BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//MIT STS - ECPv6.16.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:MIT STS X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for MIT STS REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20210314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20211107T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20260308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20261101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20270314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20271107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260218T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260218T190000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20260105T200552Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260105T204525Z UID:115738-1771437600-1771441200@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Tiny Gardens Everywhere: A History of Urban Resilience DESCRIPTION:Join us for a conversation with acclaimed MIT historian Kate Brown\, author of Tiny Gardens Everywhere\, in dialogue with Antoine Picon\, as they explore the deep\, surprising\, and often radical history of urban gardening. \nPart history\, part reportage\, part manifesto\, Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past\, Present\, and Future of the Self-Provisioning City follows the roots of urban gardening from feudal England to a late nineteenth century utopia outside of Berlin to 1960s Washington DC to contemporary Amsterdam\, Chicago\, and beyond. Throughout this history\, Brown weaves in her own gardening experience\, exploring the political and the practical while painting a picture of the necessity of self-provisioning in an increasingly chaotic world. \nEver since wage labor in cities replaced self-provisioning in the countryside\, gardeners have reclaimed lost commons on urban lots. They composted garbage into topsoil\, creating the most productive agriculture in recorded human history\, without use of fossil fuels. The ecological diversity they fostered made room for human difference and built prosperity\, too: in Nazi Berlin\, working-class gardeners harbored dissidents and Jews; in Washington\, DC\, Black southern migrants built communities around gardens and orchards\, the produce funding homeownership. The Soviet superpower survived so long only because of its urban gardens. \nCopies of Tiny Gardens Everywhere will be available for purchase and signing after the talk\, courtesy of the MIT Press Bookstore. \nFebruary 18\n6pm – 7pm\n$5 \nWe have a limited number of free tickets available for students. Please reach out to museumregadmin@mit.edu. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/tiny-gardens-everywhere-a-history-of-urban-resilience/ LOCATION:MIT Museum\, Gambrill Center\, 314 Main St\, cambridge\, MA\, 02142\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251205T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251205T160000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20251104T210925Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251104T210925Z UID:115623-1764945000-1764950400@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH) - Becoming History: Species Extinctions in the Americas\, 13000 BCE to the Present DESCRIPTION:Please join us for the final SEAH of the Fall 2025 semester. This event will be held in a hybrid format\, allowing participants to join in person or via Zoom. \nPrior registration is required to join via zoom. \nFriday\, December 5\, 2025 at 2:30 PM \nHybrid Event \nMIT Campus\, Building E51\, Room 285 \n  \nBecoming History: Species Extinctions in the Americas\, 13000 BCE to the Present \nGerman Vergara\, Associate Professor of History at Georgia Tech \n  \nRegister Here : https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/qLyQH8aXSzKngh8ZWbcuWA URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/seminar-on-environmental-and-agricultural-history-seah-becoming-history-species-extinctions-in-the-americas-13000-bce-to-the-present/ LOCATION:Building E51 Room 285 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251205 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251207 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20251120T152515Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251120T152515Z UID:115625-1764892800-1765065599@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Directions of Polarization\, Social Norms\, and Trust in Societies Workshop - Perspectives from Behavioral Sciences DESCRIPTION:Returning to MIT in Fall 2025 after a successful 2023 edition\, Directions of Polarization\, Social Norms\, and Trust in Societies: Perspectives from the Behavioral Sciences is a two-day interdisciplinary workshop that brings together scholars and practitioners to explore the evolving dynamics of polarization. The workshop will be held on December 5th-6th in the Wong Auditorium at MIT.  \nThis year\, the workshop broadens its scope to include insights from academia and industry\, recognizing that polarization\, shifting norms\, and declining trust shape political discourse and affect workplaces\, technologies\, and communities. By drawing on a range of analytical perspectives — from behavioral science and social psychology to organizational research and public policy — the event aims to advance our understanding of how these forces emerge\, interact\, and can be addressed in an increasingly polarized world. \nThe workshop will feature both speakers (faculty/post-docs/industry) and poster presenters (graduate students).  \nKeynote speakers include Beth Goldberg (Jigsaw\, Google & Yale) and Adam Berinsky (MIT).  \nThis event is organized by Kati Kish Bar-On (MIT – STS)\, Adam Berinsky (MIT)\, Eugen Dimant (UPenn)\, Yphtach Lelkes (UPenn)\, and David G. Rand (MIT) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIf you would like to attend\, please register by clicking this link here. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/directions-of-polarization-social-norms-and-trust-in-societies-workshop-perspectives-from-behavioral-sciences/ LOCATION:E51 – Wong Auditorium\, 2 Amherst Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, United States CATEGORIES:Special Event END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251118T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251118T170000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20251031T181414Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251031T181414Z UID:115614-1763481600-1763485200@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Michał Pospiszyl "Escape Ecologies: Peasants\, Nature\, and Power in Eastern Europe\, 1700-1850" DESCRIPTION:Michał Pospiszyl traces how the presence of escape ecologies (forests\, swamps\, wastelands) influenced the relationship between subjects and centers of power (nobility and state) in Eastern Europe in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although the disasters at the turn of the eighteenth century—the Little Ice Age\, eighty years of continuous warfare\, epidemics\, and economic collapse and depopulation– affected all social strata\, the weakening of state repression and the growth of forests\, floodplains\, and wastelands caused the eighteenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to become a place of mass in-migration\, particularly from surrounding Enlightenment monarchies. For many people in Central and Eastern Europe\, migrating to a country with ample hiding places\, easy access to the commons\, and significant privileges for folk colonizers was more appealing than living under the repressive systems of emergent modern states. \n\n\nMichał Pospiszyl is a historian and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/michal-pospiszyl-escape-ecologies-peasants-nature-and-power-in-eastern-europe-1700-1850/ LOCATION:E51-275 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251114T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251114T160000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20251104T210551Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251104T210741Z UID:115622-1763130600-1763136000@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH) - Indian Landlords and Socialist Votes: Imperial Indigestion in Oklahoma\, DESCRIPTION:Please join us for the second SEAH of the Fall 2025 semester. This event will be held in a hybrid format\, allowing participants to join in person or via Zoom. \nPrior registration is required to join via zoom. \nIndian Landlords and Socialist Votes: Imperial Indigestion in Oklahoma \nSarah Phillips\, Associate Professor of History at Boston University \nFriday\, November 14\, 2025 at 2:30 PM \nHybrid Event \nMIT Campus\, Building E51\, Room 285 \nRegister Here : https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/3HT0zWy8R82NpfibSJqbmA URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/seminar-on-environmental-and-agricultural-history-seah-indian-landlords-and-socialist-votes-imperial-indigestion-in-oklahoma/ LOCATION:Building E51 Room 285 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251107T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251107T160000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20251104T205938Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251104T210053Z UID:115619-1762525800-1762531200@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH) - The "Scientific Conquest of the Empire": Fascist Infrastructures and Italian science in Ethiopia (1935-1940) DESCRIPTION:Please join us for the first SEAH of the Fall 2025 semester. This event will be held in a hybrid format\, allowing participants to join in person or via Zoom. \nPrior registration is required to join via zoom. \nThe “Scientific Conquest of the Empire”: Fascist Infrastructures and Italian science in Ethiopia (1935-1940) \nAngelo Caglioti \, Assistant Professor of History at Columbia University \nFriday\, November 7\, 2025 at 2:30 PM \nHybrid Event \nMIT Campus\, Building E51\, Room 285 \nRegister Here: https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/aszMFXTySI6g_8QraysEBw URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/the-scientific-conquest-of-the-empire-fascist-infrastructures-and-italian-science-in-ethiopia-1935-1940/ LOCATION:Building E51 Room 285 CATEGORIES:Special Seminar END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251027T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251027T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20250916T141533Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251002T161427Z UID:115582-1761580800-1761586200@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Arthur Miller Lecture in Science and Ethics with Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins - "Landfill\, Platform\, Diagnosis: How People in Crisis Use Science and Technology to Build New Ethical Worlds" DESCRIPTION:The Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society invites you to the annual Arthur Miller Lecture in Science and Ethics on Monday\, October 27th from 4:00-5:30 pm in the MIT Welcome Center\, featuring Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins\, Anthropologist and Associate Professor at Bard University\, as she speaks about her research into the intersection of waste\, the environment\, capitalism\, and the concept of home. \nLandfill\, Platform\, Diagnosis: How People in Crisis Use Science and Technology to Build New Ethical Worlds \nDuress—whether it be ecocide\, economic collapse\, or disability—is usually experienced as a limiting of options. The logic of necessity intensifies the imperative to merely survive\, and people’s choices appear to narrow to violence or solidarity. Stamatopoulou-Robbin’s first book on waste and its infrastructures in Palestine\, as well as her current book on platform-mediated home-sharing in Greece\, challenge these declensionist narratives of crisis. They show how people respond inventively to the material necessities of duress and the material affordances of technology and science. They respond in ways that may not make duress go away\, but rather remake how it works in their lives. \nScience and technology are not in and of themselves solutions to the political problems that generate duress. Yet when people tinker with them\, they reshape the ethical contours of their worlds in unexpected ways. This talk tells stories of old technologies (a landfill in Palestine)\, a newly dominant platform (Airbnb in Athens)\, and efforts to establish a future diagnosis in the U.S. (an autism profile called “pathological demand avoidance”) to consider the unpredictable place of science and technology in dark times. \n About Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins \n \n\nSophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins is a New York-based anthropologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bard College with interests in infrastructure\, waste\, the environment\, platform capitalism\, the home\, and neurodivergence. She is the author of Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine (Stanford University Press\, 2019). Her current book\, De/tachment: Airbnb in Athens\, is under contract with Duke University Press. She is beginning fieldwork on her next project on the rise of “demand avoidance” as a diagnosis and lived experience for autistic people. She has served on the editorial teams of MERIP\, Cultural Anthropology and Critical AI. More on her scholarship and films can be found here: \nhttps://sophiastamatopoulourobbins.com \nPlease RSVP here if you plan to attend in-person\, we hope to see you there! URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/arthur-miller-lecture-in-science-and-ethics-with-sophia-stamatopoulou-robbins-landfill-platform-diagnosis-how-people-in-crisis-use-science-and-technology-to-build-new-ethical-worlds/ LOCATION:MIT Welcome Center\, 292 Main Street\, cambridge\, MA\, 02142\, United States CATEGORIES:Arthur Miller Lecture END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250530 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250601 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20241223T224740Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250106T165748Z UID:115376-1748563200-1748735999@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Fischerfest: Symposium by Michael J. Fischer DESCRIPTION:We hope you will join us from 5-8 pm on Friday\, May 30th and all-day on Saturday\, May 31st at the MIT Museum for a symposium to celebrate the body of work and formal retirement of faculty member Michael J. Fischer! \nMIT Museum \nGambrill Center\, 314 Main St\, Cambridge\, MA 02142 \n\nThis symposium will feature presentations of HASTS PhD students present and past as well as PhD students from Professor Fischer’s time at Rice University and Harvard University. \nMore details on programming will come closer to the event date\, we hope to see you there! \nThe symposium is free and open to the public. \nIf you wish to attend\, please rsvp to: wihadley@mit.edu URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/fischerfest-symposium-by-michael-fisher/ LOCATION:MIT Museum\, Gambrill Center\, 314 Main St\, cambridge\, MA\, 02142\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250407T171500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250407T184500 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20250331T134856Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250331T134856Z UID:115468-1744046100-1744051500@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Special Lecture with Ashley Smart - The Stories We Could Tell: Science Journalism