2023 Annual Committee Reports

Jan 19 2024

2023 Annual Committee Reports for all Prize Committees and Standing Committees.

Travel Grants Committee Report 2022

Jan 18 2024

Grants are used to support the travel of graduate students and underemployed and low-income countries scholars to the annual 4S meeting (this year in a joint conference with ESOCITE). This year the usual funding coming from the National Science Foundation was not available and the total amount invested totaled $ 10,000 coming from sustaining/society membership and the Society’s reserves to support meeting participation by students and other low-income scholars.

The number of applications received this year (56) was considerably lower than in the pre-pandemic conferences, i.e. 369...

Report from the 4S Managing Director Selection Panel

Dec 9 2021

4S Council decided in May 2021 to establish a position of Managing Director (MD) for 4S and to publish a call for expression of interest. The proposal for the position was finalized by Council in September and is enclosed in Appendix 1. A selection panel was then appointed, consisting of Wiebe Bijker, Alan Irwin, Emma […]

Social Media Committee Report, 2021

Dec 1 2021

Members: Amanda Windle, Aftab Mirzaei, Katie Ulrich, Courtney Cicale (joined July 2021), Arne Maibaum (until February 2021) In 2021, the social media committee continued to work on engaging and growing the 4S community through Twitter and Facebook. This year, the committee began working on a guideline document outlining the aims, and some long and short […]

Affiliations Committee 2021

Dec 1 2021

Kim Fortun, Chair María Belén Albornoz Duygu Kaşdoğan Emma Kowal We are hoping/planning to call-for-applications for 4S affiliations (with a simple Google form) prior to the conference then invite applicants to an already-scheduled 4S Affiliations meet-up to get more feedback on what would be useful to people. We have called such a meeting many times […]

Finance Committee report, 2021

Dec 1 2021

Chair Emma Kowal Joan Fujimura Stephen Hilgartner Noella Invernizzi Alan Irwin Noortje Marres Knut H. Sørensen In its meetings, the Finance Committee continued considering the financial arrangements of the society in the context of the increase in the size and complexity of Society finances. The Finance Committee prepared a document for the February 2021 meeting […]

4S Web Committee 2021

Dec 1 2021

Noortje Marres (Chair), Ana Viseu, Amanda Windle, Aftab Misraei, Steve Coffee, Joan Fujimura The new 4S website was launched early December 2020, and received positive feedback from 4S council members, the social media committee and 4S members. Since the site launch, Steve Coffee has been supremely diligent in responding to feedback and fixing bugs were necessary, […]

Accounts Committee 2021

Dec 1 2021

Chair Amanda Windle Emma Kowal Joan Fujimura María Belén Albornoz Committee duties relate to a) review the financial operations of 4S, and b) to support the work of the treasurer and the accountants for 4S. The specific tasks for the committee are as follows: Review accounts related to 4S business, prepare accurate accounts for 4S […]

Reorganization Committee report, 2021

Dec 1 2021

Membership: Joan Fujimura (co-Chair), Emma Kowal (co-Chair), Pablo Kreimer, Duygu Kaşdoğan, María Belén Albornoz, Amanda Windle (until July 2021) The ad hoc committee was formed by Joan Fujimura to review the governance structures of 4S and make recommendations to Council (see Appendix A, Reorganization Committee Charge). The committee presented a proposal to Council in May […]

Travel Grants Committee 2021

Dec 1 2021

Ana Viseu (Chair) Noela Invernizzi Kim Tallbear Paige Miller In 2021, we only received 30 support applications (down from 278 from last year). The committee made the decision to fund 29 applicants in full; 1 applicant who did not indicate any role in the conference and did not respond to emails received half-funding. Geographically speaking […]

Carson Book Prize Committee Report 2019

Sep 3 2019

For the 2019 prize, the Award Committee received 62 books to consider for the prize and shortlisted 7 works. Books were evaluated for their overall scholarly quality, their contributions to the field of Science and Technology Studies, and their capacity to cast social or political issues in a new light. The Committee chose Aya Kimura’s […]

