BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//MIT STS - ECPv6.17.5.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH 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:20200308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20201101T060000 END:STANDARD 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 END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250310T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250310T180000 DTSTAMP:20250306T151636Z 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:20250114T143545Z 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:20241218T222954Z 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:20241008T180632Z 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:20241004T202049Z 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:20240521T200153Z 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:20240521T201022Z 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:20240321T172621Z 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:20240228T205309Z 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:20240117T224253Z 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:20231130T163134Z 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:20231130T181018Z 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:20231101T142150Z 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:20230413T140221Z 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:20230118T163419Z 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:20220914T140744Z 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:20220323T124253Z 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 BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220311T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220311T163000 DTSTAMP:20211004T151122Z CREATED:20211004T150929Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211004T151122Z UID:114647-1647009000-1647016200@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:(SEAH) Victor Seow\, Harvard: History of Energy Regimes in East Asia DESCRIPTION:This seminar series is sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society. \nThe co-conveners of the Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH)\, including Megan Black (Histor) Kate Brown (STS)\, Tristan Brown (History)\, Deborah Fitzgerald (STS)\, and\, Harriet Ritvo (History).  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSessions are held from 2:30 to 4:30 pm on Zoom\, register in advance for each seminar. \nContact history-info@mit.edu for Zoom link. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/seah-victor-seow-harvard-history-of-energy-regimes-in-east-asia/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Flyer-SEAH-2021-2022.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220225T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220225T163000 DTSTAMP:20211004T150511Z CREATED:20211004T150511Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211004T150511Z UID:114646-1645799400-1645806600@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:(SEAH) Caterina Scaramelli\, BU: Anthropology of Wetlands in Turkey DESCRIPTION:This seminar series is sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society. \nThe co-conveners of the Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH)\, including Megan Black (Histor) Kate Brown (STS)\, Tristan Brown (History)\, Deborah Fitzgerald (STS)\, and\, Harriet Ritvo (History).  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSessions are held from 2:30 to 4:30 pm on Zoom\, register in advance for each seminar. \nContact history-info@mit.edu for Zoom link. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/seah-caterina-scaramelli-bu-anthropology-of-wetlands-in-turkey/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Flyer-SEAH-2021-2022.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211216T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211216T130000 DTSTAMP:20211206T152626Z CREATED:20211206T152538Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211206T152626Z UID:114679-1639656000-1639659600@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Robin Scheffler: Molecular Medicine in the War on Cancer: Success or Failure? DESCRIPTION:THURSDAY\, DECEMBER 16\, 2021\, 12PM-1PM EST \nNIH VIDEO CAST:  https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=44150 URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/robin-scheffler-molecular-medicine-in-the-war-on-cancer-success-or-failure/ CATEGORIES:Special Seminar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Lecture-Series_N_Comfort_sm-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211203T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211203T163000 DTSTAMP:20211004T144859Z CREATED:20211004T144537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211004T144859Z UID:114645-1638541800-1638549000@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:(SEAH) Jay Turner\, Wellesley: History of Batteries and Their Life-Cycle from Extraction to Disposal DESCRIPTION:This seminar series is sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society. \nThe co-conveners of the Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH)\, including Megan Black (Histor) Kate Brown (STS)\, Tristan Brown (History)\, Deborah Fitzgerald (STS)\, and\, Harriet Ritvo (History).  