Jun 12 2023
In this post, Hannah Star Rogers invites the readers into the growing space of art and STS exhibitions in her review of the show "Picturing the Invisible" curated by Makaoto Takahashi.
Jun 27 2022
In this post, David Kananizadeh reflects on decolonizing STS and what Souleymane Bachir Diagne's book "The Ink of the Scholars" might contribute to this debate.
Jan 3 2022
This post captures the previous year of Backchannels’ publications covered as a curation of lists.
Mar 15 2021
When was the last time you were aware you interacted with algorithm? The politics of visibility and invisibility profoundly shape our social lives in ways we are likely unaware of. “Coded Bias” (2020) is a documentary directed by Shalini Kantayya surfacing the vast yet invisible role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the production of racialized and gendered social control.
Jan 18 2021
How do you make and communicate your research is the leading question of "Transmissions: Critical Tactics for Making and Communicating Research" edited by Kat Jungnickel. In the book, researchers from a broad range of disciplines present their critical tactics of turning experimental research into unconventional formats and why that matters.
Oct 17 2020
In this re-blog, Keerthana Balaji reviews the documentary Seeds of Freedom (2012). This review can help STS scholars reflect on how agricultural research systems shape/are shaped by power and patent regimes that promote some technologies but lock out other socio-ecological innovations.
May 18 2020
The research output landscape in Africa and its complexities is central to the book titled The Next Generation of Scientists in Africa. Drawing on historical data and rich empirical work, (interviews, bibliometric analyses, and web-survey) it delves into the complex and precarious nature of scholarship in Africa by investigating how African scientists navigate murky waters inherent there and the impact of these obstacles on research productivity. It is a book that tells the story of scientific r...
Dec 10 2019
An encounter with the ethnographer of futures Laura Watts and the Electric Nemesis in a haunting review of “Energy at the End of the World: An Orkney Islands Saga”, 2019.
Jul 27 2019
Sundar Sarukkai discusses the importance of the STS Handbook for the global South, especially in the context of ‘the inherent prejudices and imbalances in the (STS) field itself’. Sarukkai calls for STS scholars in the West to engage more with STS scholarship emerging from India, Asia and Africa. In this post, Aalok Khandekar asks Sarukkai what 4S can do to better engage with ‘non-Western’ STS and how 4S could possibly strengthen the STS field in India.
Jul 3 2019
Academics, researchers, parliamentarians and civil society organizations strengthen ties facing the demanding processes of the agendas around the COP-25. Public statements invite to participate in instances that are parallel to the official summit, concerned about the democratization and justice of reforms of pending laws, such as the of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Environmental regulatory science is pressured by urgent government requests to the detriment of socially robust decision ...