The era of strictly demarcated sciences is over, at least since the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the years, changing social values, modern technologies, but also scientific misconduct and demands for emancipation based on diversity have led to the fact that science has become a multidisciplinary but also increasingly interwoven institution since at least the second half of the 20th century. The present bias is particularly evident in the institutionalization of knowledge and content from the humanities and the natural sciences and technology, which are in part still strictly separated and not automatically related to each other. This lack of contextualization and intertwining of nature, culture, technology, society, and gender theory can be illustrated by a number of problematic examples: Crash test dummies that only represent men and make cars all the more unsafe for women; toxic cultures of masculinity in engineering courses that make it almost impossible for women to build careers and reveal a serious lack of female role models; racist or sexist algorithms that overwhelm the increasingly important AI and fuel resentment; or supposedly glorious inventions by men for women, such as the Pinky Gloves released in 2021, that reveal a sometimes disastrous picture of gender stereotyping. All these examples clearly show that there is an urgent need to link the cultural sciences and humanities, which have been strictly separated, with the natural, technical, information and engineering sciences. However, these experiences also show how strong the influences of social, political, economic and societal factors are, which also have an unconscious effect on the natural and technical sciences and their results. This modern change therefore confirms all the more the establishment of an interlocking perspective and instructions for action for the scientific enterprise. An appropriate culture/expansion of discourse makes it possible to show how research in the natural, technical, information, and engineering sciences can be seen and evaluated in a multiple and constantly changing world in the context of society, politics, the environment, technology, and gender. Science is no longer a homogeneous and awe-inspiring entity that can sustain itself. It is increasingly criticized and confronted with demands to open up and to represent all aspects of social life in an interconnected way. There is therefore a need for other interfaces and interconnections that drive this world of research, transform it, make it usable, and build it in a future-oriented way. This particular entanglement has always been explored in the EcoTechGender research project (est. 2007 by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber).
In the context of a workshop, we would like to emphasize this importance once again, work it out together, and offer space for a philosophical-interdisciplinary workshop and discourse in which young scientists can present their visions and contributions to the entanglement field of EcoTechGender. In addition to invited speakers, lecture slots will be advertised in order to provide a platform for exchange for interested young scientists. The aim of the workshop is to present different perspectives on EcoTechGender from young scholars from different academic disciplines to show the interferences of humanities, social sciences, science and technology studies, medicine and computer science.
The workshop will be introduced by our Keynoter Kateryna Karpenko, Director of the Center for Gender Studies at Kharkiv National Medical University, Ukraine. Afterwards, we will have the opportunity to follow and listen to several different PhD students from STEM fields, STS-Studies, medicine, gender studies and philosophy, who will present their views and ideas on EcoTechGender. For more inspiration have a look at our preliminary program.
The Workshop will take place on November 15, 2024 at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists as online event. For participation please register via our registration platform.
The workshop is organized by Ruth E. Hagengruber & Felix Grewe.
For further questions please contact: ecotechgender@historyofwomenphilosophers.org