in a Time of Change DESCRIPTION:A Special Lecture Series Presented by the MIT Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society and the Knight Science Journalism Program\n\n  \nJoin us on Monday\, April 7th\, from 5:15-6:45 pm in E51-145 for a special talk by Ashley Smart \nThe Stories We Could Tell: Science Journalism in a Time of Change \nWhat role should science journalists play in restoring public trust in journalism and science? How should reporters approach complicated issues that pit science against personal values? How should we think about what is at stake — and for whom — in the stories we tell about science? In this talk\, Ashley will discuss how his own experiences as a reporter\, editor\, and associate program director have shaped the way he thinks about these questions — and why science journalists must grapple with them if they are to navigate the precarious road ahead. \nAbout Ashley Smart \nAshley Smart is an award-winning journalist who serves as the associate director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT and as a senior editor at Undark magazine. He also teaches in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing and was co-editor of “A Tactical Guide to Science Journalism: Lessons From the Frontlines.” He previously worked as an editor and reporter at Physics Today magazine\, and in 2015-16 he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He serves on the boards of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and The Open Notebook. \nTo Attend the Lecture \nPlease fill out this RSVP form if you plan to attend in-person. The talk is free and open to all members of the MIT community. We hope to see you there! URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/special-lecture-with-ashley-smart-the-stories-we-could-tell-science-journalism-in-a-time-of-change/ CATEGORIES:Special Event END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250402T171500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250402T184500 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20250331T133450Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250331T133450Z UID:115465-1743614100-1743619500@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Special Lecture with Usha Lee McFarling - Radical Collaborations and Entrepreneurial Energy: Building a Thriving Science Journalism Ecosystem DESCRIPTION:A Special Lecture Series Presented by the MIT Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society and the Knight Science Journalism Program\n\n  \nJoin us on Wednesday\, April 2nd\, from 5:15-6:45 pm in E51-145 for a special talk by Usha Lee McFarling \nRadical Collaborations and Entrepreneurial Energy: Building a Thriving Science Journalism Ecosystem \nFrom the moon landing to the sequencing of the human genome\, science journalists have chronicled technology’s most transformational moments and its thorniest debates. Today\, despite the critical need for such illumination and discussion\, the field of science journalism faces threats both economic and political. In this talk\, Usha will discuss the current landscape\, and explore ways the field and its dedicated community of practitioners can meet these challenges through powerful new collaborations\, an entrepreneurial spirit\, and by embracing some of the central tenets of the humanities such as creativity\, a focus on values\, and deeper explorations of ambiguity. These new pathways are needed to ensure accurate information about science and technology reaches the general public for informed decision-making\, an essential part of a functioning democracy\, but also to allow that public to explore science more fully and to experience its beauty\, joy\, and wonder.  \nAbout Usha Lee McFarling \nUsha Lee McFarling is a national science correspondent for STAT. She previously reported for the Los Angeles Times\, Boston Globe\, Knight Ridder Washington Bureau\, and the San Antonio Light. Her work on the diseased state of the world’s oceans earned the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism and a 2006 Polk award. Her reporting has also earned the Victor Cohn prize for excellence in medical science reporting\, the Bernard Lo\, MD award in bioethics\, and numerous other awards. Usha graduated from Brown University with a degree in biology and later earned a master’s degree at UC Berkeley after spending years studying the behavior of desert woodrats. She was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow from 1992-3. \nTo Attend the Lecture \nPlease fill out this RSVP form if you plan to attend in-person. The talk is free and open to all members of the MIT community. We hope to see you there! URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/special-lecture-with-usha-lee-mcfarling-radical-collaborations-and-entrepreneurial-energy-building-a-thriving-science-journalism-ecosystem/ CATEGORIES:Special Event END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250331T171500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250331T184500 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20250324T142857Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250324T142932Z UID:115458-1743441300-1743446700@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Special Lecture with Hillary Rosner - Bearing Witness: Reporting on Nature in Tumultuous Times DESCRIPTION:A Special Lecture Series Presented by the MIT Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society and the Knight Science Journalism Program\n\nJoin us on Monday\, March 31st\, from 5:15-6:45 pm in E51-145 for a special talk by Hillary Rosner \nBearing Witness: Reporting on Nature in Tumultuous Times \nScience journalism has never been more important. At the very moment when journalism is struggling to redefine itself and find new business models\, truth is being undermined—and now science is also under attack. It’s crucial that journalists document what is happening and that they explain to the public how the pieces all fit together. Drawing on her two decades of experience covering environmental issues\, as well as on recent reporting from around the U.S. and abroad for her forthcoming book on wildlife movement and the importance of reconnecting landscapes\, Hillary Rosner will explore the importance of journalism that highlights connections. Increasing public understanding of those connections—between\, say\, a demand for avocadoes in one country and a biodiversity crisis in another\, or between a drought in one region and the rise of fascism in another—may help restore trust in the vital enterprise of science in the U.S. Environmental journalism offers a model for how to cover complexity because it involves so many intersecting issues. \nAbout Hillary Rosner \nHillary Rosner is an award-winning science journalist and the assistant director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder. She has written for National Geographic\, The New York Times\, The Atlantic\, Wired\, Scientific American\, The Washington Post\, Undark\, Nautilus\, Men’s Journal\, Audubon\, and dozens of other publications. Her book Roam: Wild Animals\, Human Landscapes\, and the Race to Knit the Natural World Back Together will be published this fall by Patagonia Books.