The STS Graduate Program at UBC draws on a rich set of resources at UBC, in Vancouver, and at our sister universities, Simon Fraser University and the University of Washington.
STS Colloquium Schedule (2025/26)
STS Colloquia will be held in Buchanan Tower 1112, 5:00-6:30 PM unless otherwise indicated
TERM 1 (September – December, 2025)
September 18: Heidi Tworek, UBC History and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
Dr. Heidi Tworek is Canada Research Chair and Professor of History and Public Policy at UBC, where she directs the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
https://history.ubc.ca/profile/heidi-tworek/ | https://sppga.ubc.ca/profile/heidi-tworek/
“Online Harassment of Health Communicators: Causes and Consequences”
Abstract: This talk will examine online harassment of health communicators during the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on interviews, surveys, focus groups, and social media data, I explain the phenomenon and explore how online abuse affected health communicators’ personal and professional lives. Finally, I consider the broader consequences for communicating about science and public trust in scientists and healthcare professionals.
September 18: STS Welcome Back Event
To follow Heidi Tworek’s colloquium
7:00 PM at Koerner’s Pub
October 16: Aryan Karimi, UBC Sociology
https://sociology.ubc.ca/profile/aryan-karimi/
“Why Can’t We Test Our Sociological Theories? The Case of Assimilation Theory”
A discussion of current work developing a methodological critique of central theories of sociology, focused on the sociology of migration.
November 20: Alessandro Mongili, Sociology and STS, University of Padua
UBC visitor: https://ces.ubc.ca/profile/alessandro-mongili/
“Management and Maintenance of Digital Platform Interfaces in a Minoritized Language. The Case of Sardinian”
Abstract: Digital platforms and information infrastructures increasingly mediate linguistic presence and recognition yet, for languages such as Sardinian, the process of localization is neither systematic nor institutionally supported. Instead, it relies largely on the initiative of active minorities, grassroots activists, and computer scientists who engage in “localization from below.” Through their efforts, platform interfaces are translated, adapted, and maintained in ways that reflect both the opportunities and the fragilities of digital infrastructures. By examining these dynamics, the presentation highlights how digital infrastructures both reproduce and reshape conditions of linguistic marginalization, while also creating new spaces for activism and experimentation.
Professor Mongili’s research interests include design and development in computing, innovation in peripheral regions, and standardization of endangered languages. He was a founder and first president of the Italian Society of Science and Technology Studies (STS ITalia).
TERM 2 (Jan – Apr 2025)
January 22: Melinda Bonnie Fagan, “Explanatory Particularism in Scientific Practice”
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah / Sterling M. McMurrin Chair
Abstract: I introduce a new approach to studying explanation across the sciences, which I term “explanatory particularism” (EP). EP differs from other philosophical accounts of explanation in taking social aspects of science as primary. Alongside recent defenses of pluralism about explanation, EP rejects the traditional idea that there is one kind of explanation common to all sciences (and everyday life). Instead, multiple styles of explanation flourish in local contexts, intersecting with one another in diverse ways. More radical than other forms of explanatory pluralism, my particularist approach directs philosophers’ attention to often overlooked aspects of scientific practice: interdisciplinary collaboration and conflict, interlinked aspects of understanding, and a pro-social image of science as diverse yet unified. After introducing the particularist approach, I’ll discuss some of its main implications and applications.
Melinda Bonnie Fagan is Sterling M. McMurrin Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. Her background is in biology (Ph.D. 1998, Stanford University) and history and philosophy of science (Ph.D. 2007, Indiana University). In her research she focuses on experimental practices in biology (particularly stem cell and developmental biology), explanation and understanding, and interdisciplinary connections across the sciences. She is the author of more than fifty journal articles, book chapters, and commentaries on various topics in philosophy of science and biology, as well as three monographs. Her most recent book is Explanatory Particularism in Scientific Practice (Oxford, 2025).
February 5: 2025-2025 Straker Memorial Lecture
Joe Dumit, Professor of Science & Technology Studies, and Anthropology, Chair of Performance Studies at University of California Davis; Professor in Interdisciplinary Data Collaborations at Aarhus University
https://anthropology.ucdavis.edu/people/joe-dumit
AI & Co-Researching: Hallucinations are a Feature of LLMs – Let’s Use Them
See the Straker Memorial Lecture page for the details
April 2: Nancy Tuana, Dupont/Class of 1949 Professor of Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Founding Director of the Rock Ethics Institute, Pennsylvania State University
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Tuana
Topic TBA, related to Tuana’s recent book, Racial Climates, Ecological Indifference: An Ecointersectional Approach. Oxford University Press, 2023. OUP
