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.
Apr 22 2024
In this reflection based on fieldwork in Donegal, Ireland, Kaitlyn Rabach shows how a defective concrete disaster is changing the ways homeowners and activists demand governmental policies be driven by expertise and evidence-backed science.
Mar 25 2024
Jumping spider "song and dance" can serve as a generative entry point for staging broader disruptions in the misogyny and cisheterosexism that have long underwritten scientific studies of animal behavior.
Apr 15 2024
Scuba diver and anthropologist Jakkrit Sangkhamanee explores the multispecies, symbiotic relationships in coral reefs, drawing parallels to human-technology interactions and emphasizing the need for ecological awareness in the Anthropocene era.
Apr 1 2024
In the first of a two-part Backchannels post, Amanda Domingues and Rogelio Scott-Insua interview Professor Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Alice Drysdale Sheffield Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. They discuss his research on the formative role of "Latin America" in US colonial history and the history of "Western" modernity as a whole.
Mar 20 2024
The global discourse on diseases and treatment is dominated by the positivistic approach of biomedicine, leaving little room for dialogue with other medical epistemes of the body. This post discusses the clinical approach of Ayurveda system of medicine in treating what is known as cancer today.
Mar 11 2024
In this exceptional collaboration, seven participants of the Posthuman Symbiosis Masterclass take us through a collective effort of (un)learning the ways we produce knowledge.
Mar 4 2024
The following piece offers a brief cautionary tale on how the inclusion of full-time programs and increased access to the public high education system in Brazil do not necessarily create new opportunities for social mobility but can rather reinforce old structures that perpetuate inequalities.
Feb 26 2024
Ludovico Rella (Durham University) reports on the 'Making Data, Making Worlds' workshop conducted in September 2023, hosted by the Royal Geographical Society in London. This report engages with the processes of world-making associated with Artificial Intelligence algorithms and large-scale simulation environments, refracted through the critical and analytic lens of the 'generative turn' that produces new articulations between algorithms, simulations, predictive modeling based on ‘real data...
Feb 19 2024
In this post, Raquel Rachid and Marcelo Fornazin discuss the process of digitizing public health systems based on a comparison between Brazil and the United Kingdom, focusing on the process of platformization of the State.
Feb 12 2024
The Australasian Science and Technology Studies (AusSTS) Network held its inaugural conference, "What Is an Australasian STS Contribution?", at the University of New South Wales in Sydney on July 17 and 18, 2023. In this post, Carina Truyts, Jianni Tien, Dan Santos, and Ella Butler report back on the conference and examine the meaning of place-based STS.