Linguists first used the term backchannel to refer to the spontaneous responses and signals that provide interactivity to what is only apparently a one-way communication. Social media users have adopted the term to refer to the unofficial, multi-directional online conversation that parallels formal academic exchange at a lecture or conference. The Backchannels blog is intended to have a similar relationship to scholarly discourse in STS. It provides an outlet for alternative-format scholarly communications, publishing shorter, timelier, media-rich communiques of interest to the global STS community. The editors welcome proposed contributions.
Mar 27 2023
This post raises the issue of epistemic violence in STEM textbooks. The case of Biostatistics textbook that features a disproportionate number of problems on breast cancer, which contain normative assumptions about women's bodies and reproductive choices is examined critically.
Mar 23 2023
Rey Tiquia describes the challenges for those trying to live according to local space, local time and local culture, while dominated by abstract, universalizing and modernistic temporal systems such as the Gregorian calendar. He offers a possibility of creating a local and situated interpretation of a time system that synchronizes the Traditional Chinese Calendar (TCC) with the Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
Mar 13 2023
This week, ScanLAB co-founder William Trossell elaborates on the studio’s 3D scanning work, their collaborations with scientific communities and possibilities for future practice.
Feb 27 2023
In this bilingual report, Ayşe Ayda Gerçek and Ilgın İrem Gündüz provide a thematic overview of the debates and highlights of the most recent STS Turkey conference.
Feb 23 2023
Linda Kronman reflects on the challenges of designing datasets, recounting her engagement with the subject both as a researcher and an artist.
Feb 19 2023
As the Indian government clears a mega-infrastructure project in Great Nicobar Island situated at the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar Island group in the Bay of Bengal, this Backchannels post looks at various reasons why this project is a mega folly as outlined in a special issue of Frontline.
Feb 13 2023
In this piece, Guilherme Cavalcante Silva reflects on the use of the Global South as both a virtue and a laboratory in Global North institutions through his experience as a first-year PhD student in STS in North America.
Feb 6 2023
Shashank Deora and Gaurav Kapse reflect on a Science, Technology and Democracy workshop in Delhi, highlighting some of the themes of discussions, key insights and broader questions emerging from the workshop for them.
Jan 30 2023
Linda Kronman reflects on the challenges of designing datasets, recounting her engagement with the subject both as a researcher and an artist.
Jan 23 2023
Sandra P González-Santos, Alex Liebman and Teresa Nuñez Fortul reflect on what went into and what came out of the 'In Memoriam' project at 4S 2022, an occasion to remember and celebrate our academic ancestors, those who have been fundamental to our STS community and to our personal stories as academics.