Science in Public conference

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Call for Papers and Panels: Science in Public 2016
University of Kent, Canterbury, 13-15 July 2016

The annual Science in Public conference is an occasion for cross-disciplinary debate and discussion and a forum for sharing all work considering the relationships between science, technology, medicine and their multiple publics. We welcome submissions from scholars of, for example, science communication, history of science, science policy, geography, psychology, literature, social or cultural studies and practitioners of communication, engagement or the arts in relation to science. Papers may relate to science in mass media, museums or online spaces; public engagement and participation; popular science and its histories; science, publics and policy; and science in fictions, art and cinema.

The theme for this year’s conference, hosted by the Centre for the History of the Sciences at the University of Kent, is Science in Public: Past, Present and Future. We therefore particularly welcome papers, panels, projects and sessions that can draw on and speak to questions about science and the public across different time periods or that consider how historical studies might influence current thinking, or vice versa. Opening and closing plenary sessions supporting this theme are from the interdisciplinary projects Constructing Scientific Communities (with Professors Sally Shuttleworth and Chris Lintott) and Unsettling Scientific Stories. We will also, on the Thursday, have a strand focusing on comedy and science communication, including: a panel session looking at its history, role and pitfalls; a workshop for those who would like to use comedy in their own communication activities; and a SiP-themed comedy gig.

We welcome traditional papers and panel sessions and innovative formats, including discussion, performance or practice-based workshops. We aim to minimise registration costs as far as possible.

Our thanks go to the British Society for the History of Science for supporting this conference, allowing us to subsidise student costs and include our plenary sessions. Historians of science unable to travel to Canada for the Three Societies Meeting this June are very much encouraged to join us and other BSHS members in Canterbury instead (or as well!).

Abstracts: send abstracts of about 250 words, enquiries and queries to Rebekah Higgitt (r.higgitt@kent.ac.uk).
Deadline: 11 April 2016

Please share this call for papers widely across your networks. The hashtag is #SiP2016 and details can be found online at http://scienceinpublic.org/science-in-public-2016/. ​

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