Newsletter
of the Society for Social
Studies of Science
May
2025
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Presidential
Message, May 2025
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Dear 4S
Community,
Even as we find
ourselves navigating
challenging and uncertain
times for academic
research, this past month
has had many heartening
occasions for our
collective work. Early
Bird registrations for
4S-Seattle in September
are strong – so looking
forward to being in
community!
I am pleased to
be able to announce the
winners of our Fleck and
Carson Book Prizes and
Infrastructure Prize:
Fleck
Prize: Lisa
Yin Han’s Deepwater
Alchemy: Extractive
Mediation and the
Taming of the Sea
Floor
Carson
Prize: Emily
Yates-Doerr’s
Mal-Nutrition:
Maternal Health Science
and the Reproduction of
Harm
Infrastructure
Prize: Digital STS
Look out for the
Author-Meets Critics
Sessions at the
conference, and more
broadly for opportunities
to raise a celebratory
glass. The preliminary
programme will be
released in the
coming days.
In the meantime, at the
American Council of
Learned Societies (ACLS)
meeting in April, I had
the chance to join
scholars from dozens of
academic societies to
discuss a range of vital
topics including how
best to support
international travellers
to our conferences
and international PhD
students. 4S Council have
been in deep and ongoing
conversation about
concrete ways we can
support international
travellers even as we stay
alert to changing
circumstances and learn
from other societies’
experiences, and we will
be constantly updating our
travel advice to reflect
developments – watch
that space.
I also had the
opportunity at ACLS to be
in conversation with the
presidents of the History
of Science Society (HSS)
and Society for History of
Technology (SHOT) about
the idea of
forming a mutual support
network for US-based
international PhD
students who
are impacted by the
intensified uncertainty
over immigration status
and border crossing. In
order to ascertain the
level of interest in such
a network and gather
insight into its design,
please take a moment to
fill out this
survey.
And for those
who feel inspired by these
prizes and by this broader
work supporting STS
scholars and scholarship
across the world, reminder
to self-nominate for a
three-year term as either
a 4S Council Member or a
6S rep (for students) – do
so by May
19th. We
need our community more
than ever, and are
grateful to those willing
to step up to serve.
All best,
Anne
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LaborTech
Annual Awards | Book,
Graduate Student Paper,
and Social Justice
Activism
Deadline: June
1, 2025
As part of our
mission to promote
scholarship and activism
towards more equitable
forms of labor and
technology, LaborTech
hosts three annual awards
-- Book, Graduate Student
Paper, and Social Justice.
These honor projects
which: have distinctive
intellectual merit or
activist impact; advance
the knowledge about labor
and technology in the
global society; and
address our core focus on
labor and technology and
which may simultaneously
address feminism,
anti-racism, and/or
transnationalism.
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Click
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Announcements
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Common
Circuits: Hacking
Alternative
Technological Futures
Authored by
Luis Felipe R. Murillo
Stanford
University Press
A digital world
in relentless
movement—from artificial
intelligence to ubiquitous
computing—has been
captured and reinvented as
a monoculture by Silicon
Valley "big tech" and
venture capital firms. Yet
very little is discussed
in the public sphere about
existing alternatives.
Based on long-term field
research across San
Francisco, Tokyo, and
Shenzhen, Common Circuits
explores a transnational
network of hacker spaces
that stand as potent, but
often invisible,
alternatives to the
dominant technology
industry.
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Indigenous
Currencies: Leaving Some
for the Rest in the
Digital Age
Authored by
Ashley Cordes
MIT Press
Indigenous
Currencies follows dynamic
stories of currency as a
meaning-making
communication technology.
Settler economies regard
currency as their own
invention, casting
Indigenous systems of
value, exchange, and data
stewardship as
incompatible with
contemporary markets. In
this book, Ashley Cordes
refutes such claims and
describes a long history
of Indigenous innovation
in currencies, including
wampum, dentalium, beads,
and, more recently, the
cryptocurrency MazaCoin.
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Transport
Truths: Planning Methods
and Ethics for Global
Futures
Authored by
Greg Griffin
Bristol
University Press
Ideal for
researchers and
practitioners looking for
fresh approaches to
transport problems, this
book combines cutting-edge
qualitative and
quantitative knowledge to
inform transport futures.
It uses engaging case
studies of the Banjul
Airport Expansion in The
Gambia, and the Interstate
35 development project in
Austin, US to show how and
why a transdisciplinary
approach can result in
better planning decisions.
