[Ssnet_list] Tomorrow, 3/11 | Science, Society, and Justice Working Group on Creating | Thursday, 3/13 | STSS Research Mixer

[Monika Sengul-Jones via Ssnet_list]

*A version of this message is cross-posted with the Society + Technology at
UW listserv.*

Hi everyone,

It's not too late to register for the *third* Science, Society, and Justice
pop-up working group
<https://depts.washington.edu/societytech/wordpress/2025/02/03/register-now-st-at-uw-pop-up-working-groups-on-science-society-justice/>,
hosted by *Tim Brown* (Bioethics and Humanities), which is *tomorrow*,
*Tuesday,
March 11 from 9:30 to 10:25 am on Zoom.* Our theme is *Creating*. Bring
your notepads and openness to the discomfort found in between ideas and a
boldness to answer impossible questions in less than an hour. No experience
is necessary.

Notes from Tim on the previous sessions in this series:

"At the first session, our theme was “Airing” — as in airing our concerns,
worries, and experiences. We shared updates about what the shifting
political landscape means for our research, worries about how to support
ourselves and one another, our desire to enact change, and the results of
our previous efforts to do so. The group seemed to agree that publics don’t
understand science enough to know that it is in danger or to want to save
it. We also seemed to agree that we are all vulnerable: to stress, to
overwork, to burnout, to despair.

At the second session, our theme was “Collaborating,” and we explored
possible projects and their target audiences. The group agreed that we
could counter misinformation about science and convey its value through
storytelling. We also agreed that grounding stories in history and lived
experiences can be a way to reach audiences. We were mixed on who we needed
to reach: journalists, non-profits, advocates, voters, donors, judges. We
also seemed mixed on the need to “go viral,” with some worrying that "going
viral" doesn’t always translate to deeper engagement. We were also mixed on
the audience reach of op-eds, though most of us still seemed to want to
write more of them. Many of us agreed that fiction (or at least, stylized
narrative) is powerful. We want to harness that power."

Join us for the third session!

Tuesday, March 11 | Creating
9:30 – 10:25 AM (PT)
📍 Online
Register for the online Pop-Up Working Group session on Creating | March 11
<https://eventactions.com/eareg.aspx?ea=Rsvp&invite=01byzvb56uved3kp3zhdbj22ysma7wrybd75fwe7jehr35m0fe0u>

Bonuses! While there *may* be opportunities to share your creations, learn
more tomorrow, there's definitely an opportunity to meet in person on the
heels of this event. Join us on Thursday, March 13 at the *STSS Research
Mixer*, from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm at UW Seattle, Communication 126.

*Register for the March 13 STSS Research Mixer*
<https://eventactions.com/eareg.aspx?ea=Rsvp&invite=gn8a0hmf39jr5rmu8j51x5wmcvbwr5djfx2dc6t74p740x9z8pcg>

Questions? Let me know.

Warmly,
Monika





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Previous summary sent 2/27/25:

Hey everyone,

Tuesday's Pop-Up Working Group on Science, Society, and Justice focused
on collaboration. Initially, we discussed “science communication,” and
discomfort with our present imaginaries. This bled into how, when, where,
and to whom, to share stories. And which stories—histories—to share. An
enlivening session, thank you to all who attended.

In discussing our next steps, host Tim Brown (Bioethics and Humanities) and
I debriefed and found ourselves veering deeper into discomfort and turning
into fiction. For instance, we’ve both read Octavia Butler’s Parable of the
Sower and Parable of the Talents. If you haven’t read these books, I
recommend—they’re tremendous! Written in the 1990s and set in the
2020s, Butler is darkly prescient in writing a story of survival in crisis,
where a far-right president who uses the uncanny slogan, "make America
great again." Yet, survival isn’t the only theme, hope forms the backbone
for Butler’s protagonist, Lauren Olamina, who has hyperempathy syndrome, an
imaginary disease of extraordinary feeling that informs her spirituality.
"All that you touch, you change," Olamina (Butler) writes. I won't share
more (you might like to read the books), but my conversation with Tim
spurred me to consider the ways can dis-ease be a gift?

---

Monika Sengul-Jones, PhD (she/them)


| Director of Strategy & Operations

Society + Technology at UW

www.societyandtechnology.uw.edu

Hosted by the Tech Policy Lab, UW Seattle

Email: mmjones at uw.edu

*The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this
land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands
within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations.*
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