Science and Democracy Network 17th Annual Meeting, 2018
June 27-30, 2018
Munich Center for Technology in Society, Technical University Munich
Munich, Germany
Call for Abstracts
The Conference Planning Committee invites abstracts (up to 300 words) on a theme appropriate for discussion at the workshop. The closing date for abstract submissions is March 30, 2018. We will make decisions on which abstracts to accept by about a month from that date. You should submit your abstracts via the online form. Please direct any questions to Shana Ashar at shana_ashar@hks.harvard.edu.
If your abstract is accepted by the Conference Planning Committee, you will be expected to provide a final paper for circulation to other workshop participants no later than June 6, 2018. Please keep this date in mind as you respond to the call for abstracts.
The conference will be organized around the following major themes:
- Institutions: Role of governmental and non-governmental institutions in producing, using, disseminating or contesting authoritative knowledge; institutions with claims to epistemic authority include NGOs, corporations, international governmental organizations, scientific institutions, the state and its agencies.
- Citizenship and Participation: Forms and modes of citizen mobilization and expression around scientific or technological issues, including (new) social movements, new forms of participation, consumer activism, patient groups, indigenous peoples, and “liminal citizens” (endangered species, animals, embryos, and stem cells, for example).
- Communication and Representation: Intersection between political and expert or professional discourses; role of mass media in presenting science, with particular interest in visual representation; political implications of information and communication technologies, databases, identification technologies, etc.
Under each theme, priority will be given to work that effectively integrates issues of political and epistemic authority. We plan to accept somewhere between 28-30 abstracts in all. Preference will be given to abstracts from people who did not present last year (though this is not an absolute rule).
As in prior years, we will accept proposals not only for individual papers but also for panels of 3-4 papers on topics of broad interest for science and democracy. Such proposals must meet high standards of theoretical significance and/or political or policy salience. Please note that, to ensure widest participation, only one panel proposal can be accommodated in the final program. If you submit a panel proposal, but would also be willing to have the entries considered individually, please so indicate.
We would also like to solicit proposals for roundtables on current issues of relevance to SDN members, for example, reflecting on recent political developments challenging knowledge and expertise. The program may be able to accommodate one such panel (60-90 minutes) provided it is sufficiently interesting and inclusive. Panelists need not present formal papers but should represent a breadth of research experiences and institutional affiliations.
Special Session for Graduate Students
This year’s annual meeting will feature two bracketed, half-day sessions for graduate students on Wednesday, June 27th and Saturday, June 30th. This session will offer graduate students an opportunity to submit and present papers for feedback from senior SDN members, in addition to joining the entire SDN conference as participants. To submit an abstract for a graduate student paper, please follow the link to the online form, upload your abstract, and check the box for a graduate student submission.Limited travel funds may be available for graduate students who demonstrate need. If you are a graduate student looking for a travel stipend, please check the appropriate box on your abstract submission form.