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Ethical
Assemblages of
Artificial Intelligence:
Controversies,
Uncertainties, and
Networks
Authored by
Helena Machado and
Susana Silva
Palgrave
Macmillan
This book
critically examines the
ethical challenges of
Artificial Intelligence
(AI), focusing on facial
recognition and
AI-assisted reproductive
technologies. It explores
how these issues
intertwine with social and
political processes and
power dynamics in digital
societies. What defines
ethical versus unethical
in the realm of AI? Why do
some ethical debates
dominate, while others are
overlooked? Which actors
and institutions align or
diverge in these
discussions?
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Click
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Announcements
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CfP
| Laboring Landscapes:
Workers’ Agency in
Transforming
Agricultural Spaces
Deadline: May
20, 2025
Colonial and
Postcolonial Landscapes
International Congress
We welcome
contributions that examine
the interrelationships
between labor and spatial
typologies such as fields,
mills, irrigation systems,
packing plants,
cold-storage warehouses,
factories, or transport
networks. Approaches
across architecture,
history, geography,
anthropology, labor
studies, and environmental
humanities are encouraged.
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CfP
| Special Issues in
Science, Technology,
& Human Values
Deadline: June
21, 2025
The editorial
group of Science,
Technology, & Human
Values is happy to
announce the journal’s
annual Call for Proposals
for Special Issues. Since
1972, Science, Technology,
& Human Values has
provided a forum for
cutting-edge research and
debate in the field of
Science and Technology
Studies (STS). This is a
collectively edited,
peer-reviewed,
transnational,
interdisciplinary journal
containing research,
analyses and commentary on
the development and
dynamics of science and
technology, with a focus
on their relationship to
politics, economy, society
and culture.
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Click
here
to see all Publishing and
Proposal Calls
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ETH
Zurich | 2 Positions: TT
Assistant Professors
History of Technology
and Philosophy of
Science | CH
Deadline: June
15, 2025
The Department
of Humanities, Social and
Political Sciences at ETH
Zurich invites
applications for two
professorships, one in
History of Technology, the
other in Philosophy of
Science. We are looking
for two researchers with
an outstanding record in
philosophy, history or
neighbouring disciplines
whose research focuses (a)
on the history of
technology and (b) on the
philosophy of science. The
search is also open to
candidates who combine
historical and
philosophical
methodologies and to those
who combine them with
other related
methodologies.
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Advanced
Institute of
Humanities and Social
Sciences | UESTC
| Academic Positions
at all levels |
Sichuan, CN
Deadline:
December 31, 2025
The Advanced
Institute of Humanities
and Social Sciences
(AI-HSS) of The University
of Electronic Science and
Technology of China
(UESTC) is seeking
outstanding scholars at
all career stages to
strengthen our research
and teaching capabilities
in the ethics and
philosophy of science and
technology. Successful
candidates will join
either the Research Center
for Ethics and Governance
of Science and Technology
or the Research Center for
Philosophy, Logic, and
History of Science and
Technology, conducting
cutting-edge research on
ethical, philosophical,
and governance issues
related to emerging
technologies.
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Technical
University of Munich |
Postdoctoral Research
Associate for
PARTIALJUSTICE |DE
Deadline: May
16, 2025
We are looking
for a postdoctoral
research associate
beginning in September
2025 or shortly after, for
a term of 4 years. The
postdoc will join the
ERC-Starting Grant project
team on “Participatory
Algorithmic Jus-tice: A
multi-sited ethnography to
advance algorithmic
justice through
participatory design”
(PARTIALJUSTICE) to
examine issues of justice
and participation in
artificial intelligence
(AI). Despite its
potential, AI is known to
reinforce inequalities and
result in negative
consequences, for example,
racial or gender bias,
dis-crimination, or
surveillance.
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University
of Duisburg-Essen |
PostDoc in Anthropology,
Urban Studies, STS | DE
Deadline: May
19, 2025
We are seeking a
Postdoctoral Researcher
with expertise in cultural
anthropology, critical
urban studies and/or
science and technology
studies. The ideal
candidate has strong
qualifications in
qualitative empirical
research as well as a
proven record of engaging
with concepts and theories
of technology, urbanism
and culture. The research
will primarily concentrate
on ethnographies of urban
politics of artificial
cold and local cultures of
cooling as well as on the
history and theory of
artificial atmospheres and
thermal governance.
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University
of Amsterdam | Three
Interdisciplinary PhDs
on Governance by Data
Infrastructure | NL
Deadline: May
31, 2025
The University
of Amsterdam invites
applications for three
fully funded PhD positions
within an
interdisciplinary research
project led by Professor
Stefania Milan and funded
by the European Research
Council. You will join a
team of six researchers
working at the
intersection of the social
sciences, humanities, and
informatics. Each PhD
project focuses on one of
four domains: biometric
technologies, digital
identity systems, health
technologies, or education
technologies.
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Postdocs
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