Elections Committee 2021

Dec 1 2021

María Belén Albornoz, Chair Joan Fujimura Duygu Kaşdoğan Brynn Elizabeth Seabrook Chihyung Jeon Angela Okune The election committee is pleased to submit the results of the 2021 elections for President-Elect, 4S Council and 6S representative. President-Elect: Emma Kowal 4S Council Members: Vivian Choi, Natasha Vally, Canay Ozden-Shilling, Lucy van de Wiel 6S Representative: Barkha Satish […]

Futuring/Connecting 4S Report

Jul 18 2019

Authors: Futuring/Connecting 4S ad hoc committee: Chair: Anita Say Chan Members: Maria Belen Albornoz, Dikoh Chen, Ivan da Costa Marques, Annalisa Pelizza, Thao Phan, Ana Viseu, Sara Wylie, Kim Fortun Download as PDF Note: A spreadsheet (Excel) with all shareable responses from the survey is available with this report. July 18, 2019 Overview: In early […]

STS in Practice Ad Hoc Committee Report

Aug 22 2018

STS in Practice Ad Hoc Committee Report August 19, 2018 Current State of the Field and Recommendations for Future Development

Making and Doing Prize Committee 2021

Dec 1 2021

Making and Doing Prize Committee Amanda Windle, Chair Nerea Cavillo Priyank Chandra Laura Forlano Helene Mialet Misria Shaik Ali Teun Zuiderent-Jerak The Making and Doing Awards Committee worked closely with the Toronto Making and Doing Organising Committee to evaluate all in-person sessions. The Awards Committee awarded five winners and three commendations this year. Winners Feminist […]

Mentorship Program: 2018 Annual Report

Aug 21 2018

Annual report on the 4S mentorship program run at 4S annual meetings.

Operations Update Ad Hoc Committee Research Report

Aug 21 2018

This report, commissioned by the 4S Operations Update Ad Hoc Committee, compares 4S to other scholarly societies, focusing on membership, finances, engagement ,and modes of archiving organizational history. The report was circulated and briefly discussed at the July Council meeting.

STS Infrastructure Award Committee 2021

Dec 1 2021

Committee members: Wen-Hua Kuo, Chair, Bryn Seabrook. Vivette Garcia-Deister, Michelle Murphy Appointed by the President, the Council consists of 4 members—two from the current council and two from ex-council members. Following the same nomination procedure as for other 4S prizes, we received two nominations for consideration. There were discussions among committee members on individual nominees, in particular on their […]

Building STS Award Committee Report and Proposal

Aug 7 2014

Building STS Award Committee Kenji Ito (Chair) Vivian Lagesen Ed Hackett Jane Summerton Gary Downey (Ex Officio) Steve Zehr (Ex Officio) Report Charged by the current 4S president Gary Downey, the Building STS Award Committee deliberated the new award’s description, justification, name, guideline, and selection procedure through email and in person. The committee presented an […]

4S Backchannels 2019-2020 Final Report

Aug 6 2020

Production report and usage statistics (PDF)

Elections Committee Report 2020

Aug 6 2020

María Belén Albornoz (Chair), Joan Fujimura, Roopali Phadke, Hsin Hsing Chen, Bryn Seabrook, Katie Ulrich This year, the Council had 4 member vacancies to fill from normal annual turnover. Following the same procedure as last year, we canvassed 4S members and Council for possible nominees and we received 17 nominations for Council. The elections committee submitted for […]

Nicholas C. Mullins Award Committee 2021

Dec 1 2021

Committee members: Amanda Windle, Chair, Bryn Seabrook Gloria Baigorrotegui The Mullins Committee received 12 papers and 13 recommendations for this year’s prize. The prize is awarded to Sarah Brother for the paper “A Good “Doctor” is Hard to Find: Assessing Uncredentialed Expertise in Assisted Injection,” in Social Science & Medicine (2019). Drawing on six years of ethnographic engagement […]