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSessions are held from 2:30 to 4:30 pm on Zoom\, register in advance for each seminar. \nContact history-info@mit.edu for Zoom link. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/seah-jay-turner-wellesley-history-of-batteries-and-their-life-cycle-from-extraction-to-disposal/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Flyer-SEAH-2021-2022.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211116T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211116T153000 DTSTAMP:20210909T135203Z CREATED:20210902T233440Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210909T135203Z UID:114623-1637073000-1637076600@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Andrea Ballestero: A Future History of Water\, or\, How to Wonder with Techno-Legal Devices? DESCRIPTION:A Future History of Water\, or\, How to Wonder With Techno-Legal Devices?  \nAbstract \nHow do people commit to intervening in the future while acknowledging its unruliness? I propose the figure of the techno-legal device as a lively space where we can learn how people constantly negotiate the form of the worlds they want to bring about. I will focus on one device: a list of water types produced by Costa Rican congressional representatives during the discussion of a constitutional reform to recognize water as a public good and a human right. During the fifteen years the discussion lasted\, Libertarian representatives made a series of seemingly outrageous claims: they theatrically declared that if water were a human right\, ice cubes would become state property; they claimed that since all human bodies are 70% water\, the reform would turn 70% of human bodies into state property. Session after session\, they produced a typology of state-owned waters that challenged any definition of what water is\, of where its borders sit\, and of what ideas such as public goods and human rights entail. When analyzed as a techno-legal device\, the Libertarian list allows people to establish relations with facts\, matter\, and politics. I will argue that in this capacity\, a taxonomic list helps us see how a theatrical rejection of the human right to water is in fact the making of a future history—a way of bringing about a series of preconditions that can only be recognized as meaningful in the yet to come. \nBio:  \nAndrea Ballestero is Visiting Associate Professor of Anthropology at USC and Director of the Ethnography Studio  https://ethnographystudio.org/. She is the author of A Future History of Water (Duke University Press\, 2019) where she examines the means by which the human right to water is materialized and proposes the notion of a techno-legal device as a site for future-making. She is also the co-editor of Experimenting with Ethnography: A Companion to Analysis (Duke University Press 2021)\, a collection of experimental protocols that expand the meaning of ethnographic analysis. She is currently writing a book that explores cultural imaginaries of the underground in Costa Rica\, focusing on how the emergence of aquifers into the public sphere (via hydrogeology and discussions over private property) is expanding the social world downwards into subterranean space.  Recent articles include The Anthropology of Water (Annual Review of Anthropology 2019)\, Touching with Light (Science\, Technology and Human Values\, 2019)\, and Learning to Listen to the Underground a co-written experimental audiovisual piece published in the journal Sensate. Her works can be found at https://andreaballestero.com/ \nScience\, Technology\, and Human Rights Fall Speaker Series\nHow have science and technology  historically shaped understandings of human rights? How have human rights frameworks shaped the creation and use of scientific and technological capabilities? This speaker series explores the relationship of science and technology to ideas about human rights over time\, including how science and technology have been mobilized historically in the defense of human rights and to assist in the pursuit of truth and justice after atrocity. The series is tied to the fall semester course STS.458 Science\, Technology\, and Human Rights. \nAll talks are open to the public. \nMIT STS Faculty and Moderator: \nProf. Eden Medina\, Associate Professor of Science\, Technology\, and Society (STS) \nPRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED: https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__Krv2JkATCyDOAOuhKxpOA URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/andrea-ballestero-a-future-history-of-water-or-how-to-wonder-with-techno-legal-devices/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/LOGO.