KLI Colloquia are invited research talks of about an hour followed by 30 min discussion. The talks are held in English, open to the public, and offered in hybrid format.
Join via Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5881861923?omn=85945744831
Meeting ID: 588 186 1923
Fall-Winter 2026/27 KLI Colloquium Series
1 October 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Scientific Integration as Fit: The Developmental Biases of Interdisciplinarity
Olesya BONDARENKO (KLI)
8 October 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
The Role of Conversational Cues in the Co-Evolution of Language and Cooperation
Theresa MATZINGER (University of Vienna)
5 November 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Kin Matters: An Intervention in the Fragile Sciences
Robert A. WILSON (University of Western Australia)
19 November 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Modeling the Evolution of Human Early Embryogenesis with Stem Cells
Nicolas RIVRON (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology/IMBA, Vienna)
3 December 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Peter TURCHIN (Complexity Science Hub, Vienna)
10 December 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
On the Cultural Macroevolution of Intentional Cranial Modifications
Marcelo SÁNCHEZ-VILLAGRA (University of Zurich)
14 January 2027 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
DNA from Archaeological Sediments as a Tracer for Past Societies
Benjamin VERNOT (University of Vienna)
28 January 2027 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Beyond Fear: How the Amygdala Links Interoception and Exteroception
Ronald SLADKY (University of Vienna)
KLI Colloquia 2014 – 2026
Event Details
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqcu2vqDgrEtaoLohyQ2QVw3BZJUPXWB5S
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Topic description / abstract:
Dehumanization (i.e. regarding certain people as not human or as less human) and essentialism are clearly connected, in everyday cognition as well as in the history of those sciences that study humans, and that have, as part of that, often naturalize(d) social inequalities. In the talk, I want to deepen the understanding of how essentialism and dehumanization generally connect (independent of sciences), in order to discuss with the KLI community – on the basis of the talk - how sciences (past and present) stabilize dehumanization.
Biographical note:
Maria Kronfeldner works in the philosophy of the life sciences and the philosophy of the social sciences and has published widely in these areas. She has been awarded The Karl Popper Essay Prize of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science and The Philosophical Quarterly International Essay Prize. From 2010-2014 she was Junior Professor at Bielefeld University. Earlier she held several fellowships, among them at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science in Berlin; at the Fishbein Center for History of Science and Medicine of the University of Chicago; at the Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh; and at the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science of the University of Sydney. She earned her PhD at the University of Regensburg in 2006.

