Matthew Archer receives E.W. Beth Foundation grant for workshop on animal ethics and sentience
Matthew Archer has received a grant from the E.W. Beth Foundation to organise a workshop exploring the relationship between animal ethics and scientific knowledge of animal sentience.
The workshop, titled “Animal Ethics and the Science of Sentience,” will bring together researchers from philosophy and related disciplines to examine how scientific claims about animal sentience inform ethical debates about the treatment and moral status of animals.
The workshop represents a new direction in Matthew’s research, building on his recent interest in the ethics of precision agriculture. While exploring the ethical implications of new agricultural technologies, Matthew became increasingly interested in animal ethics and, in particular, the role that scientific claims about animal sentience play in philosophical arguments about how animals should be treated.
The workshop will take place in spring 2027 at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS) and will include a public lecture. A call for papers is expected to be announced in the coming months.
About the grant
The Evert Willem Beth Foundation, administered by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), provides grants up to €3,000 for Dutch researchers in modern logic, philosophy of science, and history of logic. It covers expenses for research, study trips, translations, or organizing small scientific meetings.