Science, Technology & Humanity – 11th Annual Science in Public Conference – 10-12 July 2017, University of Sheffield

Call for Open Panels – Submit your proposal by January 31 2017 at bit.ly/sip17panels

Science and technology are essential ingredients of our humanity. The emergence of fruitful and diverse scholarly perspectives on the history, practice, communication, governance and impacts of scientific knowledge reflects this fact. Yet rapid scientific and technological change has also unsettled the idea of what it means to be human; for example, through new frontiers in physical and cognitive enhancement, shift to knowledge economies, and potential threats to employment from mass automation. These changes take place in a context of broader challenges to expertise and evidence, dramatically illustrated by the EU referendum and the election of Donald Trump. Taking these matters seriously calls for a renewed focus on compassion, benevolence and civilization. This year at Science in Public, we ask:

How do science and technology affect what it means to be human?

We invite proposals for panels, debates, performances, films and other forms of dialogue or practice from a wide range of disciplines – including STS, history of science, science communication, sociology, law, disability studies, geography, urban studies, development studies – that reflect on this question across a range of topics including, but not limited to:

  • Law, governance and new technologies
  • Responsible research and innovation
  • Political economy of science and technology
  • Gender, science and technology
  • Science policy
  • History of science and technology
  • The citizen in science and technology
  • Race and postcoloniality
  • Dis/ability in science and technology
  • Social, political and scientific imaginaries
  • Science and technology in science fiction
  • Science, art and humanity
  • Public involvement in science and technology
  • Social media as (in)humane technology
  • Human enhancement
  • Robotics
  • Grand challenges to the future of humanity
  • Geographies of science and technology
  • Science and sustainability

Panels can be made up of one or a series of sessions. Each session will last 90 minutes. Sessions with papers will be limited to three papers per session only, in order to facilitate in-depth discussion and exchange of ideas. Panels can be proposed with papers and speakers and/or opened up as part of the subsequent Call for Papers (to be issued in February 2017).

See more details at: https://scienceinpublic.org/science-in-public-2017/

Questions? Email warren.pearce@sheffield.ac.uk