Program on Science, Technology and Society at HarvardHarvard Kennedy School of Government | Harvard University |
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EventsSTS CircleThe STS Circle at Harvard meets weekly during the academic semester. For Fall 2025, all meetings are planned to take place in person on Mondays, from 12:15-2:00 p.m., in CGIS South S354, 1730 Cambridge Street unless otherwise noted. Sandwich lunches will be provided. To receive the abstract and bio for each talk, and to register to attend, please join our mailing list. Fall 2026Sep. 14: Søren Riis (Roskilde University, Science Studies)
The Sociotechnical Constitution of Time Sep. 21: Oliwia Mandrela (Jagiellonian University, Sociology)
Time in Longevity Biotechnology: Quantifying the Good Life and Reconfiguring the Social Order Sep. 28: Gal Dafadi (Brandeis, Anthropology)
Governing Reproductive Technologies in Times of Conflict: Emerging Developments in Contemporary Israel Oct. 5: Yvonne Frankfurth (Harvard STS)
Symbolic Repair: Governing Reproduction in Germany Oct. 19: T.J. Foley (Harvard STS)
New Caesars: Antitrust Law as Political Theory from Rockefeller to Zuckerberg Oct. 26: Irus Braverman (SUNY Buffalo, Law)
Pastoral Warfare: Animals as Weapons of Israel's Settler Ecologies Nov. 2: Jan Komárek (Charles University, Law)
Constitutional Scholarship as Diffuse Expertise: A Dialogue between Law and STS Nov. 9: Gabriella Coleman (Harvard, Anthropology)
The Contemporary Crisis Around Epistemology: Between Naïve Positivism and Sturdy Knowledge Nov. 16: Mark Lannigan (Harvard STS)
Whose AI? Whose Justice? Congressional Approaches to a Just AI Future Nov. 23: Przemyslaw Matt Lukacz (Harvard, History of Science)
Algorithms in Policy, Policy in Algorithms, Science in Both: Ecological Integration of the European Seas Nov. 30: Michael John Gorman (MIT Museum) Museums as Brokers of Public Trust » More information and past schedules Science & Democracy Lecture SeriesOnce a semester, the STS Program, with co-sponsorship from other local institutions, hosts an installation in its Science and Democracy Lecture Series.
It has become common to speak of the “crisis” of expertise and to link the phenomenon of growing distrust of experts with declining confidence in authorities of all sorts. To better understand and evaluate these perceptions of crisis, I focus attention on an underlying shift in the politics of knowledge and authority in the United States in recent decades that has transformed what it means to be an expert and who can plausibly serve as one: the rise to prominence of hybrid forms of “lay expertise.” By considering examples especially in the domain of health—including challenges posed by knowledge-empowered social movements—I seek to provide a somewhat more hopeful account of the crisis of expertise: one that recognizes the risks of populist dismissal of experts but also emphasizes the potential virtues of democratic challenges to traditional expertise in the service of epistemic justice. Co-sponsored by Harvard University Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University Center for the Environment (A Center of the Salata Institute), and the McQuillan Institute. Workshops and PanelsIn a moment of deepening instability and unrest, the 2026 Graduate Research in STS Conference focuses on how societies mobilize expertise and technology to mediate competing visions for collective life. It features 6 graduate student panels and a faculty keynote panel, which will discuss the histories and aspirations of universalism as an ideal for imagining and governing the world. Supported by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University at Harvard University and the Program on Science, Technology and Society and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. » Workshops and panels archive Program newsRegister for the 7th Annual Conference on Graduate Research in STS (GRiSTS), which takes place November 19-21 at Harvard. Register for Thursday, November 5's Science and Democracy Lecture with Steven Epstein. Submit your abstract to present at 7th annual Graduate Research in STS (GRiSTS) Conference (due Friday, September 11). The first STS Circle for the Fall 2026 semester will be held on Monday, September 14. Apply here to join the 2026-2027 STS Undergraduate Fellowship! (Deadline: June 28) STS Fellow Pariroo Rattan recently defended her dissertation, "A Marketplace for Populism: The Moral Politics of Digitization in India's Informal Economy," joining Nicole and Hilton to complete our trio of outstanding newly minted doctors. Congratulations to our extraordinary STS Fellows Nicole West Bassoff and Hilton Simmet, the first graduates to hold a PhD in Public Policy on the Science, Technology and Policy Studies track! Nicole's dissertation is titled "Can Cities Be Smart? Urban Governance in the Digital Age," and Hilton's is "Just Economics: Inequality and Political Culture in Cross-National Perspective." Two STS Undergraduate Fellows received a Hoopes Prize for their senior theses — Katie Burstein with “The Body Restored: Constructions of the Patient in the Cult of Asclepius,” and Emil Massad with “We Never Said You Weren’t Exposed: Risk in the Aftermath of the Train Derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.” Join us for the Global Observatory for Genome Editing International Summit on May 21-23. Register and learn more here. Register here for a panel discussion on April 24 regarding recent changes to federal research funding, co-hosted with the Harvard Griffin GSAS Science Policy Group. |
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