[SydPhil] Call for Registrations: Workshop on “Self-Narration in the Age of Conversational Chatbots” (Macquarie University, 21 November 2025)

[Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre]

Dear all,
You are cordially invited to attend the workshop titled “Self-Narration in the Age of Conversational Chatbots.” You can find all relevant information on the workshop website<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/0R0rCP7LAXf3jVjR3FzfytxZVqD?domain=sites.google.com>. This event is in person only.
Date: 21 November 2025
Location: 330+331 Function Room, 17 Wally’s Walk (Michael Kirby Building), Macquarie University, Wallumattagal Campus (North Ryde)
Topic: Throughout cultural history, human agents have engaged in self-narration through the conversational exchange with other agents. Self-narration, many philosophers and psychologists assume, can be conducive to agency, autonomy, and wellbeing. With the widespread availability of conversational chatbots based on Large Language Models (LLMs), including so-called AI companions, therapy bots, and deathbots, new opportunities – and risks – for our self-narrative practices are on the rise. To date, however, research on self-narration and on human-chatbot interactions has developed largely independently from each other. Recent research on self-narration has remained anthropocentric in ignoring the possibility of hybrid human-chatbot self-narration. Vice versa, work on human-chatbot interactions has systematically ignored research on self-narrative practices. The aim of this workshop is to integrate these two strands of research for the first time. Bringing together experts in research on self-narration and conversational chatbots, this workshop will explore the self-narrational dynamics of human-chatbot interactions. Furthermore, it will identify the risks of these interactions for the well-being and flourishing of human agents.
Speakers: Francesco Fanti Rovetta (Ruhr University Bochum), Patrick Stokes (Deakin University), Marilyn Stendera (University of Wollongong), Richard Menary (Macquarie University), and Regina Fabry (Macquarie University).
Registration: Participation is free, but places are limited and will be allotted on a first-come, first-served basis. Please register by following this link<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/mmpxCQnMBZfo2Z2posPh8tGwdO2?domain=eventbrite.com>. Registrations close on 17 November 2025.
This workshop is generously funded by the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/YEPMCROND2u5MZM15cPiyt1Vw41?domain=mq.edu.au> and the Macquarie Minds and Intelligences Initiative<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/748nCVARKgCgWQW6gsJsotELtLi?domain=mq.edu.au>. It is organised in collaboration with the Imagined Lives collective in the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University.
Kind regards,
Regina Fabry
[cid:e7abf524-1ce6-4151-98be-bef33905a58a]

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