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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Dear MIT Community,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">This is a reminder that the Program in Science, Technology, and Society invites you to the annual Arthur Miller Lecture in Science and Ethics
<b>today, October 27<sup>th</sup> at 4:00 pm</b> <b>in the MIT Welcome Center</b>, featuring
<a href="https://www.bard.edu/faculty/sophia-stamatopoulou-robbins">Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins</a>, Anthropologist and Associate Professor at Bard University, as she speaks about technological advances and the ingenuity of humankind in times of turmoil or
distress. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Landfill, Platform, Diagnosis: How People in Crisis Use Science and Technology to Build New Ethical Worlds<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Duress, or the use of force or threats to make someone do something against their will, can come in many forms. Whether it be ecocide, economic collapse, or disability, when people are under duress, their
options to respond become limited. The need to survive intensifies, and people’s choices seem to narrow down to solidarity or violence.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Stamatopoulou-Robbin’s first book on waste and its infrastructures in Palestine, as well as her current book on platform-mediated home-sharing in Greece, challenge these narratives of declining countries in
crisis. They show how people respond inventively to the needs of the community and the material affordances of technology and science. They respond in ways that may not make duress go away, but can remake how it works in their lives.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Science and technology are not in and of themselves solutions to the political problems that generate duress. Yet when people tinker with them, they reshape the ethical contours of their worlds in unexpected
ways. This talk tells stories of old technologies (a landfill in Palestine), a newly dominant platform (Airbnb in Athens), and efforts to establish a future diagnosis in the U.S. (an autism profile called “pathological demand avoidance”) to consider the unpredictable
place and light of science and technology in dark times.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">About Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins is a New York-based anthropologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bard College with interests in infrastructure, waste, the environment, platform capitalism, the home,
and neurodivergence. She is the author of <i>Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine</i> (Stanford University Press, 2019).
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Her current book, <i>De/tachment: Airbnb in Athens</i>, is under contract with Duke University Press. She is beginning fieldwork on her next project on the rise of "demand avoidance" as a diagnosis and lived
experience for autistic people. She has served on the editorial teams of <i>MERIP</i>,
<i>Cultural Anthropology</i>, and <i>Critical AI</i>. More on her scholarship and films can be found here:
<a href="https://sophiastamatopoulourobbins.com">https://sophiastamatopoulourobbins.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">To Attend the Event<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Please fill out this <a href="https://forms.gle/PhDevF5DqLeHwjmy8">
RSVP form</a> if you plan to attend in person. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">To access the lecture virtually, please use this Zoom link:
<a href="https://mit.zoom.us/j/91893762893">https://mit.zoom.us/j/91893762893</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">This talk is free to the MIT community and open to the public. Please see the attached flyer for more details. We hope to see you there!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Thank you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Program in Science, Technology, and Society
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">********************************************************************************************<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Mina Hadley | MIT (she/her)</b><br>
Events and Communications Assistant<br>
Program in Science, Technology, & Society<br>
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