From September 1st to 5th, 2014, the European Social Simulation Association (http://www.essa.eu.org/) will celebrate its annual meeting in Barcelona (Spain), at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (www.uab.cat):
SOCIAL SIMULATION-2014
http://www.essa2014.eu/
On that occasion there will be the satellite conference, organized in collaboration with the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Society (http://caaconference.org/about/):
SIMULATING THE PAST TO UNDERSTAND HUMAN HISTORY
The conference is organized with the contribution of the SimulPast project (www.simulpast.es), a 5-year exploratory research project funded by the Spanish Government (MICINN CSD2010-00034) that aims at developing an innovative and interdisciplinary methodological framework to model and simulate ancient societies and their relationship with environmental transformations. To achieve these aims, SimulPast integrates knowledge from diverse fields covering humanities, social, computational and ecological sciences within a national and international network.
The conference intention is to showcase the result of the SimulPast project together with current international research on the methodological and theoretical aspects of computer simulation in archaeological and historical contexts. The conference will bring together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds (history, ecology, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, computer science and complex systems) in order to promote deeper understanding and collaboration in the study of past human behavior and history.
Invited Keynote speakers:
Dr. Timothy A. Kohler (Washington State University) (http://libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/faculty/kohler.html), and
Joshua M. Epstein (Center for Advanced Modeling in the Social, Behavioral and Health Sciences (CAM) at Johns Hopkins University) (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/emergencymedicine/Faculty/JHH/EPSTEIN_joshua.html)
The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Applications of computational modeling in archaeology and history
o Social organization and change
o Cultural transmission and evolution
o Long term socio-ecology
o Human adaptation and climate change
o Cooperation and warfare
o Trade and exchange
• Tools and methods for development of simulation models
o Calibration and validation
o Realistic vs abstract modeling
o Results analysis and verification
o Simulation software & programming computational frameworks
Applications are welcomed on all subjects (from Anthropology, Archaeology, Geography and History) using different approaches to social simulation and presenting case studies from any region of the world and any prehistoric or historic period. Theoretical aspects of social and cultural evolution are also encouraged.
The Conference submission policy is:
• For oral presentations: An extended abstract of 3 pages, presenting the work in progress but with enough detail to ensure proper evaluation, should be sent before or by February 28th. 2014 for reviewing.
• For poster presentations: An abstract of about 2 pages should be sent before or by February 28th. 2014 for reviewing.
Accepted oral presentations (20 minutes) can be selected for publication in the edited volume resulting from the conference and we are currently in discussion with three prestigious publishing houses (Springer, Routledge and Elsevier). For this reason, authors that would like to publish their paper in the special volume must submit the final draft by 15th October 2014.
Full extended abstracts and poster summaries will be uploaded on conference website, and they will be available for free downloading.
All PhD students, who are principal author will be considered for a “Best Student Paper - award (350 EUR) and the “Best Student Poster” (150 EUR) at the conference.
For more information do not hesitate to contact the local organizers ([email protected]). Detailed information, EasyChair links for submissions and registration will be available at: http://www.essa2014.eu/
Given the coincidence with Union Internationale des Sciences Prehistoriques et Protohistoriques Meeting in Burgos (Spain) (http://www.burgos2014uispp.com), every effort will be made in order to allow interested researchers to assist to both Conferences. Burgos is well connected with Barcelona by plane (from Valladolid) or by train.