\n \nTo Attend the Lecture \nPlease fill out this RSVP form if you plan to attend in-person. The talk is free and open to all members of the MIT community. We hope to see you there! URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/special-lecture-with-hillary-rosner-bearing-witness-reporting-on-nature-in-tumultuous-times/ CATEGORIES:Special Event END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250319T171500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250407T184500 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20250312T202301Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250313T125535Z UID:115448-1742404500-1744051500@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Special Lecture Series: Who Tells the Story of Science? The Power and Peril of Science and Technology Journalism in 2025 DESCRIPTION:Who Tells the Story of Science? The Power and Peril of Science and Technology Journalism in 2025\nA Special Lecture Series Presented by the MIT Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society and the Knight Science Journalism Program\n\nScience and technology journalism faces a pivotal moment. Our most pressing challenges—climate crisis\, global pandemics\, the transformative potential of artificial intelligence—demand vigorous\, deeply-informed\, and thoughtful coverage by independent journalists. As questions about science\, technology\, health\, and the environment become ever more central to our political lives across many scales\, from local to national to global\, science and technology journalism is pivotal to safeguarding the democratic process. Science and technology journalists must balance multiple\, often competing\, imperatives: to translate and explain hard-won scientific knowledge\, while also holding scientific institutions to account; to report on the social effects of technological change\, while subjecting claims of technological hype (and doom) up to independent scrutiny. They must do so at a time when seismic shifts in the media landscape\, from the rise of social media to the hollowing out of newsrooms\, have created new threats (and perhaps opportunities) for the journalistic enterprise. This lecture series brings together four visionary leaders in the field to reflect on the state of science and technology journalism today—and to chart a path for its future. \n\nAll talks will take place from 5:15 to 6:45 pm ET and are open to members of the MIT community. \n\nWednesday\, March 19: Bina Venkataraman\, Editor-at-large for Strategy and Innovation\, The Washington Post \nLocation: E51-395 \n\nMonday\, March 31: Hillary Rosner\, Assistant Director\, Center for Environmental Journalism\, University of Colorado-Boulder \nLocation: E51-145 \n\nWednesday\, April 2: Usha Lee McFarling\, National Correspondent\, STAT \nLocation: E51-145 \n\nMonday\, April 7: Ashley Smart\, Associate Director\, Knight Science Journalism Program\, MIT \nLocation: E51-145 URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/special-lecture-series-who-tells-the-story-of-science-the-power-and-peril-of-science-and-technology-journalism-in-2025/ CATEGORIES:Special Event END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250319T171500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250319T184500 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20250312T201252Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250313T125334Z UID:115446-1742404500-1742409900@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Special Lecture with Bina Venkataraman - Fear\, Truth & Wonder: How Stories about Science and Technology Change the World – and Why We Need Them More than Ever DESCRIPTION:A Special Lecture Series Presented by the MIT Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society and the Knight Science Journalism Program\n\nJoin us on Wednesday\, March 19th\, from 5:15-6:45 pm in E51-395 for a special talk by Bina Venkataraman. \nFear\, Truth & Wonder: How Stories about Science and Technology Change the World – and Why We Need Them More than Ever \nFormer Boston Globe Editorial Page Editor and the inaugural “Columnist of the Future” at The Washington Post\, Bina Venkataraman will showcase the powerful role that rigorous science and technology journalism plays in society and examine the growing threats faced by arbiters of truth in both science and the media. She’ll explore how we can rise to the profound challenges ahead –  and the role the MIT community can play in charting the future. \nAbout Bina Venkataraman \nBina Venkataraman is an American journalist\, science policy expert\, and author. She is currently Editor-at-Large for Strategy and Innovation and the inaugural Columnist of the Future at The Washington Post. From 2019 to 2022\, she served as Editorial Page Editor of The Boston Globe\, overseeing the news organization’s opinion coverage and editorial board during two presidential impeachment trials\, the 2020 election\, the COVID-19 pandemic\, the death of George Floyd\, the Capitol insurrection\, and Boston’s historic 2021 mayoral election. During her tenure\, the Globe had two Pulitzer finalists for editorial writing. She is the author of The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age (Riverhead\, 2019)\, named a top book by The Financial Times and a best book of the year by National Public Radio. Bina formerly served in the Obama White House as Senior Advisor for Climate Change Innovation\, and she helped shape national policy on a range of issues from outbreak response to STEM education as the Director of Global Policy Initiatives at the Broad Institute for a decade and as a policy advisor to PCAST under President Obama.  \nBina has taught courses in STS at MIT; she also teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School. She serves on the Advisory Board of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on the Media\, Politics\, and Public Policy; on the Getty Museum’s PST ART advisory council; on the jury of the Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting; and on the MIT Corporation’s Visiting Committee on the Humanities. She is learning — very slowly — how to surf. \nTo Attend the Lecture \nPlease fill out this RSVP form if you plan to attend in-person. The talk is free and open to all members of the MIT community. We hope to see you there! URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/special-lecture-with-bina-venkataraman-fear-truth-wonder-how-stories-about-science-and-technology-change-the-world-and-why-we-need-them-more-than-ever/ LOCATION:Building E51 Room 395 CATEGORIES:Special Event END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250310T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250310T180000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20250306T151636Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250306T151636Z UID:115440-1741622400-1741629600@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Book Talk with Dave Mindell: The New Lunar Society DESCRIPTION:Join us on Monday\, March 10th\, at 4:00 PM in E51-275 for a special talk by Professor Dave Mindell on his new book: The New Lunar Society. \nThe New Lunar Society \nClimate change\, global disruption\, and labor scarcity are forcing us to rethink the underlying principles of industrial society. In The New Lunar Society\, David Mindell envisions this new industrialism from the fundamentals\, drawing on the eighteenth century when first principles were formed at the founding of the Industrial Revolution. While outlining the new industrialism\, he tells the story of the Lunar Society\, a group of engineers\, scientists\, and industrialists who came together to apply the principles of the Enlightenment to industrial processes. Those principles were collaboration\, the marriage of practice and scientific knowledge\, and the belief that the world could progress through making things. \n\nTo Attend In-Person \nPlease fill out this RSVP form if you plan to attend in-person\, as space is limited. \nThis talk is free to the MIT community\, please see the attached flyer for more details. We hope to see you there! URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/book-talk-with-dave-mindell-the-new-lunar-society/ LOCATION:E51-275 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250224T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250224T133000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20241223T223940Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250114T143545Z