04 – 06 December 2025
10am to 5pm US Eastern
16:00 to 23:00 CET
December 4-5, 2025
In-person Roundtables
>12:00-14:00 CET
December 4-6, 2025
Main Virtual Conference
>16:00 CET (10:00 AM EST / 7:00 AM PST) each day
In-person Roundtables:
Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany
Main Conference: Virtual
Accessible from anywhere in the world. In-person attendees can join both segments, in our seminar rooms.
Interdisciplinarity in UAP Studies
Bridging diverse fields to advance understanding
This conference welcomes academics, researchers, and practitioners from across the social sciences, humanities, physical sciences, and consciousness studies. Graduate students exploring UAP phenomena and engaged members of the public are equally encouraged to participate in this unique interdisciplinary forum. Local/regional researchers are particularly invited to the in-person roundtables. This conference is part of the Society for UAP Studies' mission to advance interdisciplinary UAP research. Learn more about the Society's broader initiatives and membership opportunities.
Our program features compelling plenary presentations that set the intellectual foundation, distinguished keynote addresses from leading thinkers, and focused discipline-specific workshops that allow for deep exploration within your field of expertise. The pre-conference informal in-person roundtables (without a virtual component) will provide an additional opportunity for local and regional researchers to connect.
We are honored to present two thought leaders who bring exceptional insight and scholarly rigor to the evolving field of UAP studies.
A pioneering voice in the sociology of science, Professor Fuller brings decades of experience examining how knowledge systems evolve and adapt to revolutionary discoveries. His work on paradigm shifts and epistemic communities provides crucial context for understanding UAP studies as an emerging interdisciplinary field.
Professor Fuller will explore how traditional academic structures can accommodate and advance UAP research while maintaining scientific rigor.
An internationally recognized expert on organizational culture and information flow, Professor Westrum has spent his career studying how institutions process unexpected or anomalous information. His frameworks for understanding organizational responses to uncertainty are directly applicable to UAP phenomena.
Professor Westrum will address the challenges and opportunities facing researchers working with contested or unconventional evidence.
To foster deep, focused exploration within specific disciplines while maintaining cross-pollination of ideas, the conference features four parallel workshop streams. Each workshop provides space for rigorous methodological discussion and collaborative problem-solving among specialists.
Examining UAP phenomena through sociological, anthropological, and psychological frameworks. Topics include social construction of anomalous experiences, institutional responses, and community impacts.
Exploring philosophical, historical, and cultural dimensions of UAP encounters. Sessions address epistemological questions, narrative analysis, and the role of humanities scholarship in expanding our understanding.
Investigating observational data, technological analysis, and theoretical frameworks from physics, engineering, and related fields. Focus on measurement challenges and evidence evaluation.
Bridging cognitive science, phenomenology, and consciousness research to understand experiential and perceptual aspects of UAP encounters from first-person and experimental perspectives.