I occasionally dabble in other bits of writing, beyond my main academic concerns of things to do with digital technologies. In recent months, I’ve written about the London Library, the injustice of not being able to vote in the Netherlands, and the memories contained in a small wooden box. The wooden box is a reminder […]
Since the beginning of the 2017-18 academic year, I’ve been writing the occasional column for Observant, the independent newspaper of Maastricht University. It’s fun, reaching out to a different kind of audience – academic, but not necessarily research focused. Sticking to 400 words, and not including copious references and nuanced explanation is a challenge. My […]
On 15 January, I took part in the new year opening of the Brightlands Smart Services campus in Heerlen. Marc Wouters (Adviser to the Brightlands CEO) invited Geert Mul (video and sound artist) and myself to reflect on ‘technology and society’. This was prompted by a position paper Marc wrote earlier in the year to […]
At the end of November 2018, I had the enormous privilege and pleasure to take part in the Russian User Studies conference in St Petersburg, hosted by the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science and financially supported by the Russian Science Foundation. Traditionally, Science and Technology Studies (STS) has paid lots of attention […]
Back in April, I attended a wonderful workshop organised by Astrid Mager and Christian Katzenbach called, ‘“We are on a mission”. Exploring the role of future imaginaries in the making and governing of digital technology’. The title of my lecture was inspired by my yoga teacher, who once instructed us to ‘imagine you are an […]
On September 1, 2018, an article appeared in the Dutch newspaper Trouw. The article is written by Willem Schoonen, based on an interview he did with me in August, and on the lecture I gave at Maastricht University earlier this year called (in English) ‘Where is the knowledge we have lost in data?’ The article […]
I’m heading off to Australia on 25 August, mainly to attend the 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) conference in Sydney. As always, the programme is packed full with fascinating sessions in which people present their research, discuss prize-winning books, and honour those who have contributed to the field of science and technology studies […]
The VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands) has brought together leading researchers from all fourteen universities to work together to address the many pressing questions raised by the emergence of a digital society. Dutch universities benefit from an excellent digital infrastructure supporting education and research. The Netherlands has a long-standing culture of openness and […]
On 14 May, I’m heading off to Copenhagen to meet Professor Klaus Høyer and his colleagues working on the project, ‘Policy, practice and patient experience in the age of intensified data sourcing’. POLICYAID is funded by the European Research Council, started in June 2016. On Monday I will meet with the research group, and on […]
In March and April, I’ll be attending wonderful events in Vienna and Berlin. On 15-16 March, the University of Vienna is celebrating 30 years of ‘Science & Technology Studies’. That’s an impressive achievement, given the ways in which universities tend to re-organise. I’ll be joining colleagues there, first, on 15 March to talk about ‘how STS […]
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