The 2025 AsSIST-UK Biennial Conference on the theme Reflexions will be held at
The University of Edinburgh, Central Campus, 50 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JU
Registration is now open
Please click on the link below to register and note that Early Bird offers finish on 21st April (we are not able to affect any later discounts if missing this deadline, due to system constraints):
Despite the rising costs, we have decided to keep the fees unchanged from our 2023 conference in order to enable the participation of as many colleagues as possible.
A small number of travel assistance bursaries may be available for self-funded PhD students and unaffiliated researchers. A separate application process will be opened in April.
We welcome contributions that engage with our theme this year: REFLEXION.
Reflexivity has become something of a touchstone for many in science, technology and innovation studies (STIS). But what do we mean by reflexion? How does it contribute to our understanding and our practice as STIS scholars?
What can we learn from reflecting on the history of our, still emergent, field of study? How has our understanding changed over these decades? Not just in terms of novel phenomena but also new methodologies and new ways of conceptualising technoscientific change and new ways of working?
What is reflexion? How do scholars understand it? Who gets to be reflexive, and who doesn’t? Can reflexion help or hinder our work? How do we handle reflexion when it challenges our view of our research? What does this mean for our methods and engagements?
How do we adapt when reflexion highlights problems in our methods? What if it makes us question established methods, concepts and years of collected data? How do we create new approaches? Do we need new questions, new ways to evaluate, new ways to design our studies?
How do we study reflexion itself? What challenges does this bring? What should we ask about reflexive moments in research? How does reflexion relate to knowledge-making, power structures, and research communities? How can reflexive practices from 2024/5 guide future work?
Please use the form below to submit your abstract.
The closing date is 28 February 2025.EXTENDED DEADLINE: 7th March 2025. We will confirm acceptance of papers by 31 March 2025.
Explain how your proposed contribution relates to the REFLEXIONS theme. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words, and should specify which format is the best fit. Accepted proposals will be published as part of the online conference proceedings.
The AsSIST-UK Early Career Researchers (ECR) Group and the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI) at the University of Edinburgh are pleased to announce the annual week-long writing retreat between 15th and 22nd February 2025.
The retreat will be hosted at Fyvie Castle near Turriff in Aberdeenshire, which is an 800-year old Category-A-listed fortress owned by the National Trust of Scotland. We have space for 12 early career academics and scholars working on pieces of writing related to core topics in science, technology and innovation studies (irrespective of what department they are based in).
You must have a writing project to work on and be a Masters or PhD student, or early-stage academic within 5 years of receiving your PhD, engaging in research in a topic relating the broad fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Innovation Studies.
Alongside writing, there will be opportunities for informal feedback and discussion of cross-cutting topics and issues, as well as film nights, nature walks, etc.
There is no travel funding available this year, but as before, the attendance is free of charge.
Apply now – the deadline is 22nd December 2024.
To apply for a space, please complete our online form below:
AsSIST-UK awards an annual prize for a PhD thesis that demonstrates outstanding quality in the STS/Innovation Studies field in the previous year. The Prize is dedicated to the memory of AsSIST-UK co-founder, Prof. Andrew Webster and in recognition of his unwavering commitment to supporting early career researchers.
We are delighted to announce that the 2024 Andrew Webster PhD Prize is awarded to:
Dr Benedetta Catanzariti (University of Edinburgh) for her thesis: Seeing Affect: Knowledge Infrastructures in Facial Expression Recognition Systems
Benedetta’s thesis examines affective computing applications and their promise to ‘decode human affective experience’ – in essence, to read the face and its emotions, from frustration to boredom and depression – with scientific objectivity.
The nomination noted how she brings historical context to these practices by grounding them in older psychological theories (including overtly racist ones) and longstanding Western claims that there are universal emotions, and acknowledges an important legacy of critiques of such projects. Benedetta’s thesis, grounded in feminist studies of science and technology, offers empirical data on the current behind-the-scenes work that goes into the classification practices categorising affective behaviours and validating classification choices.
The thesis shows – perhaps surprisingly – that practitioners are well aware of the existing critiques of underlying Facial Expression Recognition theory, but profess agnosticism regarding this; their goal is to operationalise the underlying theory – even if it is flawed – to develop commercial applications in the workplace or healthcare. She argues that while the field claims this agnosticism in the face of critiques, this strategy obscures accountability towards these interpretive and normative decisions, sidestepping the social implications and underpinning origins of these systems. She also shows with impressive detail those instances in the FER process when human interpretation mediates and makes sense of affective data and the normative choices that go into labelling human affect – for instance, the power differentials seen between the different levels of expertise accorded to ‘expert coders’ on the one hand, and ‘lay annotators’ on the other; and how Facial Expression Recognition in the healthcare context reflects normative visions of health, the body and gender.
