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Society + Technology at UW

Symposium

Join Us for Society + Technology at UW’s Fall 2026 Symposium

The Power of Public Research

Date: Friday, October 2, 2026
Time: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Location: Burke Museum, Cascade Room, 4303 Memorial Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195

We believe research and teaching have the most impact when our work fosters greater understanding and empathy. Society + Technology at UW’s symposium is designed with this mission in mind.

Our free, public event will elevate the work of S+T at UW affiliates, exploring themes around technology and society by elevating threads of connection that emerge between and across keywords, which attendees are invited to approach as objects of focus and discussion. Listen. Discuss. Eat. Drink.

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Agenda

Agenda
3:45 p.m. | Check-in opens
4:00–4:30 p.m. | Welcome and keynote
4:30–5:45 p.m. | Lightning talks
5:45 p.m. | Bar opens
6:00–6:15 p.m. | Buffet opens | Find your table
6:15–7:15 p.m. | Dinner and conversation
7:15–8:00 p.m. | Fireside chat

Travel and Parking

The Burke Museum is located on the northwest corner of the UW Seattle campus at 4303 Memorial Way NE, and is accessible by public transit, bike, and car.

By public transit, the U District light rail station is about a three-minute walk from the museum, and many King County Metro buses stop within a block or two.

By bicycle, the museum is just a half-mile north of the Burke Gilman Trail, and there are bike racks near the front entrance of the museum.

By car, take I-5 and exit east onto NE 45th St, turn right (south) onto Memorial Way NW. The closest visitor parking is the N1 lot is next to the Burke, accessible from Memorial Way NE. Parking is paid, a $7 flat rate after 4 p.m. on weekdays (though we encourage you to arrive early to not miss the keynote!). Additional parking is available in the Central Plaza and Padelford garages and on nearby streets. Parking is limited, so we encourage you to consider public transit if possible.

Accessibility

The symposium organizers strive to welcome people of all abilities to our events; the Burke Museum spaces and restrooms are designed in accordance with ADA specifications. If you are driving, the closest designated accessible parking is in the N1 Lot just adjacent to the museum. There is a vehicle drop-off near the main entrance. If you need accommodations or have accessibility questions before the symposium, please contact Monika at mmjones@uw.edu. During the event, please ask Society + Technology at UW or Tech Policy Lab staff and volunteers for assistance.

Lightning Talks

Speakers | Lightning Talks

  • Andrew Connolly (Astronomy, UW Seattle, Vice Provost of Data Science) | Keynote | Guidance
  • Noah Smith (Computer Science, UW Seattle) | Tradition
  • Geoffrey Turnovsky (French and Italian Studies, UW Seattle) | Authorship
  • Carole Lee (Philosophy, UW Seattle) | Expertise
  • David Ribes (Human Centered Design and Engineering, UW Seattle) | Openness
  • Mert Can Bayar (Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell) | Conspiracy
  • Clara Berridge (Social Work, UW Seattle) | Privacy
  • Nora Kenworthy (Nursing, UW Bothell) | Care
  • Stephanie Kerschbaum (English, UW Seattle) | Agency
  • Nassim Parvin (Information, UW Seattle) | Diversity
  • Ekin Yasin (Communication, UW Seattle) | Profit
  • Lisa Hoffman (Urban Studies, UW Tacoma) | Risk
  • Saadia M. Pekkanen (International Relations, UW Seattle) | War
  • Tim Brown (Bioethics and Humanities, UW Medicine) | Power

Lead Conveners

Lead Conveners | Thematic Dinner Conversations

  • Leah Ceccarelli (Communication, UW Seattle) | Tradition
  • Adrienne Russell (Communication, UW Seattle) | Authorship
  • Aylin Caliskan (Information, UW Seattle) | Expertise
  • Brandon Locke (Information, CALMA, UW Seattle) | Openness
  • Huatong Sun (Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Tacoma) | Conspiracy
  • Brittani Gambrell (Schwabe) | Privacy
  • Emily Tseng (Human Centered Design and Engineering, UW Seattle) | Care
  • Marika Cifor (Information, UW Seattle) | Agency
  • Agnieszka Jeżyk (Slavic Studies, UW Seattle) | Diversity
  • Fiona Wills (CoMotion, UW Seattle) | Profit
  • Shannon Cram (Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell) | Risk
  • Erin McElroy (Geography, UW Seattle) | War

Conversationalists

Conversationalists | Fireside Chat

  • Ryan Calo (Law and Information, UW Seattle) | Law
  • Gabriel Solis (Music, UW Seattle) | Creativity

Bios

Speakers | In Order of Appearance

Andrew Connolly is the William P. and Ruth Gerberding University Professor of Astronomy, UW Associate Vice Provost for Data Science, and director of the eScience Institute. An expert in astrostatistics and machine learning, his research uses large datasets, advanced image analysis, and cloud computing to study cosmology and the Solar System. Connolly has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and co-authored Statistics, Data Mining and Machine Learning in Astronomy. His work has contributed to projects including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Rubin Observatory, and Google Sky. He earned his Ph.D. in Astronomy from Imperial College London. Connolly will introduce the event with a brief keynote address.

