Current position
Postdoc researcher at the Department for Sciences for Quality of Life, and communication officer for DARE - Digital lifelong prevention.
Honorary Fellow at the Center for Sleep and Consciousness, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA).
Education
2015 - Laurea Triennale (equivalent to BA) in Philosophy from the University of Bologna with a dissertation in History and Philosophy of Biology.
2016 - Master's degree (Msc, with Merit) in Philosophy with a specialization in Philosophy of Science from the University of Edinburgh (UK).
2018 - Cognitive Neuroscience Summer school organized by the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Aarhus (Denmark).
2018 - 2019 I was a partner of the Alma Idea Project: "I-Core: Interconnettività e Resilienza" (funded by the University of Bologna).
2019 - Since March I am an Honorary Fellow at the Center for Sleep and Consciousness of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
2020 - I successfully completed the doctoral supervision programme of the European Ph.D.-Network in Philosophy, an invitation seminar organized by the universities of Uppsala (Sweden), Bergen (Norway), Bielefield (Germany), Bologna (Italy), Bucharest (Romania) Helsinki (Finland).
2021 - Ph.D. in Philosophy, Science and Cognition from the University of Bologna with a dissertation on Integrated Information Theory and foundational issues in neuroscience of consciousness.
Publications:
11] Albantakis, L., Ellia, F., Tononi, G., “A Causal Information Account of Actual Causation” [in
preparation].
[10] Ellia, F. The unfolding argument is not sound. [submitted].
[9] Ellia, F. Galileo’s Error’s Error [submitted].
[8] Ellia, F. Integrated Information Theory and the Mind-Body Problem [submitted].
[7] Ellia, F. Asking Everything: a new solution to the Paradox of the Question [submitted].
[6] Ellia, F. and Chis-Ciure, R. (2022), Consciousness and Complexity: Integrated Information Theory
and Neurobiological Naturalism. Consciousness and Cognition, Elsevier, Volume 100.
[5] Ellia, F. (2021), Integrated Information Theory: An Empirically Testable Solution to the Mind-Body
Problem. Doctoral Dissertation, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna.
[4] Ellia, F.* Hendren, J.* Grasso, M. Kozma, C. Mindt, G. Lanng, J. Haun, A. Albantakis, L. Boly, M. Tononi,
G. (2021), Consciousness and the Fallacy of Misplaced Objectivity. Neuroscience of Consciousness
Oxford University Press, Volume 2021, Issue 2.
[3] Chis-Ciure, R. and Ellia, F. (2021), Facing Up to the Hard Problem of Consciousness as an Integrated
Information Theorist. Foundations of Science, Springer, Special Issue on “Connecting Things in the setting
of Foundations and Philosophy of Science”.
[2] Ellia, F. (2020) Francis Crick e il Problema Difficile della Coscienza, Sistemi Intelligenti, 2/2020 Il
Mulino.
[1] Ellia, F. (2018) Francis Crick and the Hard Problem of Consciousness. In C. Chesi & G. Piredda
(eds.) Proceedings of the 15th Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Sciences (AISC 2018).
IUSS Pavia, 17-19 December 2018. ISBN: 9788890794384
Grants and Awards:
2020 - Marco Polo Scholarship winner (funded by University of Bologna).
2019 - Winner "Best Presentation Award" (with Robert Chis-Ciure), Urbino 3-7 June.
2019 - International mobility grant (funded by FILCOM).
2018 - Third Place "Best Paper AISC 2018", Pavia, 17-19 December.
2017 - 3 years PhD scholarship
Invited and Peer Reviewed Talks:
[17] “The Objective Study of the Subjective Experience” University of Bologna, Bologna, November 30th, 2021.
[16] “Integrated Information Theory: An Empirically Testable Solution to the Mind-Body Problem” Doctoral Defense, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy October 18th, 2021.
[14] "Folding the Unfolding argument: why functions are not essential for an explanation of consciousness" University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, Online seminar, November 6th, 2020.
[13] "Foundational Issues in Neuroscience of Consciousness" XXX Convegno dei Dottorandi, Fondazione San Carlo, Modena, Online Conference, September 3rd, 2020.
[12] "Ontological and epistemological issues in Neurobiological Naturalism and Integrated Information Theory" University of Bologna, Bologna, Online seminar, May 20th, 2020.
[11] “The Hard Problem and the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness” Center for Sleep and Consciousness, University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA, March 19th, 2020.
[10] “Integrated Information Theory and the Mind-Body Problem” University of Turku, Finland, January 13, 2020.
[9] "Consciousness and Complexity: An Evolutionary Approach" (with Robert Chis-Ciure), Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Science - The Complexity of Cognition, University of Roma Tre, Roma, December 11-13, 2019.
[8] "Explanatory Reductionism and the Science of Consciousness" 16th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Science - The Complexity of Cognition, University of Roma Tre, Roma, December 11-13, 2019.
[7] "Philosophy of Neuroscience and the Mind-Body Problem" SeRic, University of Bologna, Bologna, November 12, 2019.
[6] "Complexity, Consciousness and the Brain" The European PhD Net in Philosophy Second Cycle, First Seminar Uppsala, Sweden, October 3-4, 2019.
[5] “Is There a Hard Problem for the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness?” (with Robert Chis-Ciure) 16th International Congress on Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Prague, August 5-10, 2019.
[4] “Facing up the Hard Problem of Consciousness as an Integrated Information Theorist” (with Robert Chis-Ciure), 4th SILFS Postgraduate Conference on Logic and Philosophy of Science, Urbino, Urbino University 3rd-7th June 2019.
[3] “Francis Crick and the Hard Problem of Consciousness” - 15th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Science - The new era of Artificial Intelligence: a cognitive perspective, IUSS, Pavia, December 17-19, 2018.
[2] “The paradox of the question” The European PhD Net in Philosophy Second Cycle, First Seminar Helsinki, Finland, October 19–20, 2018.
[1] “Where does the buck stop?” The European PhD Net in Philosophy Sixth Seminar Bielefeld, Germany, April 27–28, 2018.
Editor and Reviewer:
In 2023 I acted as peer reviewer for MIT Press.
Since 2020 I am editor for Frontiers in Psychology (Frontiers).
I acted as reviewer for Neuroscience of Consciousness (Oxford University Press), Frontiers in Psychology (Frontiers), Journal of Consciousness Studies.
Conferences organization:
“First Graduate Conference (Online) of the Italian Association for Cognitive Science”, September 13-14, 2021, online conference.
"I-Core Interconnectivity and Complexity Final Conference", December 5-6, 2019, Bologna.
"The Epistemology of Single Cases: Philosophical and Medical Issues", December 7, 2018, Bologna.
"For a Bottom Up Epistemology", June 7-9, 2018, Bertinoro (FC).
"AISC 2017 The Science of Cognition: Brain, Body, Language and Technologies", December 14-16, 2017, Bologna.
