4S Toronto 2026 CFP: "Earth’s Subsurface: New STS Research"
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Diego Cerna Aragon
Mar 30, 2026, 1:31:53 PMMar 30
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*Apologies for crossposting*
Dear all,
Please, consider submitting an abstract for the panel #72 "Earth’s Subsurface: New STS Research". Please, see the description below.
72. Earth’s Subsurface: New STS Research
Co-organizers: Kai Bosworth, Virginia Commonwealth University; Julianna Colonna Valevski Cardial, INRAE; Diego Cerna-Aragon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research areas: Energy and Extraction; Environmental/Multispecies Studies; Infrastructure
The historic and situated co-production of subsurface spaces has been a vibrant and ongoing theme that the STS Underground Network (Kinchy et al., 2018) continues to cultivate. Multiple forms of crisis and proposed solutions continue to produce the necessity and urgency to further study social relations with the underground. Conventional mining continues to produce geophysical instability and subsidence (Vassileva, et al., 2021), pollution and deaths (Milanez et al., 2021), and unexpected social attachments and political formations (Marston, 2024). Novel forms of mining and extraction on land and sea are presented as the solution for energy transition. The burial of waste and toxins, such as nuclear waste and carbon, are also presented as necessary collateral for any clean future (Kearns and Rickards, 2017). Meanwhile, many social formations still depend on the purity and accessibility of other underground resources, particularly groundwater and space forinterred infrastructures, resources which can be abused (Ballestero 2018; Bosworth, 2022).
In this context, subsurface realms are of interest to state and geopolitical governance institutions, capitalist firms, workers, conservationists, and cultural and spiritual institutions. Consequently, the forms of knowledge production which dominant institutions marshal are frequently controversial and contested (Meesters et al., 2022). The epistemologies of the sciences and scientific institutions can themselves be fractured, for instance, among field and digital forms of geophysical visualization and modeling (Kroepsch, 2018; Tironi 2019), or among state, public, and capitalist/private interests. This session invites STS scholarship which continues to inquire into the historically and geographically varied ways subsurfaces emerge as sites of concern and contestation. In accordance with this year’s theme, we are particularly interested in critical analyses of subsurface problematics that expose how they function as elements of “technopower” – and how publics are mobilizing alternative knowledges and technologies to contest the terms through which subsurfaces come to matter.
Submission due date: April 30, 2026
Notification of acceptance: May 29, 2026
4S 2026 Conference: October 7-10, 2026
Submission website and further information: https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_toronto.php
Dear all,
Please, consider submitting an abstract for the panel #72 "Earth’s Subsurface: New STS Research". Please, see the description below.
72. Earth’s Subsurface: New STS Research
Co-organizers: Kai Bosworth, Virginia Commonwealth University; Julianna Colonna Valevski Cardial, INRAE; Diego Cerna-Aragon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research areas: Energy and Extraction; Environmental/Multispecies Studies; Infrastructure
The historic and situated co-production of subsurface spaces has been a vibrant and ongoing theme that the STS Underground Network (Kinchy et al., 2018) continues to cultivate. Multiple forms of crisis and proposed solutions continue to produce the necessity and urgency to further study social relations with the underground. Conventional mining continues to produce geophysical instability and subsidence (Vassileva, et al., 2021), pollution and deaths (Milanez et al., 2021), and unexpected social attachments and political formations (Marston, 2024). Novel forms of mining and extraction on land and sea are presented as the solution for energy transition. The burial of waste and toxins, such as nuclear waste and carbon, are also presented as necessary collateral for any clean future (Kearns and Rickards, 2017). Meanwhile, many social formations still depend on the purity and accessibility of other underground resources, particularly groundwater and space forinterred infrastructures, resources which can be abused (Ballestero 2018; Bosworth, 2022).
In this context, subsurface realms are of interest to state and geopolitical governance institutions, capitalist firms, workers, conservationists, and cultural and spiritual institutions. Consequently, the forms of knowledge production which dominant institutions marshal are frequently controversial and contested (Meesters et al., 2022). The epistemologies of the sciences and scientific institutions can themselves be fractured, for instance, among field and digital forms of geophysical visualization and modeling (Kroepsch, 2018; Tironi 2019), or among state, public, and capitalist/private interests. This session invites STS scholarship which continues to inquire into the historically and geographically varied ways subsurfaces emerge as sites of concern and contestation. In accordance with this year’s theme, we are particularly interested in critical analyses of subsurface problematics that expose how they function as elements of “technopower” – and how publics are mobilizing alternative knowledges and technologies to contest the terms through which subsurfaces come to matter.
Submission due date: April 30, 2026
Notification of acceptance: May 29, 2026
4S 2026 Conference: October 7-10, 2026
Submission website and further information: https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_toronto.php
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