Workshop Proposal: STS Perspectives on Imported Technology in Latin America

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

Introduction The proposed workshop will bring together an international group of scholars to discuss the social studies of science and technology in Latin American contexts. In doing so, it will form new networks among North American, South American, and European scholars who use concepts and frameworks from science and technology studies (STS) to study science and technology in Latin America. Intellectual Merit The international focus of this workshop will provide new perspectives and ways of thinking about science and technology, including the role of adaptation and translation of science and technology across cultures. Workshop participants will analyze how Latin American experiences broaden our understandings of science and technology; make visible the assumptions, values, and ethical dimensions of science and engineering practices; and push the interdisciplinary field of STS in new directions. The proposed workshop will also advance a new wave of new scholarship and showcase and make accessible some of the best STS scholarship by Latin American academics. Potential Broader Impacts The proposed workshop will engage members of the Indiana University at Bloomington community with STS scholarship on Latin America. More broadly, it will enhance infrastructure for research and education by advancing the formation of an intellectual community dedicated to the study of science and technology in Latin American contexts. It will benefit society by providing information for science and technology policy formation once the revised workshop papers are published. It will also broaden the participation of underrepresented groups, since academics from Latin American institutions (and North American scholars who study STS in the global south) are underrepresented in the international STS community. The workshop findings will be compiled in an edited volume, which will be distributed internationally by MIT Press.