STS in Africa

Holbrook, J. C. 2013. “How Odd Is Odd? Studying Astronomers.” Ancient Cosmologies and Modern Prophets. Accessed August 8, 2018.

AO: This 2013 article highlights Jarita Holbrook's various research projects since 2006 which have focused on astronomers in the United States and South Africa. I am particularly interested in this as she describes her data practices and reflects on the processes involved in data collection for...Read more

Aimé, Segla Dafon, and Akpona Simon. 2018. “The Role of a Yoruba Traditional Leaf in a Fermented Food Technology (Nauclea Latifolia, Sarcocéphalus Latifolius): Shedding Light on African Accuracy of Implicit Knowledge and Technologies".” Advances in Social

AO: This 2018 paper by Segla and Akpona starts from the foundational archaeology of concepts in language and cognition of an archaic fermented food technology in an oral society to demonstrate the accuracy of implicit traditional knowledge. Read more

Tilley, Helen. 2010. “Global Histories, Vernacular Science, and African Genealogies; or, Is the History of Science Ready for the World?” Isis 101 (1): 110–19.

AO:  In this 2010 article, Helen Tilley argues, like Schumaker, for a field-based approach to studying colonial science and argues that vernacular science is an important area of study to study the situated nature of colonial science and the role that scientists and researchers play...Read more

Burrell, Jenna. 2009. “The Field Site as a Network: A Strategy for Locating Ethnographic Research.” Field Methods 21 (2): 181–99.

AO: This 2009 paper by Jenna Burrell explores strategies devised by researchers to map social research onto spatial terrain. She focuses in particular on the logistical issues involved and practical steps to constructing virtual and networked sites into "field sites". This article includes...Read more

Mboa Nkoudou, Thomas Hervé. 2017. “Benefits and the Hidden Face of the Maker Movement: Thoughts on Its Appropriation in African Context.” Liinc Em Revista 13 (1).

AO: This paper by Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou looks at the principles and values of maker movements from the perspective of its adoption in Africa.Read more

Subrahmanian, Eswaran, Toluwalogo Odumosu, and Jeffry Tsao, eds. 2018. Engineering a Better Future: Interplay between Engineering, Social Sciences and Innovation. 1st ed. 2018 edition. New York, NY: Springer.

Abstract: "This book examines how the social sciences can be integrated into the praxis of engineering and science, presenting unique perspectives on the interplay between engineering and social science. Motivated by the report by the Commission on Humanities and Social Sciences of the...Read more

Chaudhury. 2018

This PECE essay answers the analytic: "What events have marked the development of this STS formation?"Read more

Breckenridge, Keith. 2018. “Hopeless Entanglement: The Short History of the Academic Humanities in South Africa 1.” In The Changing Face of Higher Education, 175–196. Routledge.

AO: This 2018 paper by Keith Breckenridge speaks from a South African perspective on the global crisis of confidence in the humanities, which he notes is marked by declining student numbers and a loss of faith among scholars in the methods and powers of their research...Read more

Pollock, Anne. 2013. “Enbrel and the Autoimmune Era.” The Atlantic, June 18, 2013.

AO: This article published in The Atlantic discusses how a pharmaceutical drug, Enbrel, illustrates how we are intimately connected to our drugs. Pills and injectable drugs are tangible objects that are external to us, but upon consumption, they transform us and even...Read more

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