Name: Constituting variables in Causal AI
Start: 2025-11-24T15:15:00+00:00
End: 2025-11-24T17:00:00+00:00
Location: Byrne House

Egenis seminar (hybrid) with Dr James Lowe (University of Exeter)
About this Event

Constituting variables in Causal AI

To be made tractable for scientific investigation, the variation that exists in nature – or could be generated through particular manipulations – has to be turned into a variable. In this seminar, I will examine how variables are constituted and enter into a varipraxis: the way in which particular forms of variation are conceptualised, related, used and interpreted in a research endeavour.

I explore the constitution of variables using the field of Causal AI, as it involves:

1. explicit modelling of variables and their relationships;

2. a focus on causally modelling data practices in a given domain;

3. heterogeneity in the kinds, origins and roles of variables; and

4. novel encounters with biological or translational research endeavours and associated datasets that engenders a variety of ways in which existing variables are engaged with.

I will argue that examining how research enterprises constitute variables can affect how a research enterprise can change over time, and the extent to which it may be able to fulfil its translational aims.

Venue: Byrne House, University of Exeter (spaces limited)

Virtual: via Zoom

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