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211112T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211112T163000 DTSTAMP:20211004T143934Z CREATED:20211004T143934Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211004T143934Z UID:114644-1636727400-1636734600@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:(SEAH) Bernadette Pérez\, UC-Berkeley: History of Migrant and Sugar Beet Workers in the US West DESCRIPTION:This seminar series is sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society. \nThe co-conveners of the Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH)\, including Megan Black (Histor) Kate Brown (STS)\, Tristan Brown (History)\, Deborah Fitzgerald (STS)\, and\, Harriet Ritvo (History).  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSessions are held from 2:30 to 4:30 pm on Zoom\, register in advance for each seminar. \nContact history-info@mit.edu for Zoom link. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/seah-bernadette-perez-uc-berkeley-history-of-migrant-and-sugar-beet-workers-in-the-us-west/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Flyer-SEAH-2021-2022.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211109T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211109T153000 DTSTAMP:20210908T195712Z CREATED:20210902T215402Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210908T195712Z UID:114617-1636468200-1636471800@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Sandra Ristovska: Seeing Human Rights: How Video Serves Distinct Policy Functions DESCRIPTION:Seeing Human Rights: How Video Serves Distinct Policy Functions \nSandra Ristovska \nAbstract \nVisual technologies have long constituted a crucial element of struggles for human rights and social change. There are numerous examples: etchings about the abolition of slavery in England; photographs of the US Civil War; antifascist prints in Mexico; newsreels of the suffragettes; and satellite images of mass graves in Bosnia\, to name just a few. In this talk\, I will discuss how human rights organizations are borrowing from this long-standing and wide-ranging tradition as they seek to professionalize video activism through video production\, verification standards\, and training. The result\, I argue\, is a proxy profession that helps legitimize video’s potential to serve distinct policy functions while brokering human rights voices across institutional and legal domains. \nBio \n Sandra Ristovska is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the College of Media\, Communication\, and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies the interplay between images and human rights\, particularly in institutional and legal contexts. A 2021 Mellon/ACLS Scholars & Society Fellow\, she is the author of Seeing Human Rights: Video Activism as a Proxy Profession (MIT Press\, 2021) and co-editor of Visual Imagery and Human Rights Practice (Palgrave\, 2018). \n  \nScience\, Technology\, and Human Rights Fall Speaker Series\nHow have science and technology  historically shaped understandings of human rights? How have human rights frameworks shaped the creation and use of scientific and technological capabilities? This speaker series explores the relationship of science and technology to ideas about human rights over time\, including how science and technology have been mobilized historically in the defense of human rights and to assist in the pursuit of truth and justice after atrocity. The series is tied to the fall semester course STS.458 Science\, Technology\, and Human Rights. \nAll talks are open to the public. \nMIT STS Faculty and Moderator: \nProf. Eden Medina\, Associate Professor of Science\, Technology\, and Society (STS) \nPRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED: https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_guTXHHtzREeoar8HgjUU6A URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/sandra-ristovska-seeing-human-rights-how-video-serves-distinct-policy-functions/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/LOGO.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211105T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211105T163000 DTSTAMP:20211004T143746Z CREATED:20211004T143746Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211004T143746Z UID:114643-1636122600-1636129800@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:(SEAH) Bartow Elmore\, OH State: History of Monsanto and Ecological Impacts of Agrochemical Industries DESCRIPTION:This seminar series is sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society. \nThe co-conveners of the Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH)\, including Megan Black (Histor) Kate Brown (STS)\, Tristan Brown (History)\, Deborah Fitzgerald (STS)\, and\, Harriet Ritvo (History).  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSessions are held from 2:30 to 4:30 pm on Zoom\, register in advance for each seminar. \nContact history-info@mit.edu for Zoom link. URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/seah-bartow-elmore-oh-state-history-of-monsanto-and-ecological-impacts-of-agrochemical-industries/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Flyer-SEAH-2021-2022.