(Reminder) Round table “Language as Power Struggle in STS” – University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Luca Chiapperino
The event will take place online and in Lausanne, from 16:15 to 18:00 (CET, UTC+1) and will explore how multilingual practices shape inclusion, visibility, and power within our field.
To do so, we are delighted to welcome an exceptional panel of speakers:
- Xan Chacko (Brown University), Associate Editor of Catalyst
- Michela Cozza (University of Trento), Co-Editor of Tecnoscienza
- Vivette García Deister (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Editor‑in‑Chief of Tapuya
- Kari Lancaster (University of Bath), Co-Editor of Science, Technology & Human Values
- Anna Mann (University of Zurich), contributor to Eating is an English Word (Duke UP, 2024)
- Maurizio Meloni (Deakin University), lead author of “Troubling the Canon: Language, Geography, and the Politics of STS Publishing in Five Decades of Journal Publications” (2025, Social Studies of Science)
- Dominique Vinck (University of Lausanne), former editor-in-chief of Revue d’anthropologie des connaissances
Further details are available online, and the round table will be accessible via Teams after registration on the event page:https://www.unil.ch/events/fr/1767954842590
If you have any questions: loic...@unil.ch
We look forward to welcoming you to this exceptional session.
Luca Chiapperino and Loïc Riom
Abstract
Language is never neutral, including in STS: it shapes what travels, who counts as legitimate, and which arguments become canonical. Marking the 25th anniversary of STS-CH – a community marked by its multilinguism – this panel asks how multilingual STS realities across Switzerland, Italy, and France redraw the boundaries of inclusion, visibility and power in our collective field. Our guest panelists examine how editorial policies, citational habits, and everyday translation practices distribute recognition and silence. What institutional and editorial arrangements can help multilingual communities thrive? How can STS-CH cultivate epistemic pluralism, analytical distinctiveness as well as international insertion in a global forum of Anglophone publishing pressures? What concrete measures (e.g., review formats, translation budgets, rotating editorial geographies, pedagogical initiatives) can move us from blind internationalization, through "token diversity", to shared authority? Drawing on experiences and comparative evidences, the panel invites proposals for making STS-CH a laboratory for linguistic justice in the coming decade.
Bâtiment Géopolis, Bureau 5556
CH-1015 Lausanne - Switzerland