ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Activist Epistemics and Artefacts 1

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

The symposium “Activist Epistemics and Artefacts: Facing Science while Making Science” brings together a diverse range of case studies that explore the intersection of science, activism, and sociotechnical innovation throughout the long twentieth century.

The symposium seeks to bring to the fore two intertwined domains: first, how activists, social movements and local communities have become epistemic actors while resisting science through local and transnational networks; second, in which ways social protest has been a driving force of sociotechnical innovation.

In keeping with the 2026 HSS/ESHS Joint Meeting theme, the contributions highlight how the practices of knowledge production of grassroots movements, local communities, and activist networks have become a site of resistance to capital accumulation, technocratic management, imperialism, structural patriarchy, queer-phobia, ableism, and other forms of domination buttressed by scientific and technological policies.

To navigate this plurality of political and scientific practices, the symposium will also address methodological and conceptual questions: How should we think of the so-called ‘activist sciences’, ‘radical sciences’ and ‘technologies of protest’? What is their relationship with professionals and experts? How do we describe the zones of interaction between academics, activists, policymakers, and industrial actors? Finally, the contributions reflect on how narrating these histories can shape new forms of social engagement from the history of science.

Through these diverse cases, “Activist Epistemics and Artefacts” highlights different forms of ‘activist science’ and how they challenge the epistemic authority of traditional Science, Technology, and Medicine, offering new ways to shape knowledge and innovation.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Max Bautista-Perpinyà, Université catholique de Louvain

Individual Presentations

• Affective Epistemologies of Antimilima: Feminist Knowledgescapes and Activist Science in Post-Dictatorial Greece (1974–1986) - Evangelia (Lina) Chordaki

• Materializing DNA in Forensic-Memorial Practices - Lucía Expósito-Cívico, University of Granada

• The Sociology of the Sleuth Community: Practices, Actors, and Zones of Interaction - Mady Barbeitas, Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences Innovations Sociétés (LISIS), CNRS

• Announcing Abortion on Television: Medical Practice as a Political Tool in Barcelona (1976–1986) - Laia Iturrizaga-Zurita, Institut d'Història de la Ciència-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Session Organizers

• Laia Iturrizaga-Zurita, Institut d'Història de la Ciència-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

• Jaume Valentines-Álvarez, iHC-UAB