UID:115375-1740398400-1740403800@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:2024-25 Morison Prize and Lecture with Zeynep Tufekci: What if the Real Threat is Artificial Good-Enough Intelligence? DESCRIPTION:Join us on Monday\, February 24\, 2025\, at 12 pm in the Nexus\, Hayden Library for a talk led by Zeynep Tufekci\, Turkish-American sociologist and Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. \nWhat if the Real Threat is Artificial Good-Enough Intelligence? \nAre we having the wrong nightmares about AI? Many worry that “artificial general intelligence” — AGI\, or when machine intelligence matches or exceeds that of humans — poses a severe threat. These newly-superintelligent machines could turn on their creators\, we’ve been warned\, like Skynet in the apocalyptic movie Terminator. \nBut many early predictions — fears and hopes — about how new technologies will change the world turn out to be false or misleading. Meanwhile\, significant risks that arise simply from increased speed\, expanded scale or lower costs that technology enables are often overlooked. \nA new technology does not have to outperform humans\, or even be singularly sensational compared to previous technologies\, to fuel extreme turbulence and instability\, usually in an unforeseen manner. Cars weren’t so transformative simply because they exceeded the speed benchmark set by horses\, nor were they horseless carriages. \nIn this talk\, Tufekci will examine the disruptive and even potentially catastrophic risks from Artificial Good-Enough Intelligence — AI that can do things not necessarily as well as humans but just good enough to be useful while being faster\, cheaper and deployable at scale\, and in ways that go beyond current concerns such as employment effects\, productivity or bias. \nAbout Zeynep Tufekci \nZeynep Tufekci is an academic and writer who focuses on big social challenges that defy disciplinary boundaries and simple answers. \nOriginally from Turkey\, Zeynep Tufekci  writes about sociology and the social effects of technology\, having closely examined the impact of and responses to the Covid pandemic. She is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. Her research revolves around politics\, civics\, movements\, privacy and surveillance\, as well as data and algorithms. \nShe is the author of Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest and writes regularly for The Atlantic and the New York Times\, as well as publishing a newsletter named Insight. \n\nMore details on the topic will come closer to the lecture date\, we hope to see you there! URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/2024-25-morison-prize-and-lecture-with-zeynep-tufekci-topic-to-be-revealed/ LOCATION:The Nexus at Hayden Library (14S-130)\, 160 Memorial Drive\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02142\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250210T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250210T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20241218T222954Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241218T222954Z UID:115367-1739203200-1739208600@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Spring Speaker Series 2025: "This Too Shall Burn: America in the Age of Wood" with Daniel Immerwahr DESCRIPTION:Join us on Monday\, February 10\, 2025\, at 4pm in the Nexus\, Hayden Library for a talk by Daniel Immerwahr\, Humanities Professor at Northwestern University\, on his upcoming book “This Too Shall Burn: America in the Age of Wood”. \n\nAmerica has been\, historically\, a land of trees. This made its built environment thoroughgoingly wooden and\, as a consequence\, alarmingly combustible. In the same way that fossil fuels are today the source of our abundance but also the cause of a dreaded apocalypse\, wood was the source of American abundance and the cause of constant\, harrowing fires. In This Too Shall Burn\, Daniel Immerwahr asks how those hair-raising fires have shaped—or scarred—the American past. \nDaniel Immerwahr is a historian at Northwestern University\, where he is the Bergen Evans Professor in the Humanities and Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence. His most recent book\, the award-winning How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States\, was a New York Times critics’ top book of 2019 and has been translated into seven languages. He is currently a 2024–2025 Radcliffe fellow performing research on this book. \nThis jointly sponsored talk with STS\, Anthropology\, and History is free to the MIT community and to the public. We hope to see you there! URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/daniel-immerwahr-this-too-shall-burn-america-in-the-age-of-wood/ LOCATION:The Nexus at Hayden Library (14S-130)\, 160 Memorial Drive\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02142\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241010T161500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241010T174500 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20241008T180632Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241008T180632Z UID:115326-1728576900-1728582300@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Special Talk by Sarah Tarlow - Radical Honesty: Life Writing\, Academic Writing and Living Dangerously DESCRIPTION:Join us on Thursday\, October 10th at 4:15 PM for a special talk by guest lecturer Sarah Tarlow – Radical Honesty: Life Writing\, Academic Writing and Living Dangerously. \nWhat makes a powerful memoir? While telling a great story certainly helps\, Sarah Tarlow will argue what distinguishes the best life writing is radical honesty. Furthermore\, the principles of radical honesty applied back to our academic writing and\, indeed\, to our other endeavors\, result in more innovative\, exciting\, critical and transformative work. She will discuss and read from her own memoir\, The Archaeology of Loss. Her 2023 memoir combines her expertise as an archaeologist specializing in the archaeology of death and burial\, with the personal experience of being a long-term care-taker for her ill husband. \nSarah Tarlow is Professor of Historical Archaeology at the University of Leicester\, UK. She has published more than 10 academic books on topics like the archaeology of death\, historical archaeology in Britain and Ireland\, the archaeology of the body\, and archaeological ethics. In 2023\, The Archaeology of Loss received the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Public Anthropology award. \nCome and listen to an unwavering exploration of rarely discussed\, but ever-important topics like caregiving\, grief\, and the inextricable tie between how we die and how we live. This event will be held at The Nexus in Hayden Library (14S-130)\, from 4:15-5:30 PM.  To access the lecture virtually\, use the zoom link here. To RSVP in-person\, use the link here. \n  \n\n  URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/sarah-tarlow-radical-honesty-life-writing-academic-writing-and-living-dangerously/ LOCATION:The Nexus at Hayden Library (14S-130)\, 160 Memorial Drive\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02142\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241007T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241007T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20241004T202049Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241004T202049Z UID:115315-1728316800-1728322200@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Arthur Miller Lecture in Science and Ethics: "Campus Free Speech: A Pocket Guide" by Cass Sunstein DESCRIPTION:Free speech is indispensable on college campuses: allowing varied views and frank exchanges of opinion is a core component of the educational enterprise and the pursuit of truth. But free speech does not mean a free-for-all. The First Amendment prohibits “abridging the freedom of speech\,” yet laws against perjury or bribery\, for example\, are still constitutional. In the same way\, valuing freedom of speech does not stop a university from regulating speech when doing so is necessary for its educational mission. So where is the dividing line? How can we distinguish reasonable restrictions from impermissible infringement? Join us on October 7th from 4:00-5:30 pm at the Nexus in Hayden Library for an invigorating exploration by Sunstein\, as he offers a case-by-base guide to resolving the free-speech dilemma facing colleges and universities in the modern era. Register here today. \nTo attend the lecture virtually\, you may use this link here to access the webcast platform where it will be streamed. