Science in Public Early-Career Workshop, 14th July, University of Exeter

BOOKINGS OPEN UNTIL 12 JUNE – CLICK HERE!

The Science in Public Network Committee is IMMENSELY pleased to announce our first in-person event since the start of the pandemic. We’ve teamed up with friends at the International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society (INSBS: scienceandbeliefinsociety.org) to run an afternoon SiP workshop within the INSBS conference taking place at the University of Exeter in July. We’re able to run this with the support of INSBS, Exeter Engagement and the Egenis Centre, and further support from the British Academy ECR Network (https://thebritishacademyecrn.com/) will cover travel costs for anyone signed up with them, including those from SouthWest GW4 institutions – thankyou very much!

Most importantly, this will be the first opportunity for new generations of ‘early-career’ researchers and professionals in the area to come together: with each other, senior colleagues, members of the current SiP Committee, and expert practitioners, to discuss the present and futures of our community in the UK.

We are proud to announce that our speakers include Hanah Ayoob, science communicator and illustrator, who gave an amazing keynote for our last conference in 2019, and Nathan Bossoh of Science Museum London. The day will also include roundtable reflections on research and practice in SiP, plenty of sticky notes and lots of time to meet people. You can see the full programme HERE and book your place (in-person or online) HERE. If you have any questions, then please drop us a line via our contact form. Do come along, meet some great people, and have your say on next steps for the Network. Let’s hang out again!

We at Science in Public are dismayed and appalled by recent testimonials of sexual harassment and academic bullying within Science and Technology Studies (STS).  We sincerely thank those who have felt able to speak out and stand in solidarity with all victims. However, verbal support is only a first step and if solidarity is to be meaningful then STS and connected communities must take concrete steps to ensure our research cultures are safe spaces for the exchange of academic ideas, free from harassment, bullying and the leveraging of academic power. 

Over the coming months we will be reviewing our previous practices and writing a new Code of Conduct, to be published in March 2023 in good time for our next event. We will build on the work of the 2019 organising team’s Conference Code of Conduct, the newly published Ethics and Code of Conduct Policy of 4S, as well as parallel initiatives in related fields. 

We look forward to reporting back to STS and connected communities on this work, and contributing to a more reasonable research culture that not only ensures the safety of our colleagues, but can also contribute to a more diverse and fulfilling research culture.

Following the awesome 2019 SiP Conference in Manchester, the Science in Public Committee announced that we needed to ‘rest’ our annual conference for a while. The Network is therefore currently on hiatus due to a combination of health/life/work pressures, made more acute in 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, we want SiP to return.

Science in Public is an unfunded, voluntary organisation – so if you would like to help, or have creative ideas for meetings or other activities to keep conversations going across researchers and professionals while we cannot meet in person, please get in touch.

We miss you all. Take care!

To get a sense of the 2019 conference, visit their twitter stream @SiP2019 or click through to the archived front page and programme.

Welcome to this year’s Science in Public conference! You can find the main conference website here and the programme here. The conference hashtag on twitter is #SIPsheff17 if you would like to follow the conversation online.

The SiP Network AGM will be held on Monday 10th July, 12.30-1.30pm, High Tor 3. Grab your lunch and come along – all delegates are welcome.

Links to Science in Public 2017 AGM Agenda; Science in Public 2016 AGM Minutes and the Science in Public Constitution.

For details of previous meetings, please see this page.

NEWS: Summer Conference Registration Open!

Science in Public’s 11th Annual Conference will be on the theme of  “Science, Technology and Humanity”

It will be hosted by the University of Sheffield, July 10-12th, 2017, in association with iHuman.

Registration is now open – click here to book

EARLY BIRD RATES (May 1st-31st)
Conference fee: £199
Student fee: £139
Single day rate: £125

STANDARD RATES (June 1st-10th)
Conference fee: £259
Student fee: £179
Single day rate: £165

NB: the British Society for the History of Science will be holding their annual conference on 7-9th July in York. Why not stop by before joining us in Sheffield?

NEWS: STEM and Beyond fully booked

A Science in Public workshop – “STEM and Beyond? Informal Science Learning Across Disciplines” will be held at Brunel University, May 19th, 2017

The programme for the day is now online.

The Science in Public Research Network is for anyone involved with or interested in academic research about ‘Science in Public’ in the broadest sense.  It provides a central point of contact for the research community that has grown out of the ongoing UK based conference of the same name, which has been running annually since 2006. Our Committee is simply composed of those people who have been, or plan to be, involved in organising SiP activities. If you’d like to get involved, drop us a line!

What is ‘Science in Public’ anyway?

We believe that ‘science in public’ research is any work which considers the relationships between science and technology; ‘the public’; multiple publics; or the broader public sphere. This includes work on, for example, 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. Rather than forming another new interdisciplinary field, the SiP Network aims to foster cross-disciplinary discussion and debate between researchers across the many disciplines which address this topic, including science and technology studies, history of science, geography, psychology, cultural studies, media and communication studies, sociology, development studies, English literature, policy and political studies, to name a few.

Because SiP research is relatively ‘young’, we have a strong presence from early-career researchers: however, we strongly encourage participation from academics at all stages of their career.  Similarly, while the Network is UK based, we welcome involvement from and interchange with scholars and other networks anywhere in the world.

What are our aims?

1. To provide long term continuity for the annual Science in Public conference.
2. To give SiP research a more visible online presence via this web portal.
3. To facilitate conversations between researchers and practitioners in the area.

In the longer term we would like to build more extensive shared resources such as accessible introductions,  course syllabi, reference lists, training resources and online discussion spaces.  Given the nature of the topic, it’s really important that we start thinking more about how we do and communicate our own research ‘in public’.

Ultimately, it’s up to us. If you’re interested in making the Science in Public research network happen, have a suggestion, or just want to find out what’s going on, join our mailing list, or drop us a line!