Reminder: PhD-course Intro to STS March-April (Deadline January 23rd) Linköping, Sweden
Linus Ekman Burgman
Dear all,
We would hereby like to send a reminder to interested PhD students regarding the ‘Introduction to STS 8 ECTS’ course at the Tema-T Department of Linköping University, which Anna Storm and I are coordinating. The course takes place between March 18th and April 16th 2026. Please share this invitation in your networks.
The course is an introduction to several key theorizations in the field of Science and Technology Studies. In addition to reading and discussing key texts, the course participants will also be familiarized with the criticism and debate surrounding key theoretical positions of the field. The course is designed to provide ample opportunities for reflection and discussion of perspectives, theories, and concepts in STS, particularly as they relate to the course participants’ own research interests. Lecturers include Steve Woolgar, Anna Storm, Harald Rohracher, Lisa Guntram, Maria Eidenskog, Sergiu Novac, and Linus Ekman Burgman.
The course admits a limited number of PhD students. If you’re interested in enrolling, please e-mail Linus Ekman Burgman (linus.ekm...@liu.se) by January 23rd with a brief (max 1 page in total) description of yourself, the topic of your PhD thesis, and your expectations of the course. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out the following week.
The course will take place on Campus Valla, Linköping University, Sweden. Participants are expected to attend all sessions.
READING LIST AND SCHEDULE
PART I: THE BASICS
Wednesday March 18th
10.15-12.00 Historicizing Technoscience (Storm)
Readings:
Turner, Stephen (2008). ‘The Social Studies of Science before Kuhn’, in The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (Third Edition, Chp. 2, 33-62), (eds. Hackett et al.), The MIT Press.
Edge, David (1995) ‘Reinventing the Wheel’, in Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (3-24), (eds. Jasanoff et al.), London: Sage.
Feenberg, Andrew (2017) ‘A Critical Theory of Technology’, in The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (Fourth Edition, Chp. 22, 635-664), (eds. Felt et al.), The MIT Press.
Hecht, Gabrielle, and Allen, Michael Thad (2001) ‚Introduction: Authority, Political Machines, and Technology’s History’, in Technologies of Power: Essays in Honor of Thomas Parke Hughes and Agatha Chipley Hughes (1-24), The MIT Press.
13.15-15.00 Provocations (Woolgar)
Readings:
Sergio Sismondo (2nd edition 2009) An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies Blackwell:
Chapter 5 pp 47-56: The Strong Programme and the sociology of knowledge;
Chapter 6 pp 57-71: Social Construction of Realities;
Chapter 10 pp 106-114: Studying Laboratories;
Thursday March 19th
10.15-12.00 Thinking Otherwise (Woolgar)
Readings:
Sergio Sismondo (2nd edition 2009) An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies Blackwell:
Chap 8 pp 81-92 Actor Network Theory;
Steve Woolgar and Dan Neyland (2013) Mundane Governance: ontology and accountability (OUP):
Chap 8 Mundane Terror pp 194-219;
Chap 9 Disruption pp 220-247;
13.15-15.00 Sociotechnical System Users (Rohracher)
Readings:
Hughes, Thomas P. 1987. The Evolution of Large Technological Systems [abridged]. I The Science Studies Reader, edited by M. Biagioli. New York and London: Routledge.
Sovacool, B.K., Lovell, K., Ting, M.B., 2018. Reconfiguration, Contestation, and Decline: Conceptualizing Mature Large Technical Systems. Science, Technology, & Human Values 43(6), 1066-97.
Oudshoorn, Nelly, and Trevor J. Pinch. 2003. “Introduction: How Users and Non- Users Matter.” In How Users Matter: The Co-Construction of Users and Technologies, edited by Nelly Oudshoorn and Trevor J. Pinch, 1–25. Cambridge: MIT Press.
PART II: TECHNOSCIENCE AND POWER
Wednesday March 25th
10.15-12.00 Multiplicity and Markets (Ekman Burgman)
Readings:
Kjellberg, H., & Helgesson, C. F. (2006). Multiple versions of markets: Multiplicity and performativity in market practice. Industrial Marketing Management, 35(7), 839–855. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2006.05.011
de Laet, M., & Mol, A. (2000). The Zimbabwe Bush Pump. Social Studies of Science, 30(2), 225–263. https://doi.org/10.1177/030631200030002002
Mol A (1999) Ontological politics. A word and some questions. The Sociological Review 47(S1): 74–89.
Woolgar S and Lezaun J (2013) The wrong bin bag: A turn to ontology in science and technology studies? Social Studies of Science 43(3): 321–340.
13.15-15.00 Feminist Technoscience (Guntram)
Readings:
Cockburn, C. (1983). Brothers. Male Dominance and Technological Change. Pluto Press. London. pp. 3-13, 174-180
Harding, S. (1986) The Science Question in Feminism. Open University Press. Milton Keynes. pp 15-29
Haraway, D. (1991). A Cyborg Manifesto. Science, Technology and Socialist- Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge
Willum Adrian, S., Skewes, L. and Schwennesen, N. (2018). “Introduction to feminist STS at work challenging dichotomies and privileges”, Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 2018(1): 3-14
Murphy, M. (2012), Seizing the Means of Reproduction: Entanglements of Feminism, Health, and Technoscience, Duke University Press, Durham. (pp. TBA)
Oudshoorn, N., Saetnan, A.R. and Lie, M. (2002), “On gender and things: Reflections on an exhibition on gendered artifacts”, Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 471–483, doi: 10.1016/S0277-5395(02)00284-4.
Thursday March 26th
10.15-12.00 Care (Eidenskog)
Readings:
Martin A, Myers N, Viseu A. The politics of care in technoscience. Social Studies of Science. 2015;45(5):625-641. doi:10.1177/0306312715602073
de La Bellacasa, M. P. (2011). Matters of care in technoscience: Assembling neglected things. Social Studies of Science. 41(1), 85 – 106.
Law, J. (2010). Care and killing: Tensions in veterinary practice. In A. Mol, I. Moser and J. Pols, (Eds.) Care in Practice. On Tinkering in Clinics, Homes and Farms (p. 141-70). Transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/transcript.9783839414477.
13.15-15.00 Post-colonialism (Novac)
Readings:
Anderson, Warwick. 2002. “Introduction: Postcolonial Technoscience.” Social Studies of Science 32 (5–6): 643–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/030631270203200502.
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. 2003. “Anthropology and the Savage Slot: The Poetics and Politics of Otherness.” In Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World, edited by Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-04144-9_2.
Abraham, Itty. 2006. “The Contradictory Spaces of Postcolonial Techno-Science.” Economic and Political Weekly 41 (3): 210–17.
Harding, Sandra. 2009. “Postcolonial and Feminist Philosophies of Science and Technology: Convergences and Dissonances.” Postcolonial Studies 12 (4): 401–21.https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790903350658.
PART III: EPILOGUE
Wednesday April 15th
10.15-12.00 and 13.15-15.00 Essay Seminars
Thursday April 16th
10.15-12.00 and 13.15-15.00 Essay Seminars and Wrap up
Linus Ekman Burgman (PhD)
Postdoc
Tema Technology and Social Change
Phone: +46 (0)13-28 89 20
Mobile: +46 (0)73-6569224
Visiting address: Hus Temahuset, rum A:333, Campus Valla
Homepage: https://liu.se/en/employee/linek13