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/arthur-miller-lecture-in-science-and-ethics-campus-free-speech-by-cass-sunstein/ LOCATION:14-130 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240608 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240609 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20240430T203248Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240521T200153Z UID:115203-1717804800-1717891199@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Symposium on The History of Technology: Past\, Present\, and Future June 7-8\, 2024 DESCRIPTION:Friday\, June 07\, 2024 at 9:00am to 5:00pm \nSaturday\, June 08\, 2024 at 9:00am to 3:00pm \nat the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\nWong Auditorium\, E51-115\n70 Memorial Drive\, Cambridge\, MA 02142 \nThe MIT Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society will host an exploratory symposium on “The History of Technology: Past\, Present\, and Future.” \nOver twenty scholars will make brief presentations about their view of the field and what they consider needs and opportunities for its future development. \nRanging from distinguished senior scholars to recently minted Ph.D.’s\, the participants promise to bring fresh perspectives to the history of technology as an academic discipline. The time is ripe to take stock of the field\, assess where it currently stands\, and ask what next steps might be taken to advance it further. \nThe symposium is free and open to the public. \nIf you wish to attend\, please rsvp to:  jspitzer@mit.edu \n  \n  URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/symposium-on-the-history-of-technology-past-present-and-future-june-7-8-2024/ LOCATION:E51 – Wong Auditorium\, 2 Amherst Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, United States ORGANIZER;CN="Judy Spitzer":MAILTO:jspitzer@mit.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240607 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240608 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20240507T185632Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240521T201022Z UID:115209-1717718400-1717804799@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Symposium on The History of Technology: Past\, Present\, and Future June 7-8\, 2024 DESCRIPTION:Friday\, June 07\, 2024 at 9:00am to 5:00pm\nand Saturday\, June 08\, 2024 at 9:00am to 3:00pm \nat the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\nWong Auditorium\, E51-115\n70 Memorial Drive\, Cambridge\, MA 02142 \nThe MIT Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society will host an exploratory symposium on “The History of Technology: Past\, Present\, and Future.” \nOver twenty scholars will make brief presentations about their view of the field and what they consider needs and opportunities for its future development. \nRanging from distinguished senior scholars to recently minted Ph.D.’s\, the participants promise to bring fresh perspectives to the history of technology as an academic discipline. The time is ripe to take stock of the field\, assess where it currently stands\, and ask what next steps might be taken to advance it further. \nThe symposium is free and open to the public. \nIf you wish to attend\, please rsvp to:  jspitzer@mit.edu \n  \n  URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/symposium-on-the-history-of-technology-past-present-and-future-june-7-8-2024-2/ LOCATION:E51 – Wong Auditorium\, 2 Amherst Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, United States CATEGORIES:Special Event ORGANIZER;CN="Judy Spitzer":MAILTO:jspitzer@mit.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240408T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240408T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20240321T162523Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240321T172621Z UID:115164-1712592000-1712597400@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Spring Speaker Series Talk -- Pan-American Computing: Regional Integration and U.S. Corporate Power at the Origins of South American Computer Markets DESCRIPTION:Join us on Mon.\, April 8\, ’24  at 4-5:30pm in MIT’s Hayden Library\, 14-130 The Nexus \nThis talk analyzes the role of U.S. empire in the creation of South American markets for tabulating equipment and early mainframe computers. Grounded in two major programs—the 1940 Census of the Americas and the 1960s Latin American Free Trade Association—this talk explores the role of data integration and trade integration as two components of a regional strategy for U.S. corporate dominance over hemispheric tabulating and computing industries. The International Business Machines (IBM) corporation was a major player in this process\, invested heavily in interwar “Good Neighbor” cultural programming\, training census takers across the hemisphere in IBM tabulation methods\, and building the first free-trade program that allowed for the vertical integration of its own operations in South America. Through these programs\, IBM became a near-monopoly in hemispheric information-processing markets by the mid-1960s\, and it did so by coopting Latin American attempts at regional integration that sought autonomy from—not greater dependence on—U.S. corporate power. \nColette Perold is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on the relationship between media technologies\, labor movements\, and U.S. foreign policy\, specifically the ways in which multinational IT companies shape U.S. foreign policy priorities in Latin America. Her article “IBM’s World Citizens: Valentim Boucas and the Politics of IT Expansion in Authoritarian Brazil” won the 2021 Mahoney Prize for outstanding article in the history of computing and information technology from the Society for the History of Technology’s Special Interest Group for Computing\, Information\, and Society. She has held the Charles Babbage Institute’s Tomash Fellowship\, the Society for the History of Technology’s Brooke Hindle Postdoctoral Fellowship\, and as of August 2024 will hold an NEH Fellowship. \nThis series is free and open to the public. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/spring-speaker-series-talk-pan-american-computing-regional-integration-and-u-s-corporate-power-at-the-origins-of-south-american-computer-markets/ LOCATION:14-130 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240311T173000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240311T183000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20240228T203603Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240228T205309Z UID:115155-1710178200-1710181800@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Book Launch and Panel Discussion for "How to Design a Revolution: The Chilean Road to Design" DESCRIPTION:MIT Morningside Academy for Design invites you to a book launch and panel discussion with   \nHugo Palmarola\, Eden Medina\, Pedro Ignacio Alonso (eds.)  