2024 Fall Kickoff

Where: INTS 1113
Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Time: 10 PM – 4 PM
Keynote Speaker: Jade Sasser

Dr. Jade S. Sasser is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Gender & Sexuality Studies and Society, Environment, and Health Equity here at UCR. She received her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley. Her work explores how environmental problems such as climate change and toxic exposures intersect with reproductive bodies, health, and rights. Her first book, On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women’s Rights in the Era of Climate Change, was published in 2018 by NYU Press and won the Emory Elliott Book Award. Her new book, Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future (2024), analyzes the relationship between climate emotions, social inequality, and reproductive anxiety in the U.S. She also has a podcast with the same name. In her free time, she is a DJ at our campus radio station, KUCR.

It is important and valuable—actually necessary—to create a vibrant intellectual community on campus where the ongoing creation of ideas, concepts, and research approaches centering Science and Technology Studies can be foregrounded. What does STS as an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary scholarly perspective bring to bear on pressing public concerns? The questions we’re exploring in our research and publications often stem from public conversations and debates. We as STS scholars can bring nuanced frameworks and analyses to those public conversations. We can ask questions that aren’t being asked anywhere else. And we can help shape the public dialogue through thoughtful critique and integrative perspectives. 

Featured Graduate Students

	David McCaskey Department of History Territorial Waters: Knowing and making aquatic environments in French Colonial Vietnam and Cambodia
	Michelle Rawlings Department of Anthropology Ethnogenesis Formation: the archaeological record as biocultural evidence
	Patrick Vincent English Department Extractive Preservation and Indigenous Futurisms
	Margaret Hanson Department of History The Construction of Animality, Race, and Gender in Late Nineteenth-Century Zoological Gardens in the United States

2023 End-of-Term Celebration

Where: INTS 1113
Date: Wednesday, November 29th
Time: 11:30 AM- 5:45 PM

Colin Milburn’s keynote address will focus on his experience establishing a personalized pathway for Science and Technology Studies (STS) on various UC campuses. Dr. Milburn cultivates graduate and undergraduate student engagement in a context that promotes the productive crossing of academic silos of knowledge acquisition and research. His areas of interest include science fiction, gothic horror, the history of biology, the history of physics, nanotechnology, video games, and the digital humanities.

Colin's research explores the intersections of science, literature, and media technologies. He is especially interested in the ways that science fiction has impacted the history of science.  His many books include Respawn: Gamers, Hackers, and Techngenic Life (Duke University Press, 2018) examines the role of video games in the development of high-tech culture and online activism.  At UC Davis, Milburn is a professor in the English Department, director of the Science and Technology Studies Department, and a professor in the Cinema and Digital Media Department.

2023 Fall Kickoff

Where: INTS 1113
Date: Thursday, September 21, 2023
Time: 1 PM – 4 PM

ISSUES: Community Creation/Promotion

• Collaborations – visits across silos
• Defining Community, projects & goals