We also wish to strongly commend the following graduates for their impressive and novel work:
Dr Vassilis Galanow (University of Edinburgh): Expectations and Expertise in Artificial Intelligence Commendation: “An outstanding piece of research that offers novel insights into the relationships between AI technologists and those involved in AI governance, and which brings together the sociology of expectation and studies of experience and expertise in new ways”
Dr Louise Elstow (University of Lancaster): Getting the Measure of It: Radiation Knowledge Construction in Japan since 2011 Commendation: “A highly original and in-depth ethnography of the practices through which radiation knowledge is constructed in Japan in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown, demonstrating the value of STS concepts and methods to the sociology of disaster and showiung how concepts and methods from STS can translate into the practical and policy work of emergency management professionals”
Congratulations to Benedetta and to Vassilis and Louise.
Anton Grabolle / Better Images of AI / AI Architecture / CC-BY 4.0
AsSIST-UK invites PhD students, early career researchers and others involved in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS) to join our 2024 Summer School. We offer a varied programme of interactive sessions to help scholars in the field develop the skills, strategies and contacts needed to build and strengthen their careers.
Sessions include skill development workshops (on publishing papers, writing research proposals etc), meet-a-mentor sessions, networking, panels on how to build your academic career; debate on how STIS scholars sustain their intellectual contribution in today’s dynamic and challenging higher education landscape.
After the summer school you are invited to join the Annual Public Lecture organised by the University of York, Science and Technology Studies Unit in memory of AsSIST-UK co-founder: Prof Andrew Webster.
Sign Up for the Andrew Webster Annual Public Lecture
organised by the University of York, Science and Technology Studies Unit in memory of AsSIST-UK co-founder Prof Andrew Webster.
To commemorate the life and work of Professor Andrew Webster, the Department of Sociology and SATSU established an annual lecture series that will showcase research in the broadly conceived area of science, technology and society.
Professor in the Sociology of Science at the University of York since 1999, Andrew was the founder and director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit, which he established originally at Anglia Ruskin University in 1988.
He was Head of the Department of Sociology at York between 2004-2009 and then the Dean of Social Sciences. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in 2007.
He co-founded the UK Association for the Study of Innovation, Science and Technology (AsSIST-UK).
As the promises of artificial intelligence attract growing social, political and financial attention, risks and responsibilities are being imagined in ways that serve the interests of a technoscientific elite. In the UK and elsewhere, organisations are starting to institutionalise a mode of governance that presumes to know and take care of public concerns. And new research communities are forming around questions of AI ’safety’ and ‘alignment’. In this talk, I will draw on research into public and expert attitudes and reflect on my role as a proponent, analyst and actor in debates about ‘Responsible AI’.
Report on the Re: constructs workshop exploring conceptual exchange between STS and Sociology
What are the key concepts at the intersection of Sociology and Science and Technology Studies (STS) today? The Backchannels blog of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) has posted a report [EMBED LINK: https://4sonline.org/news_manager.php?page=36073] about the international workshop Re: constructs which took place in December 2023 at the University of Essex and explored conceptual exchanges between Science and Technology Studies and Sociology. The workshop was co-hosted by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (University of Warwick) and the Sociology Department at the University of Essex in December 2023 and featured speakers from both fields. Presentations each examined a key concept, from autonomy to experiment and power, telling a story of their interdisciplinary formation, uptake and transformation: Monika Krause (LSE) examined Symmetry, Susann Wagenknecht & Richard Groß (Technische Universität Dresden) the Situation, and Anne Pollock (KCL) Durability.
New Publications
Aparicio, Alberto. Accept no limits: biocontainment and the construction of a safer space for experimentation in xenobiology as a legacy of Asilomar. BioSocieties (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-023-00322-x
Ulnicane, I. (2024) Intersectionality in Artificial Intelligence: Framing Concerns and Recommendations for Action. Social Inclusion, 12: 7543 https://doi.org/10.17645/si.7543
Ulnicane, I. (2024) Governance fix? Power and politics in controversies about governing generative AI, Policy and Society, puae022, https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puae022
New project to explore the past, present and future of environmental biotechnology as a field
Adrian Ely, Josie Coburn and Duncan Moore (Sussex) and Jane Calvert, Rob Smith and Kyle Parker (Edinburgh) have embarked upon on a six month initiative to explore the past, present and future of environmental biotechnology as a field. This is funded by the BBSRC Environmental Biotechnology Network (EB-Net).ore information is forthcoming.
Anton Grabolle / Better Images of AI / AI Architecture / CC-BY 4.0
AsSIST-UK invites PhD students, early career researchers and others involved in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS) to join our 2024 Summer School. We offer a varied programme of interactive sessions to help scholars in the field develop the skills, strategies and contacts needed to build and strengthen their careers.
Sessions include skill development workshops (on publishing papers, writing research proposals etc), meet-a-mentor sessions, networking, panels on how to build your academic career; debate on how STIS scholars sustain their intellectual contribution in today’s dynamic and challenging higher education landscape.
Participation is FREE of charge and refreshments and light lunch are provided.
