Linguists first used the term backchannel to refer to the spontaneous responses and signals that provide interactivity to what is only apparently a one-way communication. Social media users have adopted the term to refer to the unofficial, multi-directional online conversation that parallels formal academic exchange at a lecture or conference. The Backchannels blog is intended to have a similar relationship to scholarly discourse in STS. It provides an outlet for alternative-format scholarly communications, publishing shorter, timelier, media-rich communiques of interest to the global STS community. The editors welcome proposed contributions.
Nov 24 2025
Behavioral ecologist and feminist science studies scholar unite to offer paradigm shifting possibilities in an endlessly teachable new book: Feminism in the Wild.
Nov 20 2025
The climate emergency took the main stage at the 11th edition of the Brazilian Association for the Social Studies of Science and Technology (ESOCITE.BR), organized shortly before COP30 in Belém
Nov 3 2025
In Feminista In Vitro, Fernanda Mariath explores how feminist perspectives can reshape biomedical science—bridging cells, stories, and the social dimensions of research. Drawing on her laboratory experience and her journey as an early-career feminist STS researcher in Brazil, she reflects on how science can be reimagined through a feminist lens. Her research inspired a podcast of the same name, featuring interviews with STS feminist scholars from Brazil and other parts of the world.
Oct 22 2025
In the midst of a national crisis, when the president declared martial law, the Korean Association of Science and Technology Studies (KASTS) was hosting its annual STS conference on disasters and care.
Oct 13 2025
In this multi-media report, Holly O'Neil shared drawings and reflections from AusSTS 2025 to consider not how signal and noise might be separated, but how they are continually redefined. This report invites the reader to explore the knowledge systems that determine these categorical registers, and how noise might in fact provide productive understandings through which to work creatively with the flotsam and jetsam of signals.
Oct 11 2025
In this blog post, Nelly-Helen Ebruka reflects on the implications of space-based earth observation data sharing within the context of Africa–EU relations.
Aug 7 2025
In this post, Tridibesh Dey reflects on an ethnographic case from summer 2023 in Canning, the last town and railway terminus in India at the fringes of the Sundarban. This post proffers situated insights into why a single-use plastic product continues to be popular.
Jul 14 2025
4S Backchannels is Hiring Assistant Editors for its Global North team!
Jul 6 2025
Purbita Das advocates for a policy framework to safeguard Ayurveda’s regionality, plurality and its epistemological richness in light of increasing efforts to standardise its practices for the global health market.
Jun 16 2025
An STS scholar researching social media and society in Southeast Asia reflects on a whirlwind book tour that became an unexpected journey of “post-publication listening”—where dialogue with regional publics reanimated the book’s arguments and affirmed Southeast Asia as a microcosm of global digital politics.