BIO-CONTEXT International Research Workshop

Call for Papers

Data flows?

Making and Sharing Data in Biomedical Research:

Between Local and Cross-Border Practices

International Research Workshop (two days, hybrid)
10-11 April 2024, Athens, Greece

Ongoing research from Science and Technology Studies (STS) points to the multiplicity of actors, practices and materialities involved in the creation and mobilization of data in biomedical research, in how such data are ‘made’ and become ‘mobile’ (e.g. Metzler et al., 2023). At the same time, current discourses regarding future biomedical research, connected as they are to visions about improved healthcare, appear to be inseparable from expectations about intensified data-based practices and digital health (e.g. Hoeyer, 2023).

Inspired by recent studies on the production and sharing of data in biobanking research practices (e.g. Argudo-Portal & Domènech, 2022), as well as on the ways such practices are positioned within a national, regional and/or global context (e.g. Aarden, 2023), this Workshop seeks to offer a venue for sharing and discussing ongoing research on the intensification of digitized and datafied practices in the ever-changing landscape of biomedicine and healthcare, and on the rhetoric that accompanies it. Accordingly, we are interested in theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions from STS, as well as related fields such as Data Studies, covering, but not limited to, the following themes:

• The growing efforts to collect and compile data from various sources, and the ways they may affect biomedical research
• The proliferation and diversity of relevant data sources (local/national registries, small collections, private collections and the making of supranational datasets and collections)
• The role of labour in data practices of relevance to biomedical research
• The relationship between samples and data in the case of ‘digital biobanks’
• The role of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in ‘remaking’ and appropriating useful data
• Biobanks, data collections and their relations with various users and publics
• The current status of biobanks as infrastructures in various contexts

The Workshop will take place in Athens, Greece, at the Historical Archive of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (45, Skoufa str., 10672 Athens). To ensure broad attendance and inclusivity, virtual participation is also available.

Those interested in presenting their work, please send your abstract (approx 250 words) and a brief biographical note (approx 150 words) to bio-context@phs.uoa.gr, by the 26th of February 2024. Please indicate whether you wish to participate in person or online.

Participation is cost-free; the meals are covered by the organizers.
The Workshop is organized in the context of the research project “Contextualizing biobanking in Greece: histories, practices, discourses – BIO-CONTEXT” (2021-24), which is funded by H.F.R.I.

Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: 26 February 2024
Notification of acceptance: 4 March 2024
Draft programme available to presenters: 8 March 2024

Workshop organizers
Assistant Professor Katerina Vlantoni, Dr George Zoukas and Dr Yulie Foka-Kavallieraki, members of the BIO-CONTEXT research team, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

If you have any questions, please contact us at bio-context@phs.uoa.gr.

Published: 02/09/2024