Alongside the academic program, 4S Sydney will bring you a rich program of activities, field trips, art events, and more.
Special interest groups
We aspire to make 4S Sydney a place where diverse STS communities can meet and thrive. Please use this form to request a meeting space for your group at the conference.
Affiliated Events
Neuroscience & Society: Ethics, Law, and Technology
24-25 August
This conference will investigate the ethical, clinical, legal, and societal implications of a wide range of "moral technologies" that target factors beyond, as well as within, the brain, in order to observe, explain, and influence human thought and behaviour.
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Making Sense of the Underground
26-27 August
Mining, subterranean exploration, burial, and other forms of underground work are rich areas of investigation for STS scholars.
Indigenous Climate Justice: India, North America, Australia
27 August
A day-long public workshop on the issues of indigenous climate justice with speakers from the US, India and Australia, several of whom are on the program for 4S.
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Indigenous perspectives on climate change
27 August
An evening public lecture with Prof Kyle Whyte from the University of Michigan (also at 4S), with Indigenous researchers from Northern NSW discussing indigenous peoples, water, cultural flows and climate change.
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Brave New Law
27-28 August
Biopolitics of science pop up research lab
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STS and Africa 2018
27-28 August
This workshop seeks to explore the question: ‘What are the boundaries of Science and Technology in Africa and how should we recognize and address both the uniqueness of African knowledge production and innovation on the one hand, and the potential that STS work in Africa has to offer to the field as a whole on the other?’ The workshop seeks to bring together a diverse group of STS scholars working in the disparate intellectual communities of Biomedicine, the Environment and Information and Communication Technology.
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Postgrad Workshop
28 August
A full-day pre-conference workshop for MA, MS and PhD students and other early-career researchers. The focus of this year’s workshop will be on connecting transnational STS communities.
First Nations Activism and Media Roundtable
28 August, 6 - 8pm (drinks from 5pm)
This Roundtable brings together scholars and producers of First Nations media to discuss the relationship between media and activism in a range of contexts including Australia, North America and Central America.
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Natty Wine and Its Companion Species28 August 5-7pm
At P&V in the gritty-artsy Newtown neighborhood, join a lively guided tasting and conversation about natural wine worlds, living soils, microbial terroirs and more with P&V co-owner Mike Bennie, founder of the Sydney sustainability-focused wine fair Rootstock, and wine anthropologist Deborah Heath.
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Doing Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Research
29 August
Master class with Professor Margrit Shildrick. Engaging with the problematic of interdisciplinary research, the master class will look critically at a supposedly single biomedical event, that of heart transplantation, to investigate how variety of data and discourses can be brought together in the production of knowledge.
HUMANNONHUMAN
Powerhouse Museum during 4S 2018
Art, science and speculation converge in this series of installations that asks the question What makes us human and How might humans adapt in the future? Curated by Katie Dyer and Dr Lizzie Muller
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The Visual Matrix
29 August, 11:00 - 13:00 Powerhouse Museum
An interactive workshop responding to the exhibition Human non Human at the Powerhouse Museum, using psycho-social methods to investigate shared aesthetic experiences.
Info
Trans-Film Festival
Powerhouse Museum during 4S 2018
Please contact us with your ideas or submissions
STS Graduate Journal launch
During 4S 2018
More details to come
Sydney Toxic Tour
Wednesday 29 August
A series of provocations related to intoxicated animals, haunting chemical traces, toxic methodologies, pharmakological ambivalences, and chemo-social formations
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Film Screening: Healing Fukushima
Wed. 29 Aug. 6pm. Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre 315. U Sydney Camperdown
Healing Fukushima is a visual chronicle of the difficulties and hard choices made by medical first responders on the frontlines of a series of nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Filmmakers Sulfikar Amir and Shi Lin Loh will answer questions.
Composting Happy Hour
30 Aug 18:00-21:30
An open social event for composters of environmental humanities and feminisms held during the 4S conference
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Queer STS Meetup
30 Aug 20:00-23:00
Come and socialise with other scholars and graduate students working at the intersection of STS and queer studies! This year’s event will take place at The Beauchamp Hotel (upstairs bar) – a welcoming bar in the middle of Darlinghurst, the historic centre of Sydney’s LGBTQ community.
RSVP by 24 Aug
Dyason Lecture
Thursday 30 August
Helen Verran will be presenting the distinguished plenary lecture for the Australasian Association for History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (AAHPSSS)
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6S Networking Social
1 Sept, Gallon, Pyrmont
(Post-)graduate students and early-career researchers are invited to gather with the 6S representatives for informal conversation and refreshment after the conference closes. Come meet new and old colleagues, reflect on the conference, and relax after 3.5 intense days.
Anthropocene Campus Melbourne
3-6 September
Across the four days of ACM18 participants will engage in a range of lectures, field trips, and workshops in Melbourne and the wider area exploring the theme of ‘The Elemental’.
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Biopolitics and Materiality
5 September
Master class with Professor Thomas Lemke. In the context of the rise of “new materialisms” in the social sciences and humanities in the past two decades, the master class will take up and discuss different understandings of biopolitics that no longer exclusively address human individuals and populations, but attend to the complex associations of humans and nonhumans.
Responsible Research and Innovation in Practice (RRI) - Practice in the Australian Context
5 September
You are invited to join representatives from the EU Horizon 2020 RRI - Practice project, the UQ Centre for Future Policy Studies, CSIRO and the Delegation of the European Union to Australia, to discuss the opportunity for RRI in the Australian context and beyond.
Info / Register