How to Design a Revolution: The Chilean Road to Design  \nREGISTER HERE \nMonday\, March 11\, 5:30 p.m. \nMIT 9-255  website \nA video of the museum installation Cómo diseñar una revolución will follow the panel discussion. The video installation will run in the lobby of Building 9 from March 11-28. The panel will be moderated by Arindam Dutta. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/book-launch-and-panel-discussion-eden-medinas-how-to-design-a-revolution/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240205T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240205T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20240117T224253Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240117T224253Z UID:115133-1707148800-1707154200@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Spring Speaker Series 2024: "Market/Making: Knowledge\, Technology\, and the Production of Social Worlds " DESCRIPTION:On Monday\, February 5\, 2024\, at 4pm\, Assoc. Professor in Sociology\, Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra from the U of C\, SD will speak at 4pm in the Nexus\, Hayden Library\, 14S-130 on the topic of “Market/Making: Knowledge\, Technology\, and the Production of Social Worlds.”  The talk is jointly sponsored talk with STS\, Anthropology and History.  Here’s the abstract:  “Markets are central to contemporary social life. Yet\, their features are often reduced to transactions and exchange\, hiding the rich forms of sociotechnical and organizational work that are necessary for their making\, maintenance\, and reproduction. Explore these dimensions of markets through studies of two very different settings: stock exchanges\, where ‘invisible’ organizational workers transformed the nature of trading and the social fabric of finance; and higher education\, where scholars adopted forms of market-oriented quantification as mechanisms for sustaining their public value. More is revealed on the nature of markets in contemporary societies.” \nThe talk is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there! \nAny questions\, please reach out to:  STS- events@MIT.edu. Thank you! URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/spring-speaker-series-2024-market-making-knowledge-technology-and-the-production-of-social-worlds/ LOCATION:14-130 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231211T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231211T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20231130T154814Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231130T163134Z UID:115089-1702310400-1702315800@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:"Will Digital Intelligence Replace Biological Intelligence?" by Geoffrey Hinton DESCRIPTION:Arthur Miller Lecture in Science and Ethics: “Will Digital Intelligence Replace Biological Intelligence?” by Geoffrey Hinton\n\nDecember 11 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm\n\n“Humanity is at a turning point with AI\,” says Geoffrey Hinton\, known as the Godfather of Artificial Intelligence. The cognitive scientist and computer scientist who designed machine learning algorithms at Google and recently quit after 10 years will address his concerns about accelerated progress of deep learning and its potential impact on humanity. AI is reshaping everything from how we write to how we engage with the world. While computers were first designed for humans to tell them what to do\, they’re now learning to “think” for themselves. Register here and join Geoffrey Hinton\, AI pioneer and co-founder of deep learning\, December 11th for this Zoom Webinar. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/will-digital-intelligence-replace-biological-intelligence-by-geoffrey-hinton/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231205T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231205T183000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20231130T181018Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231130T181018Z UID:115092-1701795600-1701801000@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Panel on "Paradigm Shift in Infectious Diseases" DESCRIPTION:You are kindly invited to the Panel Discussion (Dec 5th) and Exhibit (Dec 4-13th) on the “Paradigm Shift in Infectious Diseases.” \nPlease sign up for the panel discussion at this link: https://libcal.mit.edu/calendar/events/infectiousdisease_paradigmshift\nSpeakers and Panelists:  \n\nProf. Joel Gill\, Boston University\nhttps://www.bu.edu/cfa/about/contact-directions/directory/joel-christian-gill/\n\n\nProf. John Durant\, MIT\n      https://sts-program.mit.edu/people/sts-faculty/john-durant/\n\n\nProf. Edward Nardell\, Harvard University\n      https://ghsm.hms.harvard.edu/faculty-staff/edward-anthony-nardell\n\n\nProf. Robin Scheffler\, MIT\n      https://sts-program.mit.edu/people/sts-faculty/robin-scheffler/\n\n\nProf. Carl Zimmer\, Yale University\n      https://carlzimmer.com/about/\n\n  \nThe Exhibit is open for all at the dates below: \nExhibition on the scientific method and science advances via comics and illustrations. \nProfessor Bourouiba and Artist Argha Manna are working to showcase a historical perspective on the scientific method and the “highly nonlinear” evolution of ideas in science through a range of examples ranging from physics and astronomy to infectious disease transmission via comics as illustration. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/panel-on-paradigm-shift-in-infectious-diseases/ LOCATION:14-130 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231106T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231106T180000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20231024T163735Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231101T142150Z UID:115052-1699286400-1699293600@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Arthur Miller Lecture in Science and Ethics: “Will Digital Intelligence Replace Biological Intelligence?” by Geoffrey Hinton DESCRIPTION:“Humanity is at a turning point with AI\,” says Geoffrey Hinton\, known as the Godfather of Artificial Intelligence. The cognitive scientist and computer scientist who designed machine learning algorithms at Google and recently quit after 10 years will address his concerns about accelerated progress of deep learning and its potential impact on humanity. AI is reshaping everything from how we write to how we engage with the world. While computers were first designed for humans to tell them what to do\, they’re now learning to “think” for themselves. Join Geoffrey Hinton\, AI pioneer and co-founder of deep learning\, November 6th at 4 pm for a webinar\, “Will Digital Intelligence Replace Biological Intelligence\,” a discussion of AI and humanity’s future.  Register here today. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/arthur-miller-lecture-on-science-and-ethics-will-digital-intelligence-replace-biological-intelligence-by-geoffrey-hinton/ LOCATION:Virtual\, MA\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230508T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230508T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20230412T135134Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230413T140221Z UID:114923-1683561600-1683567000@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:2022-23 Morison Prize and Lecture with danah boyd\, PhD - "Made\, Not Found: Grappling with the Vulnerabilities of Data" DESCRIPTION:From danah boyd’s website:\ndanah boyd is a Partner Researcher at Microsoft Research and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on the intersection of technology and society\, with an eye to how structural inequities shape and are shaped by technologies. She is currently conducting a multi-year ethnographic study of the US census to understand how data are made legitimate. Her previous studies have focused on media manipulation\, algorithmic bias\, privacy practices\, social media\, and teen culture. Her monograph “It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens” has received widespread praise. She founded the research institute Data & Society\, where she currently serves as an advisor. