DEADLINE MONDAY 15th MARCH | EASST conference in Trento
Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email (following website instructions) by 2010 March 15th: http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission
This panel is concerned with the social dimensions of neuroscience. It will explore the emergence, topography and implications of the Œnew brain sciences‚. The focus is intentionally broad, reflecting the heterogeneity of neuroscience itself. The specific history and sociology of neurologic terms and concepts are likely to be a focus, as will the practices that have given rise to and are enabled by these sociotechnical objects: from neurons to psychiatric disorders; brain genomics to Œneurodiversity‚; imaging technologies to Œneuroethics‚. The increasing prominence of the brain across science and society, and the traction of neuroscientific ideas in key public and policy debates, makes neuroscience the perfect case through which to examine both classic themes within STS (expertise, democracy, power, technique, etc.), while also allowing for the development and enrichment of newer conceptual frameworks (practice, materiality, performativity, and so on). In the latter case, this track invites contributors to consider ways in which the neurosciences themselves attempt to describe how the Œsocial‚ comes into existence and to reflect back on the ways through which this might at once challenge and support changing uses and meanings of the category of Œthe social‚ within our own disciplines.
Potential questions and directions
For this track we invite contributions which explore the complex of elements assembled in neuroscience, in which instances of things like Œsociality‚ and Œtechnique‚ form around and configure the brain. Central questions to be considered include (but are by no means limited to): what might the concepts of practice and performance offer to studies of the brain and of neuroscience ˆ in terms of both opportunity and danger? How did the brain-as-thing arise? What might STS learn from neuroscientific configurations of the social, and vice versa? What is at stake when visualising the subjective? How can we Œexplain‚ the emergence of fields like Œneuroscientific lie detection‚ or Œneuroeconomics‚? And how do these developments sit within, sustain, reshape and challenge existing configurations of ethics and practice?
Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email (following website instructions) by 2010 March 15th: http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission
Convenors
Andrew Balmer is completing his PhD at the Institute for Science and Society, the University of Nottingham. His thesis explores the development of functional magnetic resonance imaging as a lie detector, exploring questions about the production of lies, and the translation of scientific expertise into legal evidence. He is currently a research associate at the University of Sheffield.
http://sheffield.academia.edu/AndrewBalmer
Des Fitzgerald is in the second year of his PhD at the BIOS Centre and the Department of Sociology, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His PhD work considers the interactions between brain-imaging technologies and Autism Spectrum Disorders.
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/BIOS/whosWho/Studentprofilepages/Des_Fitzgerald.htm
Martyn Pickersgill is a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. His primary interests are in the co-production of science, medicine and subjectivity, focusing particularly on neuroscience and psychiatry.
http://edinburgh.academia.edu/MartynPickersgill
All best wishes,
Andy Balmer, Des Fitzgerald and Martyn Pickersgill
