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Society + Technology

Category: Recent News

Book Salon on Tech Policy, Culture Shock, and Controversy — October 23, 2025, 6 PM

On October 23, 2025, join us for an evening book salon featuring UW scholars Ryan Calo (Law), Leah Ceccarelli (Communication), and Katharina Reinecke (Computer Science) in conversation about tech policy, culture, and controversies in technoscience.

Book Salon | Culture Shock, Controversy, and Policy: Approaches to Technology and Society

When

Thursday, October 23, 2025
Doors open at 5:30 PM, Salon begins at 6:00 PM

Where

Toni C. Rembe Appellate Courtroom, Room 133
UW School of Law
William H. Gates Hall
4293 Memorial Way NE
Seattle, WA 98195

Register

About

Moderated by Monika Sengul-Jones, this event will explore timely questions at the intersection of technology and society: How does culture shape the technologies we use? What do scientific controversies reveal about our relationship to technoscience? How is expertise encoded into technical systems, and with what consequences? What are the implications for law and policy?

The discussion will revolve around the themes of three new books:

Part reading, part conversation, this Book Salon will be an opportunity to hear from three UW authors from different disciplines about their research on emerging technologies.

Program

5:30 | Doors open. Check in at the Welcome Desk at the east entrance to William Gates Hall

6:00 – 7:15 | Salon Conversation

7:15 – 7:30 | Candy Reception

Recording

This salon will not be available in a hybrid format, however, a recording or transcript may be available upon request and with permission from the speakers. Email mmjones@uw.edu to learn more.

Travel and Parking

The School of Law is accessible by transit, car, bicycle, and foot.

By public transit, the School of Law is accessible to many busses and less than 0.2 miles from the U District station for the Light Rail. The entrance to the event is on the east side of the building, on Memorial Way.

By car, exit 1-5 to NE 45th St and go east. Turn right onto Memorial Way Northeast, then turn right to enter Lot N01, adjacent to the Burke Museum, which has Pay By Phone parking.

Bicycle racks are available on the north end of the building.

Accessibility

All areas of this space are wheelchair accessible. There are ADA parking spots in Lot N01 Hall. The event, reception, and bathrooms are conveniently located on the main floor. If you need accommodations or have accessibility questions prior to the event, please contact mmjones@uw.edu; during the event, please ask the Society + Technology at UW and Tech Policy Lab staff or volunteers for assistance.

Masks

We are a mask-friendly event. Even though masks are no longer required in many places, attendees may want to continue to wear a mask for added protection against COVID-19, especially those who are immunocompromised, living with someone immunocompromised, or who may just feel safer wearing a mask. Everyone should assess their own personal risk when making this decision. Masks will be available at the Welcome Table at the east entrance to the School of Law. Please do not attend if you are feeling unwell.

About Salons

Salons are one of Society + Technology at UW’s community programs, hosted conversations to elevate the cross-campus and cross-disciplinary perspectives on emerging technologies. Each Salon is a one-hour and fifteen-minute conversation between three to five affiliates from the S+T network, with a moderator. The purpose is to recognize and honor live, arranged encounters as a meeting of the minds, to give greater visibility to the S+T network, and to cultivate intellectual conditions for deeper collaborations.

 

More about Society + Technology at UW

Society + Technology at UW is a cross-campus, cross-disciplinary initiative and community at the University of Washington devoted to fostering interdisciplinary conversations about emerging technologies and their societal impact. The initiative connects researchers, students, and professionals through events, discussions, and collaborative initiatives. With a growing network of affiliates, S+T at UW raises the ethical, cultural, and policy implications of technological advancements.


Speakers

Bearded man smiling.

Ryan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger Professor at the University of Washington School of Law. He is a founding co-director of the UW Tech Policy Lab and a co-founder of the UW Center for an Informed Public. Professor Calo holds a joint appointment at the Information School and an adjunct appointment at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering.

White woman with glasses and short gray hair smiling at camera.

Leah Ceccarelli is Professor of Communication at the University of Washington. She is a rhetorical critic and theorist whose research focuses on the rhetoric of science. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in American Public Address, Rhetorical Criticism, and the Rhetoric of Science. Ceccarelli also directs the UW Science, Technology, and Society Studies Graduate Certificate Program. 

Blonde woman looking at the camera.

Katharina Reinecke is Professor and Associate Director of Research and Communication in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where she directs the Wildlab and the Center for Globally Beneficial AI — an interdisciplinary, cross-campus initiative that aims to imagine and define the next generation of personalized AI technologies for people around the world.

About the Salon Series

A S+T at UW Community Program, salons are a conversation series held in-person or online, designed to elevate the S+T’s cross-campus and cross-disciplinary perspectives on technologies. Each Salon is a one-hour and fifteen-minute conversation between three to five affiliates from the S+T network, with a moderator. The purpose is to recognize and honor live, arranged encounters as a meeting of the minds, to give greater visibility to the S+T network, and to cultivate intellectual conditions for deeper collaborations.

Sponsors

This event is sponsored by the Tech Policy Lab, and the Office of the Provost.

