4S 2021 Open Panel - Transnational and Transgenerational STS: Collaborations, Methods, Pedagogies

This open panel extends from extensive dialogue about TRANSnational STS at the 2018 annual 4S conference in Sydney, which spawned an array of new collaborations and further conversation. The goal of the panel is to keep the dialogue going and open, taking transnational STS in new directions. Papers will explore structures and dynamics that work against pluralistic knowledge production. Papers will also examine educational programs and research projects designed to counter entrenched geographic, disciplinary and generational hierarchies. Inspired by critical university studies and radical education thinkers like Paulo Freire, Gregory Bateson, and Gayatri Spivak, we hope to help conceptualize and build “good relations” in STS, in keeping with the 2021 4S conference theme. Contributions may address, among others, the following questions:

-What pedagogical philosophies (explicitly or implicitly) orient differently situated STS programs, and to what effect?

-What tactics do STS programs use to stay tuned to both local and transnational contexts?

-What works against knowledge pluralism in STS? What kinds of educational, research and publishing infrastructure is needed to support knowledge pluralism in STS?

-How have STS programs and projects actively leveraged diverse intellectual genealogies? How have these programs and projects been proactively anti-imperial?

-How have differences in political contexts shaped STS programs and projects?

-What methods and infrastructures have supported transnational and transgenerational STS collaborations? How are transnational and transgenerational STS research projects administered and governed? How do they set collaborative agendas and what enables them to sustain over time?

-How can transnational STS contribute to STS pedagogy and education program building?

-How can transnational STS scaffold local initiatives to engage multiple publics, and decision-makers?