40858 - The Politics of Science Today

Description

The recent actions undertaken by the Trump administration concerning U.S. colleges and universities have raised considerable apprehensions regarding the potential erosion of civil rights protections and academic freedom. This situation reinvigorates fears of state surveillance and violence. It has also manufactured uncertainties in research funding. Although the influence of political interests on educational contexts is not a novel phenomenon, some interpretations of this moment suggest otherwise. In a recent blog post, the Association of American Universities president asserts, “Do not politicize research funding.” In addition, various commentators cautioned that assaults on scientific integrity may cause the U.S. to fall behind intellectual “adversaries” such as China. Additionally, some scientists have articulated concerns that the field is being unduly targeted due to the “political activities” of non-scientific students and faculty. These diverse perspectives fail to acknowledge that “science [was already] politics by other means” (Latour 1983).

This panel examines how sociology enhances our understanding of the inextricable interplay between science and politics. Scholars in this session address who and where have been or will be invisibilized through existing modes of scientific production. They ask what the consequences of scientific production are beyond US borders. The papers presented in this session also provide new ways to think about justice-organizing strategies and “epistemic cultures” to navigate the intricate entanglements between politics and scientific inquiry. Moreover, these papers push us to recognize better and historicize the practices surrounding the science-politics dynamic. These scholars offer unique sociological contributions that help us rethink what science means today and the micro and macro politics that shape science production. Thus, this panel will encourage sociology to contemplate this moment of political uncertainty as an opportunity to cultivate a new science that is accountable to society, a science that “we want and need now and, in the future,” (Reardon, n.d.).

Sub Unit

• Science

Presider

• Oliver E. Rollins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Individual Presentations

• The Cultural Meaning of Regulatory Science: The Shifting Role of Public Health Under Reagan and Trump - Pauline Brown, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Centralization of Research Influence and Declining Novelty: Text-Based Approaches to Global Scientific Hegemony - Charles Jonathan Gomez, University of Arizona; Yeaeun Kwon, University of Arizona; Jeffrey Shen, University of Arizona; Sarah Stueve, University of Arizona; Harshvardhan Singh, University of Arizona; Jessica Dawson, Army Cyber Institute

• Structural Holes as a Resource Curse: Academic Dependency and Global Invisibility in Social Sciences - Mikhail Sokolov, Nazarbayev University

• Cutting Across Disciplines: Co-production and the Rise of a Computational Culture - Nir Rotem, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Liron Shani, Hebrew University

• The Caucus Strategy: LGBTQ Inclusion Efforts across Mainstream STEM Professional Societies - Tom J. Waidzunas, Temple University

Session Organizer

• Oliver E. Rollins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology