Call for Proposals - Aftermath: AusSTS Melbourne Summer Symposium 2026
Timothy Neale
** PROPOSAL FORM HERE: https://forms.gle/9kwgnpDiE2HP61sF7?_imcp=1 **
The Melbourne Node of AusSTS is holding a 1-day summer symposium for scholars to present and discuss works in progress. We welcome applications that broadly engage with Science and Technology Studies (STS), and especially encourage applicants to engage with the symposium theme where possible.
Date: Monday 23 February 2026
Location: Melbourne Naarm (in-person only, exact location TBC).
Theme: Aftermath: the "aftermath" of technoscientific intervention defines our contemporary moment (see Landecker, 2025, “Life as Aftermath”). This symposium will examine how past and present technological and scientific actions - from environmental alterations to biomedical developments - create enduring conditions that shape reality. We invite contributors to consider: how are legacies (e.g., waste, data, altered biologies) managed, resisted, lived within, and worked through? What aftermaths are present but unarticulated in this moment, and what aftermaths are now in formation? Submissions are invited to analyse the socio-material and political dimensions of these ongoing consequences, offering critical perspectives on what it means to study, govern, and inhabit a world of intercession and interruption.
Note: this summer symposium is being held as a local lead-in to the AusSTS 2026 annual meeting in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, November 2026. Presenters at the summer symposium will be encouraged to develop and submit proposals to the 2026 annual meeting.
Participate: to apply to participate in the symposium, please submit an abstract (200 words) for a short (10 minute) presentation that engages with the theme by 25 November 2025. Sessions will consist of 4-5 presentations followed by group discussion. Acceptance notifications will be sent by 10 January 2026. Registration will be kept to a nominal fee to cover venue hire. We will be unfortunately unable to provide support for travel or accommodation. Registration will be opened to non-presenting attendees following the registration of presenters. For any questions please contact the organisers at: melbaus...@gmail.com