<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div apple-content-edited="true"><div style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; widows: 2; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; widows: 2; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-align: center; font-family: Avenir; "><span style="font-family: Thonburi; ">Nature, Science, and Technology: A South-South Conversation</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-align: center; font-family: Avenir; ">Roundtable</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-align: center; "><font face="Avenir">Tuesday, May 7, 2013</font></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-align: center; "><font face="Avenir">9 AM - 12 PM</font></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-align: center; "><font face="Avenir">E51-275, MIT </font></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br></div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">This conversation examines nature, science and technology, drawing upon research</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">and perspectives from the 'global South.' Recent transformations in the global</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">order and material world have challenged scholars to reimagine approaches to</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">social phenomena such as biomedicine, media technologies and human-animal</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">relations. Today, amid a new scramble for oil and mineral wealth, countries in</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">the developing world form an economic counterweight to the G8, while emerging as</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">leaders in research and design of renewable energy, computer software and</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">nuclear science. New South-South solidarities build upon long-standing</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">relationships established during the interlocking periods of the Cold War and</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">anti-colonial resistance, or from earlier periods of slavery and indentured</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">labor in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br></div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">While a turn toward Science and Technology Studies (STS) offers insights into</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">these transformations, it also - by focusing upon Western epistemologies and</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">expert populations, non-human agency and networks - has overlooked important</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">aspects of political, historical and social life, which concern the 'global</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">South.' Our conversation poses the following questions: (1) What local idioms</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">might be identified for such concepts as "nature," "science" and "technology"</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">before, during and after colonization? (2) What are the ethical and</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">epistemological limits and possibilities of allocating agency to "non-human</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">things"? (3) Some of the dominant tropes of STS include the expert</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">(scientists, engineers, technocrats) the spaces where experts do their work</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">(the lab, the engineering plant, and formal institutions), and their expertise</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">(inventions, innovations, policies and technologies). What histories,</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">cultures, forms of knowledge and practice do these tropes amplify or silence?</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">(4) How might scholars envision 'the South' in STS today and in the future?</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br></div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">In lieu of formal paper presentations, this conversation will be structured as</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">an informal, roundtable discussion, drawing from the cross-regional and</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">interdisciplinary research of social sciences faculty and graduate student</div></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Thonburi; "><div style="text-align: center;">participants from MIT and Harvard.</div></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Avenir; "><span style="font-family: Thonburi; "><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Avenir; "><span style="font-family: Thonburi; "><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Avenir; "><span style="font-family: Thonburi; "><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Avenir; "><span style="font-family: Thonburi; "><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Avenir; "></div></div></div></div></body></html>