Beyond Error: Rethinking Bias in Research Practice | The Martin Buber Society of Fellows

Beyond Error: Rethinking Bias in Research Practice

Date: 
Mon, 22/06/2026 to Tue, 23/06/2026
Assor

 

This June (2026), fellow Yael Assor co-organized the interdisciplinary workshop Beyond Error: Rethinking Bias in Research Practice, along with Prof. Guy Ron (Rakach Institute of Physics, Hebrew University) and former MBSF director Prof. Raz Chen-Morris (Department of History and Scholion Center, Hebrew University). Bringing together scholars from the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and law, the workshop explored how different fields define, identify, and respond to the concept of "bias" in the production of knowledge. Discussions challenged the common assumption that bias is simply an error to be eliminated, instead examining its diverse roles as a statistical phenomenon, a cognitive process, a feature of scientific communities, a product of institutional structures, and a consequence of social and political conditions. Participants compared approaches to reducing bias, from adversarial collaboration and replication practices to methodological transparency and institutional design, while also asking whether some forms of bias are inseparable from the paradigms and commitments that make knowledge production possible. Across lectures and breakout discussions, the workshop developed a shared interdisciplinary language for thinking about the conditions under which knowledge is produced, evaluated, and legitimized, laying the groundwork for future collaborations across disciplinary boundaries.