Knowledge from the Margins Conference; East Lansing, MI - August 18-19, 2015

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

General Audience Summary This conference brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, policy professionals, activists, and community members. It will focus on knowledge that is produced by individuals and groups that are largely marginalized in society. The primary goal of the conference is to place the notion of justice back on the intellectual agenda of STS researchers, and prompt them to address pertinent issues including participation and innovation by marginalized groups, and the politics of stigma and exclusion, in the production of scientific inquiry. Conference activities will include keynote presentations by leading scholars and young scholars in the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies, and by policy professionals and community activists. Other conference activities will include an interactive workshop to promote interactive engagement between STS scholars and policy audiences, and a reflexive exercise that will provide participants with concrete, actionable ideas to take away with them. The Michigan State University Libraries digital repository will archive videos, photos, and papers from the conference as an open-access resource for the public. Technical Summary This interdisciplinary conference will bring together an exciting mix of scholars, policy professionals, community leaders, and others on the campus of Michigan State University. It will be inclusive yet definitive in its focus on knowledge produced by (or about) people and institutions that are marginalized in society (e.g., laypersons, non-profit organizations, low-income people, K-12 classrooms, indigenous or non-Western people, senior citizens, member associations, racial and ethnic minorities, females, disabled people, and others). The conference participants will focus on elaborating the theoretical insights from a number of overlapping conceptual categories including voices of marginal communities, ignorance-making, stigma and the codification of scientific inquiry, activist training, sustainability activism, and policy-relevant research. Stressing the production of knowledge by marginalized groups and individuals will enhance connections between STS research and questions of social justice, environmental racism, and public health; it will also result in bringing to the fore practical facets of STS theorizing.