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Involvement

British Academy Visiting Fellow Award

We are delighted to announce that Professor Jane Desmond (University of Illinois) has been awarded a Visiting Fellow grant from the British Academy. Then aim of this Award is to enable academics to be based at a UK University, and to develop collaborative projects.

Professor Desmond will spend the Autumn semester at the University of Nottingham, UK, working with Professor Pru Hobson-West, Dr Alistair Anderson, and Professor Kate Millar.

The aim of the collaboration is to strengthen our partnership on the topic of veterinary social science and humanities. Plans for the visit include interdisciplinary workshops, and the production of new analysis comparing the current state of interdisciplinary veterinary humanities in the UK and US.  

Jane Desmond is a Professor in Anthropology and Gender and Women's Studies, and Co-founder and current Director of the International Forum for U.S. Studies, a center for the Transnational Study of the United States. She also holds appointments in the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, the Center for Global Studies, and in the College of Veterinary Medicine. From September 2023, Jane will also become a Fellow in Bioethics at Harvard Medical School.

Pru Hobson-West is Professor of Science, Medicine and Society in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, and an Honorary Professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science. She is also Director of Institute for Science and Society at the University of Nottingham.

Alistair Anderson is Research Fellow in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham.

Kate Millar is Professor of Applied Bioethics in the School of Biosciences and an Honorary Professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science. Kate is also Director of the Centre for Applied Bioethics, at the University of Nottingham.

For more details, please contact Professor Jane Desmond desmondj@illinois.edu




Make Science Public - Project and Blog

This Leverhulme funded research programme investigates a series of questions on the relationship between science, politics and publics: What are the challenges involved in making science public, in making public science, in making science in public, in making science more public, and finally in making science private? How are such activities changing science and society, and what are the normative implications for problems relating to political legitimacy, scientific authority and democratic participation?

Public engagement with AI: Some obstacles and paradoxes

I recently listened to a webinar by social scientists who had studied what AI researchers say about public reception of AI. The most important words I heard were ‘evidence’ (about public attitudes to and inclusion in AI) and ‘voices’ (of communities underrepresented in or negatively impacted by AI). The main argument was, I think, that ...

The post Public engagement with AI: Some obstacles and paradoxes appeared first on Making Science Public.

Geoengineering and metaphors, 2009 to 2025: Continuity and change

Since around 2006, I have been interested in speculations about geoengineering, that is, attempts to deal with climate change by directly intervening in the planet’s atmosphere, oceans, or land. Such interventions include pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or dampening solar radiation. In the UK there have been three inflection points in reflections about such ...

The post Geoengineering and metaphors, 2009 to 2025: Continuity and change appeared first on Making Science Public.

 



EcoSocieties

Members of the Institute for Science and Society were previously involved in setting up an Interdisciplinary Research Priority Area – EcoSocieties. This brought together colleagues from across the University to consider ecological transitions.

This transdisciplinary research initiative transcended disciplinary boundaries to engage technoscience and society for creating novel approaches and alternatives to current environmental issues.

EcoSocieties examined the socio-political, cultural and scientific making of an environmentally conscious remaking of our societies and combines a variety of methods and approaches from science, engineering, social science and the humanities to analyse and design ecological transitions.

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STSMN – Science and Technology Studies in the Midlands and North

ISS is proud to be part of STSMN (Science and Technology Studies in the Midlands and North) (pronounced ‘system’). STSMN is a network that brings together colleagues from STS centres. We will be collaborating with the research centre iHuman and the Science, Technology and Medicine in Society (STeMiS) group, University of Sheffield, the Centre for Health, Technologies and Social Practice (CHTSP), University of Leeds and the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU), University of York. STSMN has had several events so far. Please see Science and Technology Studies in the Midlands and North (STSMN) for more information.

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STS Involved

ISS is committed to engaging and collaborative research interventions and we will be starting a series of activities to explore how our research can have a transformative impact in the fields we are studying.

We aim to involve Science and Technology Studies (STS) in issues that matter to us and we are planning a series of events and collaborations to explore this challenge. The first event in this series took place at the University of Nottingham in 2019.

STS INVOLVED Post

 



RRI - Responsible Research and Innovation

ISS is leading an interdisciplinary conversation about Responsible Research and Innovation at the University of Nottingham and beyond. We have set up an RRI network to develop shared understandings and practices of RRI from different perspectives and disciplines. ISS is also leading in the provision of cross-disciplinary training that supports research students and early career researchers in the sciences.

Together with the Graduate School, we are developing a number of courses for EPSRC funded CDTs that explore the social, ethical, regulatory and cultural questions that emerge from the processes and products of scientific and technological innovation.

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Contact us

pru.hobson-west@nottingham.ac.uk

Institute for Science and Society
School of Sociology and Social Policy
Law and Social Sciences
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD