LiliCon 2027 is the fourth annual meeting of the Lilienfeld Alliance. It is an interdisciplinary gathering of those who teach critical thinking in higher education. Community partners in this work with an interest in this topic are invited to join. We are especially interested in refutation as a teaching strategy. By “refutation” we mean the practice of investigating common sense, pseudoscience, scams, conspiracy theories (and more) to explore how critical thinking can be used to identify false claims. This is an opportunity to explore the pedagogy of critical thinking, to discuss how we teach, what false beliefs we tackle and why, and what strategies we use to assess the effectiveness of our teaching.

The conference will open at 6pm on Monday, June 7 with dinner and presentation of the inaugural Lilienfeld Award to Dr. Carol Tavris. Over the next two days, there will be sessions on teaching science communication, on metrics for assessing refutation as a form of instruction and its impact, on resources and strategies for using refutation in the classroom, and for discussion of especially impactful topics to refute in higher education. The conference will close around 5pm on Wednesday, June 9. Most meals are included in the registration fee.

June 7-9, 2027

Columbia University in New York City

Featured Speakers

Jonathan Stea

Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry

Clinical psychologist who is a practicing psychologist and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Author of Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry, and co-editor (with Stephen Hupp) of Investigating Clinical Psychology: Pseudoscience, Fringe Science, and Controversies.

Dan Rothstein

Co-founder of the Right Question Institute (RQI) and adjunct faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Dan is Co-author (with Luz Santana) of Make Just One Change:Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. His work at RQI highlights how teaching the skill of question formulation can foster more nimble and democratic minds.

Christopher Labos

Cardiologist and epidemiologist who teaches at McGill University and is affiliated with the Office for Science and Society. He hosts the podcast The Body of Evidence, and is the author of Does Coffee Cause Cancer? And 8 More Myths About the Food We Eat.

Annette Taylor

Cognitive psychologist at the University of San Diego who studies the use of refutation of misconceptions as pedagogy. Along with Patricia Kowalski, she published some of the first research about the impact of refutation on learning.

Gordon Pennycook

Psychologist at Cornell University who studies methods of reducing belief in misinformation, as well as receptivity to “pseudo-profound bullshit.” Most recently, he has studied either AI can be used to reduce belief in conspiracy theories.

Jais Adam-Troian

Social and political psychologist, originally from France, at Heriot-Watt University’s Dubai campus. He studies the social context of false beliefs (especially conspiracy theories) and the group aggression involved in organized misinformation campaigns.

Receiving the Lilienfeld Award:

Carol Tavris

Carol Tavris is a social psychologist, writer, and lecturer. Her textbook with Carole Wade, Psychology, now in its 14thedition, was the first text to specify key ingredients of critical thinking and mainstream those skills into the introductory psychology course. She is coauthor, with Elliot Aronson, of the best-selling Mistakes Were Made (but not by me), about the psychology of cognitive dissonance and self-justification—in other words, why it is so hard for so many people to think critically about evidence and ideas they don’t like. Carol has written hundreds of articles, op-eds, and book reviews on topics in psychological science and a column for Skeptic magazine, and given distinguished lectureships and keynote addresses to students, psychologists, lawyers, and general audiences around the world. A Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, she has received numerous awards for her efforts to promote science and skepticism, including the Bertrand Russell Distinguished Scholar award from the Foundation for Critical Thinking at Sonoma State; the Media Achievement Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology; and a special award from the Center for Inquiry, Independent Investigations Group, for her lifelong contributions to skepticism.

Submit a Proposal

Make a proposal to share your work at LiliCon 2027. We welcome proposals that fit into one of these four categories:

  1. Science Communication - How do we teach college students to share what they know? Can we help them develop skills as science communicators?

  2. Resources for Teaching with Refutation - What books do you use? What in-class activities? What assignments?

  3. Metrics for Assessing Refutation and Critical Thinking - What do we measure? How do we measure it? What have we learned by scientifically studying our teaching?

  4. Impactful Topics - What contemporary topics are ripe for refutation? How do you refute them in a college classroom?

We invite proposals for brief reports (15 minutes), full papers (30 minutes), and posters.

Proposals are due by March 1, 2027.

Conference Registration 

Cost of Registration

To be determined — stay tuned.

A reduced rate for students will be available.


Registration includes:

Most meals — stay tuned for details.


Guests: 

Can be registered to join the conference for meals. Stay tuned.


~ Register Soon ~

Accommodations

New York City has many options for accommodation. None are especially close to the conference venue. Please consider:

The Belleclaire*
Hotel Edison*
The Arthouse Hotel NYC*
The Warwick New York
The Lucerne
The Edge Hotel
The Radio Hotel*
Aloft Harlem


* Columbia’s negotiated rate includes complimentary breakfast at these hotels.

Prices range from $270-300 for June 2027. They are all close to line 1 of the subway, meaning it's just one direct train to the campus.