[STS-Africa] 4S panel on STS-Africa Network

[Wesley M Shrum]

Hi...Wes Shrum here.  Send me an email Œyes¹ if you are going to Buenos
Aires and you want to be part of a lunchtime panel on STS-Africa Network,
essentially to promote the network‹as we discussed last Friday.  I¹ll
submit the panel.  

(Honestly, I don¹t know yet if we are actually doing lunchtime panels this
year, because we haven¹t decided yet, but if we don¹t it will just be a
regular panelŠnormally, since it¹s not traditional papers we¹ll do it in
this other format.)

Wes

-- 
Dr. Wesley Shrum
Professor of Sociology, Louisiana State University
Director, Ethnografilm Festival, 17-20 April 2014
Program Officer, Society for Social Studies of Science




On 2/17/14, 8:43 PM, "SMITH James" <james.smith at ed.ac.uk> wrote:

>
>CFP: Science and Society in
>Africa<https://networks.h-net.org/node/8001/discussions/9904/cfp-science-a
>nd-society-africa>
>by Mandisa Mbali<https://networks.h-net.org/users/mandisa-mbali>
>
>CFP: Science and Society in Africa
>
>3--4 Sept 2014, Stellenbosch
>
>ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 3 March 2014
>
>Please e-mail abstracts to:
>scisocafrica at gmail.com<mailto:scisocafrica at gmail.com>
>
>Africa faces the challenge of improving the critical understanding of
>science among non-scientists while respecting and responding to the fact
>that the history of science has been dominated by Europe and the USA.
>Scientists in Africa must also grapple with colonial legacies of the use
>of a continent as a laboratory and a field-site. At the same time, Africa
>presents a challenge to science studies disciplines (e.g. philosophy,
>anthropology, communications) as they have evolved in Europe and the
>United States. At present there is a perceived gap between two positions:
> epistemic relativism which situates science as merely one socially
>constructed way of knowing among others of equ! al validity and realism,
>which accords it greater status as a universally true body of knowledge.
>Both have been critiqued: realism has been cast as ignoring the influence
>of social factors on science and relativism has been pronounced to be
>impractical.
>
>Closing this gap is politically and socially critical for development on
>the continent, as well as of global intellectual importance. Societies
>and science in Africa need to come to terms with each other, both as a
>set of social institutions and as knowledge-producers.
>
>We welcome 300 word abstracts dealing with the following themes, or
>others relevant to the overall theme of the workshop:
>
> *   The proper integration of scientific knowledge in societies ruled by
>democratic and democratising states.
> *   Science as one of many ways to understand race and human nature in
>post-colonial African contexts.
> *   Biotechnology, nanotechnology and 'blue sky science' in African
>societies
> *   'From b! ench to cell phone': the challenges of ensuring public
>access to research and translating science into technology and
>institutional practices in a digital era.
> *   The socio-economic and political challenges facing early career
>scientists in Africa
> *   African coherence in science: the role of regional philanthropy and
>collaborations in agenda setting and contextual solutions
>
>Participants will be invited to attend the conference to offer
>presentations based on full 5 000 word papers which should be based on
>these abstracts. (Drafts of these papers will be circulated to
>participants in advance and will need to be ready by 1 August 2014.)
>
>This  workshop is being jointly organised by the South African Young
>Academy of Science, the Philosophy Department of University of
>Johannesburg, the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at
>Stellenbosch University and the Institute of Infectious Disease and
>Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences at University of Cape Town.
>
>The conference organizers are: Professor Alex Broadbent at the University
>of Johannesburg; Dr. Mandisa Mbali at Stellenbosch University and Dr.
>Tolullah Oni at the University of Cape Town.
>
>The meeting will take place at Stellenbosch University.  Some travel
>funding will be available for post-graduate students and early career
>scholars.
>
>Read more or 
>reply<https://networks.h-net.org/node/8001/discussions/9904/cfp-science-an
>d-society-africa>
>
>
>
>
>
>Professor James Smith
>Chair of African and Development Studies
>Assistant Principal, Global Development
>University of Edinburgh
>
>Tel: +44 (0)131 650 4321
>Twitter: @jrsmith73
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-- 
>The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
>Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>
>
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