The 20th Annual Meeting will be held virtually from June 23-25, 2021. We will keep the single-track structure that we have always had in SDN (via a single Zoom room for the meeting).
As we did last year, we will be replicating the more social in-person meetings by asking attendees to join a special Slack workspace for the meeting.
What happens at the Annual Meeting?
The Annual Meeting provides a forum for discussing empirical research on important topics in the contemporary politics of science and technology. These meetings train young professionals, foster dialogue among scholars from across the globe, and build an improved knowledge base for public policy by highlighting issues of importance to national, regional, and global communities of scholars and practitioners..
Speakers are expected to submit papers before the meeting, and attendees are expected to read these before the sessions where they are discussed. There are no ‘streams’ in SDN, so that everyone can hear all presentations if they so wish.
In between the paper sessions are Plenary Panels, featuring active junior and senior members of the Network discussing pressing issues of science and democracy.
These academic sessions are usually complemented by more social periods, in which Network members and other registrants can catch up with each other and meet new colleagues. Opportunities are provided for graduate students to meet more senior scholars in mentoring sessions.
Do I have to be a member of the Network to attend?
You do not need to be a member of the Network to attend, but we assume that attendance means that you are interested in becoming a member. Membership is currently free, as membership is more about being a part of a thought collective at the cutting edge of STS rather than paying dues to an organization.
Day 1: Wednesday June 23rd
| US Pacific | US Eastern | London | India | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6:30am | 9:30am | Community connection time in Zoom room | 2:30pm | 7:00pm |
| 6:45am | 9:45am | Meeting Introduction Sheila Jasanoff | 2:45pm | 7:15pm |
| 7:00am | 10:00am | Paper Session 1 – Distributive Justice in Technology Governance Chair: Ben Hurlbut, Arizona State University The Epistemic Tensions of Nuclear Waste Siting in a Nuclear Landscape Marissa Bell, Cornell Understanding “fair returns” in European research: Configuring justice, scientific standing, and economic competition in the European space sector through the geo-return principle Zinaida Vasilyeva and Sebastian Pfotenhauer, TU Munich Containing Contention: Post-Disaster Strategies of International Nuclear Organizations to Maintain their Epistemic Dominance in Radiological Governance Kyoko Sato, Stanford, and Christine Fassert, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Human Beings as Nuclear Waste: Neoliberal Governance of Nuclear Medicine Hugh Gusterson and Alison Macfarlane (UBC) | 3:00pm | 7:30pm |
| 7:30am | 10:30am | Paper Session 1 – discussion | 3:30pm | 8:00pm |
| 8:30am | 11:30am | SDN Zoom room open and small group/grad student meetings | 4:30pm | 9:00pm |
| 9:30am | 12:30pm | BREAK | 5:30pm | 10:00pm |
| 10:30am | 1:30pm | Plenary Panel A – STS in the Wild Chair: Rob Hagendijk, University of Amsterdam Makoto Takahashi, Munich Center for Technology in Society Hilton Simmet, Harvard Kennedy School Kasper Schiølin, Aarhus University Margo Boenig-Liptsin, UC Berkeley Vidya Subramanian, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay | 6:30pm | 11:00pm |
| 11:30am | 2:30pm | Plenary Panel A Discussion | 7:30pm | 12:00am* |
| 12:00pm | 3:00pm | BREAK | 8:00pm | 12:30am* |
| 1:00pm | 4:00pm | Paper Session 2 – The Politics of Environmental Democracy Chair: Ulrike Felt, Univeristy of Vienna Democracy in a downpour: civic epistemologies as expectations of democracy in the governance of Mexico’s storms Anna Bridel, LSE Contested socio-environmental imaginaries of water and rivers in times of total hydro-extractivism in Costa Rica Francesc Rodriguez, Brandenburg University of Technology Climate change (un)imaginaries: The depoliticising gaze of computer vision Warren Pearce, Sheffield Ending History: Empiricism, Earth System Science and Empire Stefan Schäfer, IASS Potsdam | 9:00pm | 1:30am* |
| 1:30pm | 4:30pm | Paper Session 2 – Discussion | 9:30pm | 2:00am* |
| 2:30pm | 5:30pm | SDN Zoom Room Open for casual discussion | 10:30pm | 3:00am* |
| 3:15pm | 6:15pm | END Day 1 | 11:15pm | 3:45am* |
Day 2: Thursday June 24th
| US Pacific | US Eastern | London | India | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6:30am | 9:30am | Plenary Panel B: Stress Tests for Democracy: Covid-19 and Comparative Social Compacts Chair: Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard Kennedy School Brice Laurent, CSI-Mines ParisTech (Constitutionalism) Sujatha Raman, Australia National University (Citizenship) Ian McGonigle, Nanyang Technological University (Trust) Ulrike Felt, University of Vienna (Public Engagement) Silke Beck, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ (Expertise) Stephen Hilgartner, Cornell University (Nationalism) | 2:30pm | 7:00pm |
| 7:30am | 10:30am | Paper Session 3 – Knowing and Being: Knowledge Collectives and Political Subjects (Graduate Panel) Chair: Shobita Parthasarathy, University of Michigan Constituting Risk: Pesticides, Regulatory Science and Farmers in Western Uttar Pradesh Abhigya, IIT Delhi The Science of Climate Change: A Source of National-Level Variation Rather than Commonality Conrad George, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona The democratization of expert authority Kinley Gillette, University of British Columbia Barriers and limitations public policy formulation through citizen e-Participation: A study of Smart City Campaign over MyGov platform in India Sharique Manazir, Jawaharlal Nehru University From neighborhood planning to urban innovation? Understanding shifts in philanthropic foundations engagement in urban development through a prominent foundation network, Living Cities Jeeson Oh, Ohio State The (un)making of electoral transparency through technology: the Kenyan 2017 presidential controversy Cecilia Passanti, Université de Paris | 3:30pm | 8:00pm |
| 8:00am | 11:00am | Paper Session 3 – discussion | 4:00pm | 8:30pm |
| 9:00am | 12:00pm | BREAK | 5:00pm | 9:30pm |
| 9:15am | 12:15pm | Plenary Panel B Cont. Re-convening and discussion | 5:15pm | 9:45pm |
| 10:00am | 1:00pm | BREAK | 6:00pm | 10:30pm |
| 12:30pm | 3:30pm | Paper Session – 4 Constituting Bioeconomic Subjects Chair: Sebastian Pfotenhauer, Technical University Munich Collaging public health: Medical research collections and the formation of ‘bioconstitutional citizenship’ Erik Aarden, Klagenfurth Imagining informedness, authorizing consent: worldmaking in ACLU opposition to migrant DNA testing Elizabeth Dietz, ASU Economic common sense: Causality and co-production in applied economics Pariroo Rattan, Harvard The rise of narratives: On the role of narratives as patterns of understanding in socio-technical imaginaries Bernhard Fischer-Appelt and Rafael Dernbach, Harvard WCFIA | 8:30pm | 1:00am* |
| 1:00pm | 4:00pm | Paper Session 4 – discussion | 9:00pm | 1:30am* |
| 2:00pm | 5:00pm | SDN Zoom room open for discussions | 10:00pm | 2:30am* |
| 3:00pm | 6:00pm | END Day 2 | 11:00pm | 3:30am* |
Day 3: Friday June 25th
| US Pacific | US Eastern | London | India | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6:30am | 9:30am | Paper Session 5 – Accounting and Accountable Experts Chair: Stephen Hilgartner, Cornell Comprehensive Science Advisory Groups: familiarity and distinctiveness in producing and contesting nanotechnology policy Aixa Aleman-Diaz, Copenhagen Business School Regulatory Science and Precautionary Science: From Comitology of Experts to Expert Communities for the Supervision and Regulation of Nano-Technologies in Argentina Mauricio Berger, CONICET, UNCordoba, Argentina Disposition: The Army Corps of Engineers and the Unmaking of the Mississippi River Roopali Phadke, Macalester Public Accountability for Expert Advisors: Exploring the Concept with a Case Study on Glyphosate Vesco Peskalev, Brunel | 2:30pm | 7:00pm |
| 7:00am | 10:00am | Paper Session 5 – Discussion | 3:00pm | 7:30pm |
| 8:00am | 11:00am | BREAK | 4:00pm | 8:30pm |
| 8:15am | 11:15am | STS Pedagogy Roundtable: Close Encounters with Another Kind Chair: Sam Weiss Evans, Harvard Jacob Moses, Johns Hopkins Medicine Karen Huang, Georgetown Matthew Sample, Leibniz University Hannover Kyoko Sato, Stanford | 4:15pm | 8:45pm |
| 9:15am | 12:15pm | BREAK | 5:15pm | 9:45pm |
| 10:30am | 1:30pm | Paper Session 6 – Citizens of Technological Futures Chair: Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard Ordering the 5G Future: Deference and Sovereignty in City of Portland v. United States Nicole Bassoff, HKS Testing Energy Futures and Citizenship in a Community Micro-Grid Sarah Delvaux, Liège Green New Deals: What shapes Green and Deal? Les Levidow, Open University Tech’s “We” Problem Gali Racabi, HLS | 6:30pm | 11:00pm |
| 11:00am | 2:00pm | Paper Session 6 – Discussion | 7:00pm | 11:30pm |
| 12:00pm | 3:00pm | Meeting wrap-up; plans for next year | 8:00pm | 12:30am* |
| 12:45pm | 3:45pm | SDN Zoom room open for discussion and goodbyes | 8:45pm | 1:15am* |
| 1:30pm | 4:30pm | END Day 3 | 9:30pm | 2:00am* |