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211101T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211101T173000 DTSTAMP:20211015T171006Z CREATED:20211015T162810Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211015T171006Z UID:114651-1635782400-1635787800@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Book Talk with Anne Pollock\, Ph.D\, '07: Sickening: Anti-Black Racism and Health Disparities in the United States DESCRIPTION:ANNE POLLOCK\, ’07\, \nProfessor of Global Health and Social Medicine\n\n\nKing’s College\, London\n \nSICKENING: ANTI-BLACK RACISM AND HEALTH DISPARITIES IN THE UNITED STATES\nAn event-by-event look at how institutionalized racism harms the health of African Americansin the twenty-first century. From the spike in chronic disease after Hurricane Katrina to the lack of protection for Black residents during the Flint water crisis\, Sickening surveys the diversity of anti-Black racism operating in healthcare. It deconstructs the structures that make these events possible\, including mass incarceration\, police brutality\, and the hypervisibility of Black athletes’ bodies\, revealing the everyday racialization of health in the U.S.\n\n \nOpen to the Public with Limited Seating.\nPlease email gusz@mit.edu to RSVP.\n \nTim Ticket Registration: https://visitors.mit.edu/?event=5351fcdb-f0bb-4066-93f5-24a7a256e3b5\n\n\nAttendees will be required to check-in with their MIT ID/Mobile ID or Tim Ticket.\n\n \nE51-095 is located at Tang Center\, 2 Amherst Street\, Cambridge\, MA 02142.  \nTim Ticket entrance is located at the corner of Amherst and Wadsworth Streets.  \n \n***Reminder that masking indoors is currently required at MIT regardless of vaccination status.\n\n\n\n\n \n\nSponsored by:\nPROGRAM IN SCIENCE\, TECHNOLOGY\, AND SOCIETY\n&\nDEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY\n\n  \n  \n  URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/book-talk-with-anne-pollock-ph-d-07-sickening-anti-black-racism-and-health-disparities-in-the-united-states/ LOCATION:E51-095\, MA\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/book-cover.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211015T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211015T163000 DTSTAMP:20211004T151130Z CREATED:20211004T151130Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211004T151130Z UID:114641-1634308200-1634315400@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:(SEAH) Tony Perry\, UVA: History of Slavery and Environmental Knowledge in Antebellum Maryland DESCRIPTION:This seminar series is sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society. \nThe co-conveners of the Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH)\, including Megan Black (Histor) Kate Brown (STS)\, Tristan Brown (History)\, Deborah Fitzgerald (STS)\, and\, Harriet Ritvo (History).  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSessions are held from 2:30 to 4:30 pm on Zoom\, register in advance for each seminar. \nContact history-info@mit.edu for Zoom link. \n  URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/seah-tony-perry-uva-history-of-slavery-and-environmental-knowledge-in-antebellum-maryland/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Flyer-SEAH-2021-2022.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211005T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211005T153000 DTSTAMP:20210909T135243Z CREATED:20210902T213831Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210909T135243Z UID:114615-1633444200-1633447800@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Robin C. Reineke: Forensic Citizenship Among Families of Missing Migrants Along the U.S.-Mexico Border DESCRIPTION:Forensic Citizenship Among Families of Missing Migrants Along the U.S.-Mexico Border \nAbstract \nSince the mid-1990s\, US federal policy has funneled unauthorized migration through remote portions of the Sonoran Desert\, resulting in thousands of deaths and disappearances. A growing body of literature on the work to find\, care for\, and identify those who have died at international borders largely focuses on forensic authorities or humanitarian volunteers. Often left out of such analyses are the families of the missing and dead\, who I argue are some of the most critical actors in such work. Drawing on fieldwork done between 2006 and 2021\, in this article I discuss how families of missing migrants impact forensic science procedures along the US-Mexico border. They do this through the development of knowledge\, skills\, and relationships with NGOs and government-employed forensic authorities. I argue that families of missing migrants are engaged in active citizenship that builds relationships of care and obligation among and between themselves\, forensic scientists\, and the missing and dead. \nBio: \nRobin Reineke is a sociocultural anthropologist with specializations in transnational migration\, science and technology studies\, human rights\, forensic anthropology\, and biopolitics. Her research and fieldwork are focused on the US-Mexico border region\, especially the Sonoran Desert. Her past research investigated the impact of border deaths and disappearances on immigrant communities\, and the ways in which families of missing migrants have changed the practice of forensic science in the US-Mexico borderlands. From 2006 – 2020\, she worked closely with the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner\, and then co-founded the Colibrí Center for Human Rights\, which she directed from 2013 – 2019. Dr. Reineke is Assistant Research Social Scientist at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center and Affiliated Faculty in the School of Anthropology and the Latin American Studies Department. She is a 2021 Confluence Center Faculty Fellow. She was awarded the Institute for Policy Studies’ Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award and Echoing Green’s Global Fellowship both in 2014. \nScience\, Technology\, and Human Rights Fall Speaker Series\nHow have science and technology  historically shaped understandings of human rights? How have human rights frameworks shaped the creation and use of scientific and technological capabilities? This speaker series explores the relationship of science and technology to ideas about human rights over time\, including how science and technology have been mobilized historically in the defense of human rights and to assist in the pursuit of truth and justice after atrocity. The series is tied to the fall semester course STS.458 Science\, Technology\, and Human Rights. \nAll talks are open to the public. \nMIT STS Faculty and Moderator: \nProf. Eden Medina\, Associate Professor of Science\, Technology\, and Society (STS) \nPRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED: https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kqKYJTvHROObgL6iMUQQkA URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/robin-c-reineke-forensic-citizenship-among-families-of-missing-migrants-along-the-u-s-mexico-border/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/LOGO.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210928T131500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210928T141500 DTSTAMP:20210909T135422Z CREATED:20210902T212550Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210909T135422Z UID:114613-1632834900-1632838500@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Oriana Bernasconi: Documenting Atrocities: Human Rights Archives\, Technologies of Resistance\, and Insurgent Knowledge DESCRIPTION:“Documenting atrocities: Human Rights Archives\, atrocities artifacts & insurgent knowledge” \nAbstract \nAs Bickford et al. state\, the “modern human rights movement has relied on documents of all forms since its earliest days”.[1] The documentary material that offers evidence of atrocities takes myriad forms. It includes handwritten testimonies and first-hand oral stories\, letters written from concentration camps\, declarations by survivors\, relatives and witnesses\, drawings recreating places of imprisonment or the practices of torture\, clandestine magazines and pamphlets printed in secret\, graffiti denunciations on city walls\, photographs\, videos\, audio recordings\, personal objects\, press clippings and radio news\, documents produced by official agencies or local bureaucrats\, police archives\, and perpetrator confessions. \nThese social objects inscribe and corroborate human rights violations. They name criminals and identify practices and places of repression. They help to reveal the mechanisms with which terror operates. They tell of different forms of dealing with harm\, dispossession\, and mourning. And they also bear witness of practices of denunciation and resistance to violence. \nThe aim of this talk is to discuss the social uses and effects of these objects –that we might call ‘atrocity artefacts’–\, as political technologies contributing to the production of insurgent knowledge and shaping non-violent ways of resistance to political violence. \nExamining uses and effects of different human rights archives that inscribe massive human rights violations committed in the last decades in South America we will understand these artefacts amidst scenes of struggle and social and political transformations both past and present. We will raise questions such as the transposition\, transformation and mobility of atrocity’s artefacts over time and the potentiality of these objects for instituting and organizing the social world\, enrolling and socializing actors or propelling cognitive\, aesthetic and moral processes around which different communities may deal with turbulent episodes and reinforce human rights protection. \n[1] Bickford\, Louis\, Patricia Karam\, Hassan Mneimneh and Patrick Pierce. Documenting Truth. New York: International Center for Transitional Justice\, 2008\, p.3. \nBio \n \nOriana Bernasconi is associate professor and director of the PhD programme in Sociology at the Department of Sociology\, Universidad Alberto Hurtado\, Chile. Founder and Co-director of Alberto Hurtado University Human Rights and Memory Interdisciplinary Research Programme: https://memoriayderechoshumanosuah.org/. \nShe holds a PhD in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science\, and a Master degree (MPhil) in Cultural Studies and Sociology from Birmingham University. Since 2015 she has been the lead researcher on a number of projects on the documentation of past atrocities its uses and effects in different areas of social life in Chile and recently\, in Mexico and Colombia. These projects involve association with memory archives\, sites and museums. Her last research “Political Technologies of Memory” was recognized with the Newton Fund Chair’s Prize for the Americas. \nCurrently she is the director of the Anillos de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales SOC180005 (2019-2021) project entitled “Political Technologies of Memory: Contemporary uses and appropriation of past human rights violations registry devices in Chile” funded by Chilean Commission on Science and Technology and developed in association with the Universidad Austral and the National Museum of Memory and Human Rights of Chile. She leads the Fondecyt project “Beyond the Victim Paradigm:  a genealogy of the devices that perform the subject of political violence. Chile\, 1973-2018” funded by the Chilean Commission on Science and Technology (2019-2021). Oriana is also co-researcher of the British Academy’s Sustainable Development Programme 2018 project “Documentality and Display: Archiving and curating the violent past in contemporary Argentina\, Chile and Colombia” (lead researcher Prof. Vikki Bell\, Goldsmiths College\, University of London). \nHer last book “Resistance to Political Violence in Latin America. Documenting Atrocity” (Palgrave\, 2019); translated as “Documentar la Atrocidad. Resistir el Terrorismo de Estado”  (Ediciones Alberto Hurtado 2021) provides in-depth analysis on state violence documentation\, denunciation and resistance and how it affected civilians\, activists and victims. She has published in Subjectivity\, Sociology\, Symbolic Interaction\, Discourse & Society\, International Journal of Transitional Justice\, Qualitative Sociological Research\, among other journals. \nScience\, Technology\, and Human Rights Fall Speaker Series\nHow have science and technology  historically shaped understandings of human rights? How have human rights frameworks shaped the creation and use of scientific and technological capabilities? This speaker series explores the relationship of science and technology to ideas about human rights over time\, including how science and technology have been mobilized historically in the defense of human rights and to assist in the pursuit of truth and justice after atrocity. The series is tied to the fall semester course STS.458 Science\, Technology\, and Human Rights. \nAll talks are open to the public. \nMIT STS Faculty and Moderator: \nProf. Eden Medina\, Associate Professor of Science\, Technology\, and Society (STS) \nPRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED:  https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RSSdBUotRcmAQ1zH8PU8gw URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/oriana-bernasconi-documenting-atrocities-human-rights-archives-technologies-of-resistance-and-insurgent-knowledge/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/LOGO.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210922T123000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210922T133000 DTSTAMP:20210913T155911Z CREATED:20210913T155731Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210913T155911Z UID:114632-1632313800-1632317400@sts-program.mit.edu SUMMARY:Book Launch: Uncertain Archives: Critical Keywords for Big Data (MIT Press\, 2021) DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nJoin us on Zoom to celebrate the launch of the book Uncertain Archives: Critical Keywords for Big Data (MIT Press\, 2021) with editors Nanna Bonde Thylstrup\, Daniela Agostinho\, Annie Ring\, Catherine D’Ignazio\, and Kristin Veel.  \n  \nContributing authors present include: \nOs Keyes\, “(Mis)gendering” \nBoaz Levin & Vera Tollmann\, “Proxies” (with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun) \nRomi Ron Morrison\, “Flesh” \nJacque Wernimont\, “Quantification” \n\nIn Uncertain Archives\, scholars from the social sciences\, STS\, media and communications studies\, and digital humanities analyze concepts relevant to critical studies of big data\, arranged glossary style—from abuse and aggregate to visualization and vulnerability. They not only challenge conventional usage of such familiar terms as prediction and objectivity but also introduce unfamiliar ones such as overfitting and copynorm. The contributors include a broad range of leading and agenda-setting scholars\, including N. Katherine Hayles\, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun\, Johanna Drucker\, Lisa Gitelman\, Safiya Noble\, Sarah T. Roberts\, and Nicole Starosielski. \nDate: Wed\, Sept 22\, 12-1:30pm ET  \nRegister to attend: https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItd-ivrjsqEtDyDDzcIGQ2QhUpDBUjUz2M  \nCo-sponsored by:  \nMIT Department of Urban Studies & Planning  \nMIT Program in Science\, Technology\, and Society \nMIT Comparative Media Studies and Writing  \nPoetic Justice\, MIT Media Lab  \nMIT Data + Feminism Lab \nMIT Press \nHandles of presenters on Twitter: @kanarinka @farbandish @RonMorrison_ @boazmlevin @profwernimont @tollve  @_annie_ring  @NThylstrup  @Agos_Daniella @KristinVeel \n  URL:https://sts-program.mit.edu/event/book-launch-uncertain-archives-critical-keywords-for-big-data-mit-press-2021/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sts-program.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Doc4-1.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR