Evoldir title: Montreal.PlasticitySocialEvolution.Jul26-30 Subject: Symposium on the role of phenotypic plasticity in social evolution Dear colleagues, We are excited to announce the symposium "Interacting in a changing world: the role of phenotypic plasticity in social evolution" at this year's 3rd Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology in Montreal on 26-30 July 2024. We would like to invite anyone interested in sharing their research and joining the discussion on the topic to submit an abstract. We welcome researchers from all career stages and backgrounds. You can register here: https://www.evolutionmeetings.org/registration.html. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions on the symposium, The organizers Francesca Santostefano F.Santostefano2@exeter.ac.uk Tom Ratz tom.ratz@uzh.ch Symposium title Interacting in a changing world: the role of phenotypic plasticity in social evolution Symposium Abstract Interacting with conspecifics is an important part of an organism's life, often crucial to reproduction and survival. Traits mediating social interactions can have a genetic basis and be under selection, a process known as social evolution. Theory in social evolution has highlighted how interactions can affect the rate of evolution by accelerating or constraining the response to selection. Current models, however, do not yet fully capture the dynamic nature of social interactions: individuals typically differ in social behavior and adjust it to social partners. As a result, we still poorly understand how between- and within-individual variation, which determines heritable variation on which selection can act upon, affects the direction and speed of evolution. This symposium seeks to showcase recent advances in the field, focusing on individuality and plasticity. In doing so we aim to stimulate discussion and identify potential gaps and future directions of research on social evolution. Goal of the Symposium Social evolution is a central topic in evolutionary biology. The field has recently made exciting conceptual advances to clarify how indirect genetic effects and social selection affect the evolution of phenotypes, and developed powerful statistical tools (random-slope GLMMs, social animal models) to analyze complex data on social behavior. Yet empirical studies are lagging due to limited exchange between theoreticians and empiricists on one hand, and between quantitative geneticists and behavioral ecologists on the other hand. Given that the Congress will attract a broad crowd of theoreticians and empiricists from both backgrounds, a symposium on social evolution will be a unique opportunity to present the latest theoretical advances and ongoing empirical research in the field. We will look forward to fostering discussion and exchange of ideas in social evolution, which is an essential step to drive progress in understanding the central role that social interactions play in evolution. "Santostefano, Francesca" (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to golding@mcmaster.ca)