<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">CFP: Science and Society in
Africa: ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 31 MARCH 2014</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">3—4 Sept 2014, Stellenbosch</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">EXTENDED ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
DEADLINE: 31 March 2014</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">Please e-mail abstracts to: <a href="mailto:scisocafrica@gmail.com">scisocafrica@gmail.com</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">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 equal 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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">We welcome 300 word abstracts
dealing with the following themes, or others relevant to the overall theme of
the workshop:-</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">- The proper integration of
scientific knowledge in societies ruled by democratic and democratising states.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">- Science as one of many ways to
understand race and human nature in post-colonial African contexts.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">- Biotechnology, nanotechnology
and ‘blue sky science’ in African societies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">- ‘From bench to cell phone’:
the challenges of ensuring public access to research and translating science
into technology and institutional practices in a digital era.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">- The socio-economic and
political challenges facing early career scientists in Africa.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">- African coherence in science:
the role of regional philanthropy and collaborations in agenda setting and contextual
solutions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">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.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">The meeting will take place at
Stellenbosch University. Some travel funding will be available for
post-graduate students and early career scholars.</span></p></div>