Annual Conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science: Travel Grants for Graduate Student Participants

Society For Social Studies Of Science, Baton Rouge LA

Investigators

Abstract

General Audience Summary This award is to support a series of conferences; it provides support for graduate student travel to upcoming meetings of Society for Social Studies of Science. Funding will be used to support travel over the next five years beginning in 2016 and ending in 2020. Meeting locations are as follows: 2016 (Barcelona, Spain), 2017 (Boston, MA), 2018 (Sydney, Australia), 2019 (tentatively, New Orleans, LA), and 2020 (to be determined). Participation in at least some of these conferences will enable graduate students to professionally network, receive feedback from senior scholars in their field, remain abreast of developments in their area, and disseminate the results of their own research. The travel awards will also be used to ensure the participation of underrepresented minorities; the inclusion of such groups will serve an important selection criterion among others in distributing travel awards. More generally, this support will contribute to the growth of a strong science and technology workforce, a workforce that is made all the more innovative and competitive through the involvement of underrepresented groups. Technical Summary The 4S annual meeting brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars who share the common goal of understanding the development of science, technology, and medicine and the way they interact within a social context. Relatively new and impactful research as well as theoretical ideas on these topics are shared and discussed at the annual meeting. Supporting graduate student participation in such an atmosphere is beneficial not only for the professional socialization of the students themselves, but also for maintaining intellectual vitality within the discipline; graduate students frequently introduce fresh perspectives on new and old intellectual problems. The impact of graduate student participation in the annual meeting also extends beyond the field since most them will go on to work in an academic environment, a research institute or in some policy making body. Facilitating their attendance at the annual meeting will facilitate their becoming engaged and informed teachers, researchers, and policy makers, potentially impacting countless undergraduate students and informing the direction of social policy.