Call for Papers, Closed Panels, and Making and Doing Presentations


Deadline: May 26, 2023 May 27, 2023, 11:59 PM (in your timezone)

Notification of acceptance on June 9.

We will begin accepting submissions at the end of April.


We invite submissions for papers, closed panels, and Making & Doing sessions that align with the conference theme. We are interested in proposals that expand our understanding of how technology, knowledge, and science, understood to be contentious and contested ideas themselves, shape social, political, cultural, environmental, and economic dynamics.

We embrace 4S’s long-standing commitments to social and environmental justice across overlapping and diverse intellectual communities to encourage innovative contributions attentive to the problems of dwelling in polluted waters, colonized landscapes, and militarized spaces; of airborne transmission and breathing in asphyxiating economies; or of speaking through undersea cables, underground data centers, and online systems. We welcome STS insights into technoscientific practice and knowledge, the nature of expertise, and whose knowledge claims count and how.

SUBMIT AN OPEN PANEL/INDIVIDUAL ABSTRACT

SUBMIT A MAKING & DOING PROPOSAL

SUBMIT A CLOSED PANEL PROPOSAL


Please go through this instructional video or this PDF file before you submit a closed panel proposal

Open Panel organizers are requested to refer to this video and this brief manual for instructions on how to review submissions.


Participation guidelines

There are several ways to participate in the 4S 2023 conference: presenting an individual paper, organizing or participating in closed panels, commenting on papers, and presenting in a Making & Doing session. We will also be accepting proposals for roundtable discussions and meet-ups in a separate call on July 24.

In order to enable many people’s participation, the conference chairs will follow the following guideline. Each participant will be limited to one paper as a presenter and two additional non-presenter roles at the conference. Non-presenter roles include organizing or chairing a session, being a commentator in a session, organizing or participating in roundtables, and participating in a Making & Doing session. For those presenting at 4S for the first time, it is worth noting the Society's ethos on co-authored papers. By discouraging more well-known authors from presenting multiple co-authored papers, we hope to encourage and provide the opportunity for other co-authors to take that presenting role, as a way to foster more inclusive engagement.


Submitting a paper to an open panel

Paper submissions to open panels should be presented in the form of abstracts of up to 250 words. They should include the main arguments, methods and contributions to STS. When submitting your paper, you will be asked to designate one or more areas of STS research and add keywords. In addition, you will select up to two accepted open panels to host it. In this way, we reinforce the possibility of your papers being in thematically connected sessions, thus facilitating networking and scholarly discussion.

View descriptions of the 2023 Open Panels.


Submitting an individual paper

Individual paper submissions should be presented in the form of abstracts of up to 250 words. They should include the main arguments, methods and contributions to STS. When submitting your paper, you will be asked to select one or more areas of STS research and add keywords. Whenever possible, please select one or more open panels suitable for your paper. If you do not want your paper to be considered for any open panel, please select "Individual Paper Submission" at the first panel selection screen. The Program Committee will organize individual papers not associated with closed or open panels into panels, or direct them to the organizers of appropriate open panels for their consideration.


Organizing a closed panel

Submissions for closed panels should contain an abstract and a justification of up to 250 words, including a brief discussion of their contribution to STS. A panel proposal must contain a minimum of three paper abstracts that meet the above criteria. A maximum of six time slots per 100-minute session is available (e.g. 5 papers plus 1 discussant). A panel may be made up of a maximum of three sessions. The composition of panels will ultimately be determined by the Program Committee. If your proposal contains fewer than five papers, the Committee may (in consultation with you) allocate additional papers to your panel to optimize scheduling and participation.

The Program Committee will consider proposals for a limited number of Author meets Critics panels. It is suggested to discuss recently awarded books or books whose contributions are considered substantive or original. Diverse formats are welcome, for example discussing two books in a single Author Meets Critics panel in order to put the pair of books into conversation and structure a discussion of a domain. Please submit the Author meets Critics proposals as closed panels.


Participate in Making & Doing

The STS Making & Doing program invites 4S members to submit experimental work and exploratory practices that are best presented interactively, outside of a traditional panel format. Making & Doing encourages STS researchers to share work that takes up speculative, participatory, reflexive and/or aesthetic approaches to the study of science, technology and society, as well as projects that experiment with frameworks for producing, sharing, and reconfiguring knowledge. Submissions for Making & Doing should include an abstract of up to 250 words, along with an additional technical requirements paragraph of up to 100 words, and a representative image. In technical requirements, please explain the preferred form of your presentation (a screening, a performance, a workshop, an installation), how much time a visitor would need to interact with your presentation, and any technical or spatial requirements. Participation in the Making and Doing event does not count toward limits on conference participation described elsewhere. While most presentations will be in person, proposals for online presentations will also be considered. Find galleries of past Making & Doing exhibitions here.


Remote Participation and Online-Only Panels

4S 2023 is a face-to-face conference with robust options for online participation. We will be offering a Zoom Events platform, which will allow participants to attend panels that organizers have decided to stream online. Panel organizers and chairs will be able to log on to their sessions on Zoom and stream their panel from their meeting room in Honolulu using their own devices. Paper presenters may participate in panels remotely with the co-operation of the panel chair or organizer who is attending in person.

We will also be accepting a limited number of online-only panels. Online-only panels: If you would like to run an online-only panel, please contact the conference chairs (meeting@4sonline.org) following the submission of your proposal.

Remote paper presentation: When submitting your abstract, please indicate if you NOT be attending in person.

Calls for Roundtables and Meetups

We are pleased to announce the calls for roundtable sessions and meetups for 4S 2023 in Honolulu.

Roundtables are sessions that do not require formal papers and take a more conversational format. A roundtable proposal requires at least 1 organizer and 2 presenters, as well as the title and abstract (up to 250 words) of the roundtable. Participants do not need to submit paper titles and abstracts.

Meetups are less formal social gatherings or meetings around research communities, publishing communities, shared approaches (such as the annual feminist or decolonial STS meet ups), research topics, or regional foci. Meetup organizers should submit a short description (up to 200 words) of the meetup. (These descriptions are for the organizing committee's information, and will not appear in the conference program.) Most meetups will be allocated 1-hour slots, but we will accept a limited number of requests for longer sessions. Please indicate in you would like to request a longer session.

** Please note that we will not be able to accommodate every roundtable or meetup request, due to limited space in the schedule.

Submit your roundtable proposal here

Submit your meetup request here

Contact

If you need help with accounts and login, please contact info@4sonline.org.

If you have substantive questions about the meeting program and procedures, contact meeting@4sonline.org

We look forward to your participation!