In recent years, there have been dramatic developments in the field of UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) research, or UFOs, as they are commonly known. Academic interest in this field has historically been discouraged, but a clear shift is underway. The Advanced Study Group Anomalous Agenda at Pufendorf IAS has invited science philosopher Michael Cifone, Ph.D., from SUAPS (Society of UAP Studies) for an open talk about ongoing research programmes on the philosophical and methodological foundations of UAP studies.

Guest lecture by Dr. Michael Cifone

Science philosopher Michael Cifone, Ph.D., is the founding director of SUAPS (Society of UAP Studies) and the founder of the peer review scientific journal Limina, which publishes research on the UFO phenomenon. Dr. Michael Cifone’s research focuses on Non-Human, extraterrestrial Intelligence (NHI) and how to achieve scientific progress which has been largely lacking throughout the 80-year modern history of the phenomenon.

Michael Cifone argues that scientific progress requires starting not from the objects of investigation, but from the conditions under which the investigation of them has failed to develop into a cumulative science. He describes three analytically domains: 

• the institutional and political conditions that have thus far structured UAP research; 
• the empirical challenges faced by any serious observational programme; 
• the deeper formal and conceptual dimension that the most intractable cases eventually demand. 

Academic interest in this field has historically been discouraged, but a clear shift is underway. Today there are research groups at leading universities such as Stanford University, the University at Albany, Harvard University, the University of Würzburg, and Durham University. 

The hosts: ASG Anomalous Agenda

The interdisciplinary research group at the Pufendorf Institute for Advances Studies, the Advanced Study Group Anomalous Agenda, is the first of its kind in Sweden and aims to develop transparent, scientifically based knowledge in order to understand and explain the UFO phenomenon and its societal and epistemological implications. ASG coordinators are Anders Warell, a professor in the Department of Design Sciences, and Melina Tsapos, Ph.D. at the Department of Philosophy. 

Read about the Advanced Study Group on the Pufendorf IAS' website

Anomalous Agenda | The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies

Registration no later than 4 September

Please let Anders Warell know that you are attending by sending an e-mail to him no later than 4 September 18.00. anders.warell@design.lth.se 

A hot topic in the USA

Although the phenomenon is truly global with tens of thousands of reported incidents every year, much progress has taken place in the USA. In 2017, an article in The New York Times revealed that the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence agencies have been investigating UFO cases for decades and have established programmes aimed at collecting materials, entities, and craft, as well as replicating the technology that has been gathered. Since 2022, four congressional hearings have been held in which whistleblowers have corroborated the existence of these programmes and illustrated how the subject has been discredited and suppressed in public discourse. Legislation to protect whistleblowers and informants has been enacted through several congressional resolutions with the aim of increasing transparency and oversight of these classified programmes.