CfP Generative methods workshop STS CH 2025 conference in Zurich
Simon Hirsbrunner
Dear colleagues,
We cordially invite you to submit expressions of interest for our workshop on "generative methods" taking place during the STS-CH 2025 conference in Zurich from 10. - 12.09.25.
Deadline: 9 May. Submission details on the call for papers can be found here: https://sts-ch.org/sts-ch-2025/. Please submit via Converia.
// Workshop abstract
STS scholars have highlighted the inventive (Wakeford and Lury 2014), multifarious (Marres 2017), political and often messy (Law 2004; 2006) character of scientific methods and instruments. Acknowledging Latour’s (2004) consideration that critique has run out of steam, STS embraces a non-representational approach to methods which enact scientific realities (Licoppe 2010).
With this in mind, how might we situate the advent of GenAI (Generative AI) in the mix of available avenues to conduct and reflect on STS research? In the workshop, we will evaluate what role GenAI could play, or already plays, to investigate STS subjects, what epistemological challenges can come with the many shortcomings of this technology discussed in the literature (epistemic opacity, data biases, systematic unreliability) and to what extend we can accommodate ethical concerns that come with the socio-technical operationalization of this technology (privacy violations, ecological footprint, algorithmic discrimination, global injustice).
Drawing on Preda’s work on the role of the stock ticker as generator of financial markets (2006), we could evaluate if and how GenAI serves as a generative method for STS in the sense that it reconfigures scientific temporalities, agencies and assemblages. And last but not least, we also want to examine how we can ensure to hold things together in this potentially fluid and unstable course of action - at least as far as we want to. We invite participants to report, debate and experiment with directions involving GenAI to generate new research questions, objects, actors, data, tools and insights.
One note on convenors and participants:
While I (Simon Hirsbrunner) have formally submitted the proposal for the workshop, we are a group of researchers from University of Tübingen thinking about "generative methods" and will be working on the further conceptualization and organization of the event. Workshop participants are also invited to contribute to the ideation process before the conference. We will collect ideas here: https://simonsimson.github.io/generative-methods/
Best regards,
and hopefully meeting you soon in Zurich!
Lisa Koeritz, Jana Hecktor and Simon Hirsbrunner
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Dr. Simon David Hirsbrunner
Team Leader / Senior Researcher
AI and Data Ethics, Sustainability in AI
International Center for Ethics in the Sciences (IZEW)
University of Tübingen
Wilhelmstraße 56
D-72074 Tübingen
Recent publications
Filipović A, Burchardt A, Hirsbrunner SD, et al. 2025. Künstliche Intelligenz: Grundlagen für das Handeln in der Hochschullehre. Ergebnisse der Arbeitsgruppe „Künstliche Intelligenz: Essenzielle Kompetenzen an Hochschulen“. Arbeitspapier Nr. 86 (März 2025). Hochschulrektorenkonferenz / Hochschulforum Digitalisierung. https://hochschulforumdigitalisierung.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/HFD_AP_86_Kuenstliche-Intelligenz_Grundlagen-fuer-das-Handeln.pdf
Hirsbrunner S. D. 2024. Computational methods for climate change frame analysis: Techniques, critiques, and cautious ways forward. WIREs Climate Change: e902. https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wcc.902