Please Join STS Making & Doing

We invite STS practitioners, interdisciplinary and artists-scholars to submit proposals for the 2021 Making & Doing program, particularly in connection with our theme of Good Relations: Practices and Methods in Unequal and Uncertain Worlds. In 2015,  2017, and 2018, 2019 and 2020, Making & Doing brought together critical bodies of work that enact how STS makes and practices beyond traditional modes of print and publication. In 2021, Making & Doing aims to build on this strong emerging tradition. By increasing the extent to which 4S members learn from one another about practices they have developed and enacted, the initiative seeks to improve the effectiveness and influence of STS scholarship beyond the field and/or to expand the modes of STS knowledge production. Learn about about Making and Doing in 4S here

As our conference theme concerns practice and methods, we would love to see proposals that enrich and complicate what it means to make and do in our contemporary moment. We encourage the submission of Making and Doing projects that take up questions of justice, decolonization, anti-racism, environmental futures, and related concerns towards the ongoing creation of good relations, and disruption of violent relations, as humans, with technologies, in our modes of knowing, within environments, across distance, and with other-than-humans.

Submissions for Making and Doing presentations are sought during abstract submission season for the Annual Meeting. Selected presentations will be shared during the meeting (please see note on hybrid conference format below). Judging for the STS Making and Doing Award takes place during the meeting. This award formally acknowledges and celebrates distinctive achievements in practices of STS making and doing. It recognizes 4S members who have demonstrated scholarly excellence in formulating, enacting, and sharing theoretically-informed practices of participation, engagement, and intervention in their fields of study.

The ‘SUBMIT HERE’ button below leads to the 4S online submission site. Here you will be able to propose a new project for Making & Doing. In addition to a title and a general description of the project (200 words), we will ask you to indicate what methods are associated with your project (100 words) and a short description suitable for our online program. You will be able to select which STS areas of scholar  your project connects to and what the technical requirements are.

Please keep in mind that we are currently planning a hybrid conference with a prominent virtual component, and that there is a high probability that Making and Doing presentations will be online. We are working on a supportive platform option amenable to sharing Making and Doing projects, and will update as we know more. In person options for presenting will only be known closer to the date. If in person presentations at our Toronto conference venue are possible, 4S can provide a 6-foot table, but cannot guarantee Internet access and provides no assistance with supplies, set-up and maintenance during the conference period. As part of the submission, you’ll also be able to add a link to your project website and upload an image – both are optional.

If you have questions, please email md@4Sonline.org.