4S Mission

Fostering interdisciplinary and engaged scholarship in social studies of science, technology, and medicine across the globe.

Latest 4S News

Call for Open Panels EASST-4S 2024

Published On: Sep 19, 2023

The Call for Open Panels for EASST-4S 2024, from 16 till 19 July in Amsterdam, is now open. Submit your Open Panel proposal until October 23rd.

CFP for a special issue of Science, Technology & Human values

Published On: Aug 2, 2023

Deadline: Sep 14, 2023

The editors of Science, Technology, & Human Values and guest editors Canay Özden-Schilling and Emily Chua are calling for proposed papers for an upcoming Special Issue.

Pre-conference Writing Workshop in coordination with the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) meeting Honolulu, Hawaii

Published On: Jul 29, 2023

Deadline: Aug 25, 2023

Seeking early-career scholars for a highly-interactive 1.5-day workshop to take place in the two days before the meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Workshop will draw together journal editors from 4S-affiliated journals – Social Studies of Science; Science, Technology, & Human Values; East Asian Science and Technology Studies; Engaging Science, Technology and Society; Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience; Tapuya: Latin Ame...

4S Publications

Science, Technology, and Human Values

For more than forty years, Science, Technology, & Human Values has provided the forum for cutting-edge research and debate in the field of science and technology studies.

Toward an Upgrade of Gaia-politics: A View from the East Asian Critical Zone

Paul Jobin

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
Although Bruno Latour had limited interaction with East Asia, translations of his work contributed to the development of Science and Technology Studies (STS) in that part...

Gene Editing in Agriculture: Social Concerns, Public Engagement, and Governance

Theresa Selfa

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This special issue reflects a variety of methodological and critical perspectives on contemporary issues regarding social concerns, public engagement, and governance of...

Scripts of Alterity: Mapping Assumptions and Limitations of the Border Security Apparatus through Classification Schemas

Annalisa Pelizza

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This article empirically maps and compares types of knowledge produced about people on the move by the European border security apparatus. Exploring two complementary analytical...

Latour and After, or What Comes After Latour?

Courtney Addison

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.

Furthering Ontological Pluralism, Maybe: The Strange Case of the Microbial Recordings

Tiago Moreira

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This paper describes the trials and tribulations of drawing on Latour’s work on ontological pluralism (An Inquiry into the Mode of Existence) to make sense of a series...

Engaging Science, Technology and Society

Engaging Science, Technology, & Society is an online, open access publication of The Society for Social Studies of Science.

Towards Transnational STS

Published On: Aug 31 2023

Clément Dréano, Noela Invernizzi, Duygu Kaşdoğan, Ali Kenner, Angela Okune, Grant Jun Otsuki, Sujatha Raman, Tim Schütz, Federico Vasen, Amanda Windle, Emily York

Transnational dialogues in STS matter and are at the heart of ESTS, exemplified by this issue. Two Original Research Articles, the first by Lucía Céspedes (2023) and the second co-authored by Gonçalo Santos, Naubahar Sharif,...

Sociolinguistic and Translingual Practices in the Discourse of Astronomers in Argentina

Published On: Feb 26 2023

Lucía Céspedes

This paper examines the sociolinguistic practices of a particular scientific and discourse community. To that end, I analyze seminars delivered by PhD students of astronomy at the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Astronomy...

Translating STS in China: Disciplinary Struggles and Future Prospects

Published On: Feb 26 2023

Gonçalo D. Santos, Naubahar Sharif, Jack Linzhou Xing

This article analyzes a debate in Mainland China over how to designate and integrate the international field of STS (science and technology studies) in Chinese academia. Emerged at the turn of the millennium, this debate confirmed...

TRANSnationalizing STS: Places, Spaces, and Politics

Published On: Feb 23 2023

Duygu Kaşdoğan, Angela Okune

Why, how, and for whom does it matter to walk through, attend and attune to plural and complex STS places/spaces? By building on the STS Across Borders and Innovating STS exhibits held at 4S 2018 and 2019 meetings, this thematic...

4S Blog: Backchannels

Hearing the Planetary

Lukáš Likavčan
Sep 25, 2023
What can sound tell us about the future? Recounting his encounter with the Fjallsárlón glacial lagoon, Lukáš Likavčan invokes a situated philosophy through the act of listening.

Fortune or calamity? A Thai perspective on ChatGPT

Auriane van der Vaeren
Sep 18, 2023
By discussing Thailand’s take on ChatGPT with Prof. Soraj Hongladarom (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand), we can appreciate how different approaches to ChatGPT are less due to culturally diverging metaphysical interpretations of reality than due to culturally diverging relations to trust.

What does a Critical Data Studies look like, in 2023?* A Workshop Report

Catriona Gray
Sep 11, 2023
In this post, Catriona Gray reports back from a workshop on data materialities and infrastructures at the University of Cambridge and reflects on the field of Critical Data Studies today.

Our “Hidden Gills”: A Report on the 2023 Animal Studies Summer Institute

Richard Fadok
Sep 04, 2023
Backchannels Assistant Editor Richard Fadok ferrets out thematic convergences between STS and animal studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Animal Studies Summer Institute.

Backchannels content is contributed by our members to highlight news relevant to their work.

STS News

Items submitted by the community and emailed to members monthly.

Princeton University - High Meadows Environmental Institute - Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humanities

Sep 29, 2023
Princeton University seeks to appoint a distinguished humanist whose work is related to the environment for the 2024-2025 academic year. The on-campus position will provide salary plus benefits for a semester long visit or for the duration of a full academic year, depending on the negotiated length of the visit and available funding. The funds may be used to supplement a sabbatical leave.

The Discreet Charm of Prediction - Academic and citizens’ conference", Copenhagen 29-30 January 2024

Sep 29, 2023
The overall goal of this conference is to better understand what law enforcement and predictive policing have become today, with the ongoing digital transformation and platformization of key functions of the police organization.

Call for Open Panels EASST-4S 2024

Sep 19, 2023
The Call for Open Panels for EASST-4S 2024, from 16 till 19 July in Amsterdam, is now open. Submit your Open Panel proposal until October 23rd.

Recent Member Publications - September 2023 update

Sep 18, 2023
Recent publications from our members.