Reserve your place [registration closes 31st July]:
11.30-13.00 Session 1: Building your wonderful career
13.00-14.00 Lunch, Meet-A-Mentor
14.00-15.30 Session 2: Skill-sharing panels
15.30-16.00 Coffee Break
16.00-17.30 Session 3: Building an intellectual identity
17.30-18.00 Andrew Webster Prize Award; Wrap up and Networking
18.30 After the summer school you are invited to join the Annual Public Lecture organised by the University of York, Science and Technology Studies Unit in memory of AsSIST-UK co-founder: Prof Andrew Webster.
Tempest Anderson Hall Museum Street York YO1 7FR Sign-up separately via Eventbrite
“The organised irresponsibility of artificial intelligence”
Speaker: Professor Jack Stilgoe, University College London Date: Thursday 5 September 2024 Location: Tempest Anserson Hall, Museum Street, York, YO1 7FR
Prof Jack Stilgoe
As the promises of artificial intelligence attract growing social, political and financial attention, risks and responsibilities are being imagined in ways that serve the interests of a technoscientific elite. In the UK and elsewhere, organisations are starting to institutionalise a mode of governance that presumes to know and take care of public concerns. And new research communities are forming around questions of AI ’safety’ and ‘alignment’. In this talk, I will draw on research into public and expert attitudes and reflect on my role as a proponent, analyst and actor in debates about ‘Responsible AI’.
Andrew J Webster Annual Lecture on Science, Technology and Society
To commemorate the life and work of Professor Andrew Webster, the Department of Sociology and SATSU established an annual lecture series that will showcase research in the broadly conceived area of science, technology and society.
Professor in the Sociology of Science at the University of York since 1999, Andrew was the founder and director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit, which he established originally at Anglia Ruskin University in 1988.
He was Head of the Department of Sociology at York between 2004-2009 and then the Dean of Social Sciences. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in 2007.
He co-founded the UK Association for the Study of Innovation, Science and Technology (AsSIST-UK).
Manuela Perrotta has launched the Remaking Fertility research digest series. These concise briefs offer a summary of key findings and … Continue reading “‘Evidence Gaps and Information Provision in Fertility Care: Addressing Key Needs, Priorities, and Challenges.’”
Science, technology & innovation studies archive looking for a home. A shipping container full of 20c material from the Technology Policy Unit library and collection will be consigned to the tip this year unless it finds a new […]
The HumAIne Lab at Bochum is accepting incoming research visits this summer from PGR/ECR researchers interested in responsible AI. This is the link (interested people should apply to Uta Wilkins). Please circulate widely.
The AsSIST-UK Early Career Researchers (ECR) Group and the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI) at the University of Edinburgh are pleased to announce the annual week-long writing retreat between 16th and 23rd February […]
“Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies” has published an English-language book review by Dr. Robert Williams, senior lecturer in … Continue reading ““Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies””
Save the date: The Andrew Webster Lecture and ECR Workshop will take place in York on 5th September 2024. More information is forthcoming.
The AsSIST-UK Early Career Researchers (ECR) Group and the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI) at the University of Edinburgh are pleased to announce the annual week-long writing retreat between 16th and 23rd February 2024.
This year, the retreat will be hosted at Castle Brodie near Forres in Moray / Scottish Highlands, which is a Category-A-listed historic building owned by the National Trust of Scotland. We have space for 11 early career academics and scholars working on pieces of writing related to core topics in science, technology and innovation studies (irrespective of what department they are based in).
Alongside writing, there will be opportunities for informal feedback and discussion of cross-cutting topics and issues, as well as film nights, nature walks, etc.
There is no travel funding available this year, but as before, the attendance is free of charge.
Apply now – deadline 21st January 2024 at 5pm.
To apply for a space, please complete our online form below:
You must have a writing project to work on and be a Masters or PhD student, or early-stage academic within 5 years of receiving your PhD, engaging in research in a topic relating the broad fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Innovation Studies.
We are delighted to invite you to join us for the annual Andrew Webster Lecture on Science, Technology and Society on 7 September 2023 at the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, YO1 9TL 1730 for 1800 start Attendance is free, please register below.
This year’s speaker will be Professor Jane Calvert, University of Edinburgh who will talk on ‘Synthetic biology and the social sciences: making room for collaboration’.
Jane works in the sociology of the life sciences, and her current research focuses on attempts to engineer living things in the emerging field of synthetic biology. She has a long-standing interest in interdisciplinary collaborations of all sorts.
We also have two respondents to Jane’s lecture: Dr Ros Williams‘(University of Sheffield) work spans across Science and Technology Studies (STS), critical media studies, sociologies of race and ethnicity, and of health and illness. Dr Koichi Mikami (Keio University in Japan) is interested in exploring the role of social sciences and humanities in the governance of science and technology.
About Andrew Webster Lecture on Science, Technology and Society
To commemorate the life and work of Professor Andrew Webster, the Department of Sociology and SATSU established an annual lecture series that will showcase research in the broadly conceived area of science, technology and society. A Professor in the Sociology of Science at the University of York since 1999, Andrew was the founder and director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit, which he established originally at Anglia Ruskin University in 1988. He was Head of the Department of Sociology at York between 2004-2009 and then the Dean of Social Sciences. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in 2007.