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations\, and on the advisory board of Electronic Privacy Information Center. She received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brown University\, a master’s degree from the MIT Media Lab\, and a Ph.D in Information from the University of California\, Berkeley. \n\nAbout the talk:\nMade\, Not Found: Grappling with the Vulnerabilities of Data \nThe U.S. census is a piece of data infrastructure upon which countless programs\, policies\, and decisions depend. In fact\, many data produced in the 21st century ripples through complex sociotechnical systems\, shaping actions far from the point of data production and collection. This is particularly visible when it comes to the development of artificial intelligence systems. By understanding how data are made\, we can start to appreciate the various work that goes into ensuring that data are resilient. \nIn this talk\, danah will draw on lessons learned studying the construction of 2020 U.S. census data to grapple with the ways in which political forces shape data in order to shape the systems that depend on those data. This talk will weave through discussions of differential privacy\, statistical repairwork\, and epistemic contestations about what makes data “real” to showcase the invisible layers of data that we all take for granted. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/2023-morison/ LOCATION:E51 – Wong Auditorium\, 2 Amherst Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230213T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230213T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20230118T163310Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230118T163419Z UID:114890-1676304000-1676309400@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Spring Speaker Series 2023 - Monday\, Feb. 13\, 2023 - Bananapocalypse: Externalities in the Making of Plantation Capitalism DESCRIPTION:Anthropology • History • Science\, Technology\, and Society\n  \nAlyssa Paredes\nDepartment of Anthropology\nUniversity of Michigan\n  \n\nMonday\, Feb. 13\n4:00PM-5:30PM\nHayden Library\,\nNexus 14S-130 \nQuestions? Please email sts-events@mit.edu. \n  \nBananapocalypse: Externalities in the Making of Plantation Capitalism\nPlantation regimes and transnational commodity trading confront a serious challenge in the 21st century. For every commodity that travels long-distance chains\, there are multiple externalities that are hidden and unaccounted for—not by accident\, but by design. Externalities are the social and environmental costs of production that are considered external because they are not accounted for in its calculus nor in the final price of a product\, even as they contribute to value creation in uncompensated ways. \nWhat if ethnographers wrote about powerful industries with the assumption that their acts of violence\, force\, and disregard come from a place of weakness rather than strength\, and vulnerability rather than hegemony? \n  \n\n  \n  URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/spring-speaker-series-2023-paredes/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220919T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220919T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20220914T140513Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220914T140744Z UID:114859-1663603200-1663608600@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Fall Speaker Series 2022 - Monday\, Sept. 19\, 2022 - The Petro-State Masquerade: Oil and Sovereignty in Trinidad and Tobago DESCRIPTION:Anthropology • History • Science\, Technology\, and Society\n\nRyan Jobson\nDepartment of Anthropology\nUniversity of Chicago\n  \n\nMonday\, Sept. 19\n4:00PM-5:30PM\nHayden Library\,\nNexus 14S-130* \n*Individuals who do not have an MIT ID must RSVP by Friday\, Sept. 16\, 12pm to be registered for campus access via Tim Tickets. \nPlease email sts-events@mit.edu. \n  \nThe Petro-State Masquerade: Oil and Sovereignty in Trinidad and Tobago\n  \nThe “Petro-State Masquerade” considers how postcolonial political futures in the Caribbean nation­ state of Trinidad and Tobago came to be staked to the market futures of oil\, natural gas\, and their petrochemical derivatives. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research\, this paper theorizes how the tenuous relationship between oil and political power-enshrined in the hyphenated form of the petro-state is represented by postcolonial state officials as a Carnivalesque ”masquerade of permanence” through the perpetual expansion of fossil fuel ventures. At the same time\, low oil and gas prices\, diminishing reserves\, and renewable energy innovations threaten the viability of the Trinbagonian energy sector. \nIn turn\, this paper examines the turn to offshore exploration in the deep-water sector beginning in 1998. Characterized by protracted production cycles\, deep-water ventures feature prohibitive costs and a comparatively low probability of success. After several deep-water ventures failed to yield substantive commercial quantities of oil or gas\, the unfulfilled potential of a lucrative offshore geology is invoked to mitigate uncertainty and secure the long-term viability of the Trinbagonian energy sector. In their masquerade\, state officials depict fossil fuels as inexhaustible resources waiting to be unearthed by multinational capital and novel extractive technologies. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/fall-speaker-series-2022-jobson/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220317T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220317T173000 DTSTAMP:20260515T051945 CREATED:20220225T214757Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220323T124253Z UID:114755-1647532800-1647538200@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:2021-22 Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics: Prof. Kendall Hoyt\, MIT HASTS '02\, Dartmouth College DESCRIPTION:FASTER VACCINES: A look at the past\, present\, and future of our efforts to accelerate development.\nGuest Lecturer: Professor Kendall Hoyt\, MIT HASTS ’02\, Assistant Professor\, Geisel School of Medicine; Senior Lecturer\, Thayer School of Engineering\, Dartmouth College \nDATE:      Thursday\, March 17\, 2022 \nLOCATION:  Bartos Theater\, MIT\, 20 Ames Street\, Cambridge\, MA \nENTRANCE:  Tim Ticket scanners are located at the List Gallery entrance\, upper atrium\, by the archway. \nTIME:      4:00PM – 5:30PM [Reception to follow in the Lower Atrium] \nProf. Hoyt teaches courses on biosecurity\, health systems\, and technological innovation. Her research is focused on health security\, innovation policy\, and vaccine development. She serves on the US Covid Commission Planning Group. She has served as a consultant for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the Nuclear Threat Initiative. She is the author of Long Shot: Vaccines for National Defense\, Harvard University Press\, 2012. \nPRE-REGISTER at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2021-22-arthur-miller-lecture-on-science-and-ethics-registration-276868480077 \n  URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/2021-22-arthur-miller-lecture-on-science-and-ethics-prof-kendall-hoyt-mit-hasts-02-dartmouth-college/ LOCATION:Bartos Theater\, E15 Atrium Level\, 20 Ames Street CATEGORIES:Special Event,Arthur Miller Lecture ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Poster-Kendall-Hoyt-AML.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR