[Commlist] CFP: stsing conference "leakage"

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the inaugural conference
of *stsing*, an association doing Science and Technology Studies (STS) in
and through Germany, established in 2020.



The conference theme invites submissions that defamiliarize, disrupt, or
otherwise explore the generative potential of “*leakage*” as a variegated
paradigm for STS, whether engaged as a physical phenomenon, a material
metaphor, an analytical tool, or a political strategy.

It is possible to submit proposals for individual presentations and
preformed panels in English or German. Non-traditional formats
(roundtables, artistic research, participatory formats, etc.) are welcome.



This event is organized in partnership with TU Dresden. For more, see
https://sts-leakage.org/



*Leakage *

- Inaugural Conference of *stsing* -



TU Dresden

March 19-22, 2024



Leakage reveals cracks and holes; it signifies porosity, the transgression
of a boundary, and a rebuke to fantasies of closure and containment. Unlike
a sudden spill or a violent burst, leaks are sites of a slow and steady
subversion. They corrode and accumulate over time, calling for a reckoning
with temporalities of latency and a readjustment of perceptual scales.
Leaks are evidence of hidden complexity and unacknowledged others, both
human and nonhuman. They draw attention to the material unconscious,
submerged histories, and enabling conditions of cities, bodies, ecologies,
technologies, and social systems.



Whether through the registers of excess, loss, abjection, entropy, or
sacrifice, leakage can be understood as that which cannot be contained by
hegemonic economies of distribution and circulation. Something seeps
through that should have stayed behind walls, cordoned off to prevent
contamination, mixture, or mediation. Sites of leakage are paradigmatic for
the environmental and social costs of resource industries and extractive
colonialism but also create liminal zones where ecologies and architectures
intermingle. Integral to challenges of bounded individualism in critical
disability studies and material feminisms, conceptions of leakage
articulate bodies and systems open to the contingencies of environmental
exposure and socio-technical enmeshment. Framed by critical data and
security studies, leakage speaks to the intersections of surveillance
capitalism, digital justice, and hacking. Leaks disturb and redistribute
regulated flows of matter, capital, information, and power; they create
diversions and bifurcations with nonlinear, unpredictable, and protracted
effects. From toxic spills to data leaks, leakage is inherently political.
The politics and materialities of leakage raise questions about vulnerable
and permeable ecologies, architectures, technologies, bodies, and knowledge
systems. Fears of leakage—leaky bodies, leaky pipes, leaky borders, leaky
servers, leaky arguments—reinforce regimes of hygiene and security that are
quick to produce a techno-social fix or reactionary containment strategy.
At the same time, leakage can be leveraged as both an instrument of
geopolitical violence and a counter-hegemonic tactic of generative
disruption and emancipatory disclosure.



Thinking with leakage promotes a shift in analytical gears and new
alliances across disciplines and reference fields. What would a generative
politics of leakage look like it? How might an engagement with leakage
inform a critical analysis of black boxing, colonial infrastructuralism,
spatial design, hetero-patriarchal biopolitics, or technoscientific
worldmaking? Who and what is feeding (on) the leak, and what emerges in its
wake? Engaging leakage through the lens of science & technology studies
(STS) requires self-reflexivity about epistemic instabilities,
interdisciplinary diffusion, and unintended consequences. We invite
scholars, activists, and artists to defamiliarize, disrupt, or otherwise
explore the generative potential of leakage as a variegated paradigm for
STS, whether engaged as a physical phenomenon, a material metaphor, an
analytical tool, or a political strategy.



We welcome contributions that engage STS from a plurality of disciplines
and fields, including art, anthropology, sociology, politics, literature,
cultural studies, design, media studies, history of technology, political
geography, migration studies, medical humanities, digital humanities, film
studies, and environmental & energy humanities. We are specifically
committed to promoting expansions and intersections of STS with
emancipatory discourses such as critical race theory, feminist
materialisms, decolonial criticism, co-futurisms, queer and trans studies,
critical posthumanisms, environmental justice, and critical disability
studies.

Presentations can be held either in English or German. We strive for a
diversity of voices and perspectives from any and all disciplines and
career stages. While papers on any subject in STS are welcome, we
especially encourage topics that resonate with the overall conference theme
by addressing the *politics, technoscientific imaginaries, and
environmental entanglements of what may count as leakage, leaky, or leaking*
with respect to topics that include but are not limited to:



·       Toxicity, radiation, and pollution

·       Embodiment, metabolisms, and subjectivity

·       Environmental, digital, and social justice

·       Data systems and information flows

·       Security policies and surveillance systems

·       Movement and accessibility

·       Systems of power and oppression

·       Machines and energy systems

·       Architectures and infrastructures

·       Places, topologies, and geographies

·       Ontologies and epistemologies

·       Atmospheres and geological strata

·       Modernities and narratives of progress & development

·       Temporalities, histories, and futurisms

·       Translations and transformations

·       Hacking, hegemonies, and activisms

·       Value chains and circulations

·       Exclusion and inclusion

·        …



It is possible to submit proposals for individual presentations and
preformed panels in English or German. Non-traditional formats
(roundtables, artistic research, participatory formats, etc.) are welcome.
For individual presentations, we ask for an abstract of 300 words and a
short bio (150 words). For preformed panels we require a proposal (single
file) that includes a 300-word summary of the panel topic, abstracts of 200
words for each contribution, and bio notes (150 words) for all
participants. Please indicate the format you envision for your
contribution. Please send all submissions to *(sts.leakage /at/ tu-dresden.de)*
<(sts.leakage /at/ tu-dresden.de)> by *October 15, 2023*. Options for hybrid
participation will be available. For more information, follow our
conference website www.sts-leakage.org

Organizing Committee:

Sandra Buchmüller, Anika Beckwermert, Michaela Büsse, Kristiane Fehrs,
Julia Gatermann, Manuel Harms, Moritz Ingwersen, Anja H. Lind, Johanna
Mehl, Judith Miggelbrink, Nora Molinari, Michelle Pfeifer, Susann
Wagenknecht



Chair of Micro-Sociology and Techno-Social Interaction

Chair of North American Literature and Future Studies

Chair of Human Geography

Chair of Digital Cultures

Chair of Thermodynamics



*stsing* is an association doing Science and Technology Studies (STS)

in and through Germany, established in 2020. For more, see
https://stsing.org.



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