We are very pleased to be able to announce the inaugural open event of the new STSMN network, which will take place in June at the University of Sheffield.

The STSMN network (Science and Technology Studies in the Midlands and North; pronounced “system”) brings together researchers from all career stages to collaborate on developing STS research and teaching across the Midlands and North of the UK. It is supported by a range of research centres and research groupings including:

• The Centre for Science Studies (CSS) at Lancaster University

• The BioBody Research Network at the University of Leeds

• The Institute for Science and Society (ISS) at the University of Nottingham

• iHuman and the Science, Technology and Medicine in Society (STeMiS) group at the University of Sheffield

• The Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) at the University of York

The network is an expansion of the previous STS Four-Cities Consortium (STS4C), involving the Universities of Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds and York.

The network started its work with a launch event at the University of York on the 7th and 8th September 2023. This new workshop builds on those formative conversations.

Details of the event are below. It is open to anyone interested in thinking through their relationship to STS, given its continually changing institutional and disciplinary contexts.

Everything, everywhere all at once? (Re)imagining the place of Science and Technology Studies in the Midlands, the North and beyond

Date: June 11th
Times: 12.00pm-5pm
Location: University of Sheffield

The STSMN network was inaugurated at an event at the University of York in autumn 2023, featuring scholars from the five participating universities. We now invite scholars at all career stages to join us in our first open event, to begin to think through and reimagine our individual and collective relationships to Science and Technology Studies (STS), as a field and scholarly community.

The half day workshop is motivated by a recognition that in many of our institutional contexts, the place and content of STS is changing (as it of course always has done), and a desire to contribute towards engaging collectively and creatively with these changes. These moves prompt us to reflect on why we still need STS in 2024.

The workshop is co-organised by the five institutions comprising the STSMN network and is hosted by iHuman and the Science, Technology and Medicine in Society (STeMiS) group at the University of Sheffield.

Workshop structure

The workshop will begin with lunch, after which participants introduce themselves via an object or photograph that represents or speaks to their work.

This will be followed by open discussion of our collective current and potentially (re)imagined relationships to STS. We will explore the following four sets of questions in particular:

• What defines STS? Is it a field, a method, a sensibility, or the objects it studies? If you don’t study science or technology, can you still be doing STS?
• What is the relationship between STS and critical digital studies? How can they engage with and challenge each other?
• How do the way we engage with the changing objects of STS affect our positions within institutional contexts?
• How does STS fare in interdisciplinary research contexts? Which STS arguments, concepts, theories or methods translate well in interdisciplinary contexts and which struggle?

The workshop will conclude with collective reflections on the role the network could play for us and others, including thinking through how to articulate this in other settings/spaces.

Who is this event for?

We are establishing a dynamic, inclusive and interdisciplinary network of peers across institutions both in and out of the Midlands and the North. Whether you’re an established scholar with heaps of STS expertise, an ECR reading Bruno Latour, or a PhD student that’s never heard of STS but wants to find out more, you are welcome at this event.

You do not have to be a member of one of the five STSMN institutions to join the workshop.

How do I join?

The workshop is free but registration is required and places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. If not all places are taken, registration will remain open until the end of June 3rd.

You can register here. Your confirmation email will include further details on how to join.