

The conference will take place from 17-21 June 2024.

We particularly welcome conference presentations in the following research areas:

Biosemiotic approaches to biology
Biosemiotics and ecosemiotics in the Global South
The implications of biosemiotics to philosophy and the humanities
History and epistemology of biosemiotics
Semiotic approaches in theoretical biology
Evolution and ontogeny of semiotic mechanisms
Modelling of semiosis and semiotic networks
Endosemiotics
Interspecies semiosis
Experimental biosemiotics
Ecosemiotics
Biosemiotics of health and disease
Umwelt studies and phenomenology
Cultural implications of biosemiotics
Abstracts should be 300-600 words, with your full name, email address and affiliation below the title, and submitted as single-space, single page files in the doc, docx, rtf, or odt formats (please do not send PDFs), with a maximum of three references permitted. All abstracts should be e-mailed to [email protected] no later than 4 March 2024. Please filename the document with your surname in capital letters, for example: SEBEOK.doc. Please also indicate if you will be attending online or in person.

The tentative notification of acceptance date will be early March 2024. Additional information about the Gathering can be found at https://www.ufs.ac.za/conferences/conference/gatherings-in-biosemiotics-2024

Looking forward to seeing you at the Gathering!

The Organizing Committee of the 24th Annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics

ISBS Official Webpage: www.biosemiotics.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Biosemiotics/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Biosemiotics_J

ABOUT

The ISBS’s task is to promote biosemiotic research and strengthen the links of researchers across the world.

Biosemiotics is an interdisciplinary research agenda investigating the myriad forms of communication and signification found in and between living systems. It is thus the study of representation, meaning, sense, and the biological significance of codes and sign processes, from genetic code sequences...