PhD reading group - STS literature

Organisers:
Andreas Laumand Christensen (alc at itu.dk)
Anne Kathrine Vadgård Nielsen (ankn at itu.dk)
James Maguire (jmag at itu.dk)

Lecturer:
Brit Ross Winthereik

Co-lecturers:
Casper Bruun Jensen
Christopher Gad

Website:
http://itu.dk/tip/?p=1834

Dates:
28. Februar 2013
28. March 2013
25. April 2013
(+ 3 more times during spring and summer 2013)

Time:
Participation: Two hours per meeting
Preperation: Four hours per meeting (+ lots of extra time when preparing a paper presentation)

Course description:
This proposed PhD Course is figured as a continuation of the ECTS approved PhD course of last term that was entitled "PhD reading group: STS". The aim of the course is, as for the previous course, to critically engage with pertinent STS related topics and discussions. These topics and discussions will focus on the making of sociotechnical arrangements through critical engagements with respectively "Electronic Voting" and "Energy Futures". Participants from all disciplinary backgrounds with an interest in STS are welcome to join the reading group.

As for previous course, all participants will prepare for each meeting by reading the corresponding papers and reflecting on them. Furthermore, the participants will take turn presenting 2-3 papers in the course and host a discussion on its contents.

The meetings will take place Thursdays between 15-17 pm on a monthly basis for 6 months (maybe extended afterwards) at the IT University of Copenhagen. The course is open to all interested PhD students.

Tentative Program

28. February 2013: The nature of natures

Charis Thompson (2005) Making Parents: The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Ian Hacking (1986) “Making Up People” in Mario Biagioli (ed.) (1999) The Science Studies Reader. New York and London: Routledge.
Marilyn Strathern (2004) Partial Connections, Updated Edition. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

28. March 2013: Classics

Peter Galison (1998) “Trading Zone: Coordinating Action and Belief” in Mario Biagioli (ed.) (1999) The Science Studies Reader. New York and London: Routledge.
Thomas Hughes (1998) “The Evolution of Large Technological Systems”, in Mario Biagioli (ed.) (1999) The Science Studies Reader. New York and London: Routledge.
Ludwig Fleck (1979) The Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact, (edited by TJ Tren and R.K. Merton, foreword by Thomas Kuhn) Chicago: University of Chicago Press

25. April 2013: Boundary Objects

Susan Star and James Griesemer (1989): “Institutional Ecology, ‘Translations’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39”. Social Studies of Science 19(3): 387-420
Susan Star (2010): “This is not a Boundary Object: Reflections on the Origin of the Concept”. Science, Technology and Human Values 35(5): 601-617
Susan Star (1991) “Power, technology and the phenomenology of conventions: on being allergic to onions”, in John Law (ed) A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination. London and New York: Routledge.

30. May 2013: Actor-Networks

Michel Callon (1998) “Some elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay”, in Mario Biagioli (ed.) (1999) The Science Studies Reader. New York and London: Routledge.
John Law (1986) “On the Methods of Long Distance Control: Vessels, Navigation, and the Portuguese Route to India”, on John Law (ed.) Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? Sociological Review Monograph 32: Routledge, Henley.
Bruno Latour (1999) “Technology is Society Made Durable”, in John Law (ed.) Sociology of Monsters.

27. June 2012: Sociology of Scientific Knowledge

Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer (1985) Leviathan and the Air Pump. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Andrew Pickering (1993) “The Mangle of Practice: Agency and Emergence in the Sociology of Science” in Mario Biagioli (ed.) (1999) The Science Studies Reader. New York and London: Routledge.

29. August 2013: Laboratory Studies

Karin Knorr-Cetina (199) “What is a laboratory?” in Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences make Knowledge.
Sharon Traweek (1998) “Pilgrim’s Progress: Male Tales told during a life in Physics”, in Mario Biagioli (ed.) (1999) The Science Studies Reader. New York and London: Routledge.
Bruno Latour (1983) Give me a Laboratory and I will raise the World”, in Science Observed: Perspectives on the Social Study of Science.
Bruno Latour (1988) “Opening Pandora’s Box”, in Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society.

Exam:
None. The students are evaluated on participation.
Each meeting lasts for two hours and entails 4 hours of preparation time. 2-4 texts/chapters of around 20-30 pages per text, are dealt with at each meeting.

Credits:
Participation in 5 meeting: 2 ECTS.
Participation in 8 meetings: 4 ECTS.