Proposal for a 4S Mentoring Award

Jul 8 2014

4S Mentoring Award Report Committee Members: Kim Fortun, Leandro Rodriguez Medina, Kaushik Sunder Rajan*, Sharon Traweek*, and Sally Wyatt * co-chairs 8 July 2014 Proposal for a 4S Mentoring Award: Transferring Knowledge Across Generations and Domains of Practice During the last 40 years STS has become an established field of inquiry globally. Thousands of people […]

Visions Committee Report 2002

Jul 1 2002

Summary and conclusions The Vision committee was been appointed to address some specific future-oriented issues for the Society of Social Studies of Science. They included the question about name change, globalization challenges, the need to reintroduce matters of policy and politics, the need for more engagement with scientists and engineers, the role of 4S in […]

Ludwig Fleck Book Prize Committee Report 2020

Aug 6 2020

The Fleck Committee received 81 books and shortlisted 10 works for this year’s prize, from which the 2020 Fleck Prize was awarded to Noémi Tousignant for her book Edges of Exposure: Toxicology and the Problem of Capacity in Postcolonial Senegal (Duke University Press 2018). Fr0m the Prize citation: Edges of Exposure was selected for its careful, unique ethnographic exploration […]

Registration grants committee report 2020

Aug 6 2020

The Society distributes grants to support the travel of students (both undergraduate and graduate) and low-income scholars to the annual 4S meeting. Funding typically comes from three sources: $11,000 annually comes from the National Science Foundation (most students are funded through this source) and $5,000 annually comes from the Asia/Africa/Latin America Fund. This year, giving the transition to an on-line […]

Rachel Carson Prize Committee (2021)

Dec 1 2021

This year the Award Committee received 78 books to consider for the prize and shortlisted 5 works for the 2021 prize. Books were evaluated for their scholarly brilliance, their overall contribution to the field of Science and Technology Studies, and their relevance to public debate and social change. The 2021 Rachel Carson Prize was awarded […]

6S Report 2020

Aug 6 2020

The 6S representatives continued to meet monthly throughout the year to discuss items including: building the 6S Slack channel as an ongoing virtual community for 6S members; social media participation; expanding 6S engagement; and updating the language about 6S on the 4S website. Our main activity this year has been planning the annual 6S workshop, […]

Mullins Committee Report 2020

Aug 5 2020

After extensive deliberation the committee selected as winner of the 2020 Nicholas C. Mullins Award Daniel G. Cumming, for his paper, “Black Gold, White Power: Mapping Oil, Real Estate, and Racial Segregation in the Los Angeles Basin, 1900-1939,” published in 2018 by Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. Full report at https://4sonline.org/files/Mullins-Committee-Report-2020.docx

David Edge prize Committee Report 2019

Sep 3 2019

We received 35 nominations for the David Edge prize this year. The criteria that have been used are: Theoretical depth and sophistication Quality of the empirical work (both sound and generative) Contributions to the field of STS beyond the particulars of the case study (A contribution to the field of STS would entail more than instrumental or […]

David Edge Prize Committee 2021

Dec 1 2021

Committee Members: Pablo Kreimer, Chair, Chihyung Jeon, Knut H. Sørensen, Bryn Seabrook, Misria Shaik Ali The committee has a decision on the 2021 David Edge Prize. The winner is Ruination Science: Producing Knowledge from a Toxic World. By Sebastián Ureta. Published in Science, Technology & Human Values. Sebastian Uretas’s article is a beautiful ethnographic work in a distant […]

4S 2019 Conference Report

Sep 3 2019

4S 2019 has been a success! We have been able to bring together an outstanding group of STSers, provide support in terms of accessibility, engage important themes, and innovate in terms of the conference structure and organization. We have prepared this report to give you a comprehensive view on our accomplishments and point at some issues […]

Journal Operations 2019—ESTS, ST&HV

Sep 3 2019

Joint Report to 4S Council, 2019

Ludwik Fleck Prize Committee (2021)