Book Tea on Technologies and Insurgencies at Simpson Center — October 21, 2025, 1 PM

Join us for a conversation with Olivia Banner (CREATE and Disability Studies Program, UW Seattle) and Nassim Parvin (Information School, UW Seattle) about media technologies, insurgencies, and alternative visions of care, held on the publication day of Banner’s new book, Crip Screens: Countering Psychiatric Media Technologies (Duke University Press).

When

Tuesday, October 21, 2025, from 1:00 to 2:15 PM

Where

Simpson Center for the Humanities, CMU 202
4109 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA 98195

Register
The Crip Screens book cover, which is a black and white abstract image of pixels.

About

Drawing on previously ignored and effaced cultural texts from the 1960s and 1970s, Crip Screens foregrounds the insurgent practices of and media by women and communities of color that contested psychiatric discourses and their mediated and technological applications. Banner and Parvin, co-editor of the new book Technocreep and the Politics of Things Unseen, will discuss how resistances and alternatives to technologies of racialized, gendered, and colonial oppression materialize.

Banner will also discuss the tensions of publishing her book in 2025.


Speakers

Smiling woman with long wavy hair.

Olivia Banner is Director of Strategy and Operations at the Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE) at UW. Banner is also the author of Communicative Biocapitalism: The Voice of the Patient in Digital Health and the Health Humanities and co-editor of Teaching Health Humanities. Prior to joining UW, Banner was Associate Professor of Critical Media Studies at The University of Texas at Dallas. Her scholarship has appeared in Catalyst, Disability Studies Quarterly, Literature and Medicine, Signs, and edited collections. 

Woman with black curly hair.

Nassim Parvin is a Professor at the UW Information School, where she serves as the Associate Dean for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access & Sovereignty (IDEAS). She co-edited Technocreep and the Politics of Unseen, which was published by Duke University Press in 2025. Parvin’s interdisciplinary research integrates theoretically-driven humanistic scholarship and design-based inquiry. Her scholarship is published across disciplinary venues in design, Human-Computer Interaction, Science and Technology Studies, and Philosophy.

About the Salon Series

A S+T at UW Community Program, salons are a conversation series held in-person or online, designed to elevate the S+T’s cross-campus and cross-disciplinary perspectives on technologies. Each Salon is a one-hour and fifteen-minute conversation between three to five affiliates from the S+T network, with a moderator. The purpose is to recognize and honor live, arranged encounters as a meeting of the minds, to give greater visibility to the S+T network, and to cultivate intellectual conditions for deeper collaborations.

Hosted by Society + Technology at UW, co-sponsored by CREATE, The Simpson Center, and the UW Tech Policy Lab

Social Spotlights UW’s Leadership in STS at Conference with 2,000 Attendees

From September 3-6, 2025, more than 100 University of Washington faculty and students presented at Reverberations, the 50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), a leading interdisciplinary conference for scholars engaged in social studies of science, technology, and medicine (a field often referred to as STS), which was held in Seattle.

To recognize and celebrate this extraordinary demonstration of UW’s expertise, Society + Technology at UW hosted the UW Social at 4S for the 2,000 attendees.

The party was held on the Garden Terrace of the Summit Seattle Convention Center. 

Announcement of the UW Social co-sponsors: Society + Technology at UW, hosted by the Tech Policy Lab, University of Washington Press, 4S, Science, Technology & Society at UW Bothell, the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Cinema and Media Studies, the Science, Technology and Society Studies Graduate Certificate Program, the Department of Communication, CommLead, Human Centered Design and Engineering, DXARTS, and the Department of Bioethics and Humanities at UW Medicine. Credit: Matthew Weinstein
The event was held at the Garden Terrace at the Summit Conference Center. Credit: Matthew Weinstein
Larin McLaughlin of UW Press. Credit. M Weinstein
HCDE’s Anoolia Gakhokidze. Credit: M Weinstein
The party went until after 10:00 PM Credit: L. Boyd

To spotlight UW, the Social featured an academic bingo activity, named co-sponsors and faculty speakers, and celebrated UW faculty working at the critical intersections of technology and society with a special book giveaway: 

Nassim Parvin (right), Associate Professor at the University of Washington (UW) Information School, with host Monika Sengul-Jones (left). Credit: Matthew Weinstein

The AI Con by Emily Bender (Linguistics, UW Seattle) and Alex Hanna.

Technocreep and the Politics of Things Unseen edited by Neda Atanasoski and Nassim Parvin (Information School, UW Seattle).

Unmaking the Bomb by Shannon Cram (IAS, UW Bothell).

LIsa Hoffman, Shannon Cram at Welcome Table.
At the Welcome Table at the UW Social at 4S: Shannon Cram (center), Associate Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at UW Bothell, and Lisa Hoffman (left), Associate Professor in Urban Studies at UW Bothell. Credit: Matthew Weinstein, 2025

During the conference, several UW faculty gave signature talks, including:

  • Associate Professor Dian Million (American Indian Studies) delivered the presidential plenary keynote on generative dis/connections between indigenous studies and science and technology studies.
  • Faculty Lupe Alberto Flores (American Ethnic Studies) and Diana Flores Ruíz (Cinema & Media Studies) featured as keynote speakers in an address on Bordering, which traced struggles and solidarities across bordering mechanisms, describing the use of systems of attention and surveillance to violently separate, confine, and debilitate.
  • Graduate students Althea Rao and Sadaf Sadri (DXARTS), and alum Chari Glogovac-Smith (DXARTS), gave the threaded keynote address Art Scenes, offering remarks that recast the technological logics of capitalist racialization and militarism for creative possibility.
  • PhC Gabrielle Banabdallah (HCDE) organized the zine festival.
  • Faculty and students from Cinema & Media Studies, HCDE, DXARTS, Philosophy, the Information School, Bioethics & Humanities, and more presented their work.

Reverberations was co-chaired by UW faculty Daniela Rosner (HCDE/DXARTS) and Jenna Grant (Anthropology). The organizing team, included Lisa Hoffman (Urban Studies, UW Tacoma), Ryan Burns (IAS, UW Bothell), Anissa Tanweer (eScience, UW Seattle), David Ribes (HCDE, UW Seattle), Wes King (Information School, UW Seattle), Kavita Dattani (GWSS, UW Seattle), Shannon Cram (IAS, UW Bothell).

The University of Washington does not have a single disciplinary home for Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholarship; rather, scholars engaged in research and teaching on the cultural and social aspects of technoscience cross-cut the campuses—from the STS undergraduate program at UW Bothell to the unfunded STSS graduate certificate program, directed by Leah Ceccarelli (Communication).

Daniela Rosner, co-chair of 4S (center, in blue) with faculty and friends at the UW Social at 4S. Credit: Matthew Weinstein

Co-sponsors of UW Social included: Society + Technology at UW, hosted by the Tech Policy Lab, University of Washington Press, 4S, Science, Technology & Society at UW Bothell, the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Cinema and Media Studies, the Science, Technology and Society Studies Graduate Certificate Program, the Department of Communication, CommLead, Human Centered Design and Engineering, DXARTS, and the Department of Bioethics and Humanities at UW Medicine.

Event photographers: Logan Boyd and Matthew Weinstein.

Special thanks to: Abirami Kimsuka Subramanian, Afroditi Psarra, Alex Bolton, Anoolia Gakhokidze, Daniela Rosner, Jane I. Skau, Kyra Arnett, Lisa Hoffman, Matthew Weinstein, Rey Jingrui Yan, Rin Yilin Huang, Sara Goering, Sayan Bhattacharjee, Seohee Kim, and Shannon Cram

David Ribes, right, with friends at UW Social. Credit: Matthew Weinstein
More than 100 UW faculty, staff, researchers, and students participated in the annual 4S.

UW Social at 4S will celebrate UW’s contributions to the STS field

On Friday, Sept. 5, the UW Social at 4S will be held in the Garden Terrace at the Summit, a pollinator garden. Photo credit: Garden Terrace (Night), Summit (2025)

SEATTLE — More than 100 University of Washington faculty and students will present their research this September at Reverberations, the 50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), a leading interdisciplinary conference for scholars engaged in social studies of science, technology, and medicine (a field often referred to as STS).

To mark the occasion, Society + Technology at UW is inviting all 4S attendees to register to attend the UW Social, to celebrate UW’s contributions to the field of STS and to foster connections and stoke curiosity.

UW Social

The party will be on Friday, September 5, from 8:30 to 10:00 p.m. on the Garden Terrace (third floor) of the Summit at the Seattle Convention Center. Reverberations will take place at the Sheraton Grand Hotel and the Summit at the Seattle Convention Center from September 3-6, 2025. 

“This is an exciting opportunity to acknowledge the tremendous and ongoing work in this interdisciplinary field happening at UW across all three campuses,” said Monika Sengul-Jones, co-host of the UW Social with Daniela Rosner, a professor in Human Centered Design and Engineering and Co-chair of Reverberations.

“And it’s in a pollinator garden, which is a gesture to our intention with the party: to be a space to pollinate and to strengthen the assemblages that animate STS as a field of creation and critique.”

Who can attend?

The UW Social is free for registered 4S attendees, though separate registration for the party is required. Register online and pick up your paper UW Social ticket at the registration desk in the foyer of the Sheraton Hotel starting on Thursday at 1:00 p.m.

The first 150 guests to register and collect their paper ticket will receive a complimentary drink sticker they can redeem at the party; additional refreshments will be available for purchase.

Co-sponsors of UW Social include: Society + Technology at UW, hosted by the Tech Policy Lab, University of Washington Press, 4S, Science, Technology & Society at UW Bothell, the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Cinema and Media Studies, the Science, Technology and Society Studies Graduate Certificate Program, the Department of Communication, CommLead, Human Centered Design and Engineering, DXARTS, and the Department of Bioethics and Humanities at UW Medicine.

Attending 4S? Register for the UW Social

Register