Dec 1 2021

Members of the 2020-2021 Fleck Prize Committee Ana Viseu, Maka Suarez, Duygu Kaşdoğan, Lesley Green (Chair) The Fleck Committee received 56 books and shortlisted 10 works for this year’s prize, from which the 2021 Fleck Prize was awarded to Thom van Dooren for his book The Wake of Crows: Living and Dying in Shared Worlds […]

Publications Committee 2013

Jan 31 2014

Publications Committee (Kelly Moore (Chair), Leandro Rodríguez Medina) This report describes the discussion and action items at the Publications Committee 4S Council Meeting, October 10, 2013, and a report of the meeting between the editors of the Handbook of Science and Technology Studies and members of 4S on October 12, 2013. Publications Committee, 4S Council […]

4S Projected Budget 2019

Sep 3 2019

4S Projected Budget 2019

Carson Book Prize Committee Report 2020

Aug 6 2020

For the 2020 prize, the Award Committee received 78 books to consider for the prize and shortlisted 10 works for this year’s prize. Books were evaluated for their overall scholarly quality, their contributions to the field of Science and Technology Studies, and their capacity to cast social or political issues in a new light. The […]

2019 Mentorship Program Report

Sep 3 2019

Participation numbers were great again this year. Our 222 participants represent about 12% of total conference registrants. 2019 Mentorship Program Report

2019 Social Media Report

Sep 3 2019

The team strengthened and amplified 4S social media presence by engaging directly with individuals and related professional organizations. Part of this enhancement has been the result of assuming a more colloquial/personal tone in our communication, but also through intentional and timely engagement with topical issues and events. 2019 Social Media Report

Bernal Prize Committee Report, 2021

Dec 1 2021

Members: Emma Kowal (Chair); Joan Fujimura; Alan Irwin, Vivette Garcia Deister, and Angela Okune. The committee received five nominations in 2021: Nelly Oudshoorn, Johan Shot, Karen Barad, Michael Fischer, and Knut H. Sørensen. The work procedure was as follows: The Chair distributed the 2021 nominee’s documentation to the committee and the list of nominations from […]

Travel Grants Committee Report 2019

Sep 3 2019

Members: Noela Invernizzi (chair); Vivian Choi; Paige Miller (ex officio) 2019 Travel Grants at a glance 2019 2018 Applications 369 155 Grants 126 50 Countries receiving grants 30 27 Total investment $24.750 $22.000 Grants declined 11 Program Overview Grants were used to support the travel of students (both undergraduate and graduate) and […]

Elections Committee Report 2019

Sep 3 2019

We received 11 nominations for Council this year. Steve Coffee provided the committee information about the history of membership in 4s and participation at past annual meetings for the nominees. The committee put forward a final slate of 7 candidates that represented different regions, seniority and areas of expertise. Those elected include: Bryn Seabrook (USA), Amanda Windle (UK), Duygu Kasdogan (Turkey), […]

Edge Prize Committee Report, 2020

Aug 6 2020

The David Edge Prize Committee received 46 articles. It shortlisted 6 papers and then concentrated on 3, then on 2 very relevant papers. After a fruitful discussion, the members agreed to award the Prize to Aaron Panofsky and Joan Donovan’s paper, “Genetic ancestry testing among white nationalists: From identity repair to citizen science,” published in […]

4S Web Committee Report, August 2019

Sep 3 2019

Steve Jackson (chair), Daniel Breslau, Steve Coffee, Noortje Marres, Ana Viseu The principal task of the 4S Web Committee this year has been to work towards a redesign of the 4S website – the first such overhaul in many years and identified as an important priority in information gathering and discussion with 4S council in […]

4S Ad Hoc Committee on Ethics and Public Policy

Nov 6 2002

Resolved: That 4S institute a Standing Committee on Ethics and Public Policy Pre-amble: about discussion and decision At its meeting on Wednesday, November 6, 2002, the 4S Council accepted the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Committee on Ethics and Public Policy, to institute a Standing Committee on Ethics and Public Policy for the 4S. The […]