Noah A. Smith is UW’s inaugural Vice Provost for Artificial Intelligence, the Charles and Lisa Simonyi Endowed Chair for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies, and a professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. His research focuses on computational approaches to language, AI evaluation, and research methodology. Smith co-directs the OLMo open language modeling initiative at the Allen Institute for AI and was elected a Fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics in 2020. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University and degrees in Computer Science and Linguistics from the University of Maryland. At the symposium, Smith will discuss Tradition.

Geoffrey Turnovsky is professor and chair of French & Italian Studies at UW and co-director of the UW Textual and Digital Studies Program. His research examines the cultural history of early modern France and Europe, focusing on the history of print, books, authorship, and reading, as well as the impacts of changing media technologies, including today the remediation of print archives as digital data. He is the author of The Literary Market: Authorship and Modernity in the Old Regime and Reading Typographically: Immersed in Print in Early Modern France. His scholarship has appeared in Modern Language Quarterly, French Historical Studies, and other journals. Turnovsky earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University. At the symposium, Turnovsky will discuss Authorship.

Carole Lee is a professor of Philosophy at UW and an adjunct professor in the Information School. Her research examines the social structure of science, including peer review, scientific evaluation, bias, collaboration, and research funding. Her scholarship has appeared in Science, Science Advances, The Lancet, PLOS ONE, and Philosophy of Science. Lee is a director at Rapid Science, served on the Advisory Board for the Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines, and is a member of UW’s AI Governance Committee. She received the Philosophy of Science Association’s Prize in Philosophy of Science & Race and First Prize in the National Institutes of Health’s Peer Review Challenge. She earned her B.A. in Philosophy from Wellesley College and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan. At the symposium, Lee will discuss Expertise.

David Ribes is a professor in the UW Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering and a sociologist of science and technology. His research examines scientific infrastructures, changes in research practices, and the categories through which scientific knowledge is produced. He is the author of Machineries of Similarity and Difference: AIDS from Its Research Infrastructures, published by MIT Press in 2026. In 2025, he won the Infrastructure award from the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) for his editorship and stewarding of the digitalSTS fieldguide. At UW, Ribes has served as interim director of the graduate certificate program in Science, Technology, and Society Studies – and he is lead values coordinator for SECURE, the US national coordinating center for research security. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology / Science Studies from UC San Diego. At the symposium, Ribes will discuss Openness.

Mert Can Bayar is an assistant teaching professor of data visualization in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW Bothell and a researcher with the Center for an Informed Public. His research examines public opinion, democratic citizenship, conspiracy theories, and misinformation in contexts including Türkiye and the United States. Bayar earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2023. At the symposium, Bayar will discuss Conspiracy.

Clara Berridge is an associate professor in the UW School of Social Work, adjunct faculty in the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, and core faculty in UW’s Disability Studies Program. Her research examines aging, technology, privacy, autonomy, and the ethics of surveillance, particularly in care settings. She developed Let’s Talk Tech, an online tool designed to help people living with mild dementia participate in decisions about technology use in their care. Berridge previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University and earned her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley and M.S.W. from the University of Washington. At the symposium, Berridge will discuss Privacy.

Nora Kenworthy is a professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at UW Bothell, with adjunct appointments in Global Health and Anthropology. Her research examines how politics, technology, philanthropy, and inequity shape the health of communities. She is the author of Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare. Kenworthy earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and her B.A. from Williams College. At the symposium, Kenworthy will discuss Care.

Stephanie Kerschbaum is a professor of English and director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at UW. Her research examines disability, accessibility, rhetoric, writing, and communication about difference. She is the author of Toward a New Rhetoric of Difference and Signs of Disability and co-editor of Negotiating Disability: Disclosure and Higher Education. Kerschbaum is also affiliated with UW’s Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences, where she has contributed to guidance on accessible teaching. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. At the symposium, Kerschbaum will discuss Agency.

Nassim Parvin is a professor in the UW Information School and Associate Dean for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access & Sovereignty. Her research is centered on social justice as it shapes, and is reshaped by, emerging technologies, ranging from moral algorithms in self-driving cars to surveillance dreams built into smart dust. Integrating theoretically-driven humanistic scholarship with design-based inquiry, her undisciplined writings appear in venues spanning design studies, philosophy, computing, and STS; and her designs have been exhibited in venues such as the Smithsonian Museum. She is the co-author and co-editor of the book Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen. She earned her Ph.D. in Design from Carnegie Mellon University. At the symposium, Parvin will discuss Diversity.

Ekin Yasin is a teaching professor in the UW Department of Communication and director of the Communication Leadership graduate program. Her teaching and research examine organizational culture, storytelling, digital media, teamwork, and communication in professional and educational settings. She received UW’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2018 and regularly shares her approaches to active learning and inclusive pedagogy through workshops. Her recent research explores team dynamics in graduate education. Yasin has also written about food and travel for Turkish publications and organized community food events in New York and Seattle. She earned her Ph.D. in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University. At the symposium, Yasin will discuss Profit.

Lisa Hoffman is a professor in the School of Urban Studies at UW Tacoma and an anthropologist whose research examines place, power, subjectivity, and urban life. Her current work focuses on genetics, precision medicine, and the ways risk, disease (cancer), and technology shape contemporary life. Her earlier research examined professionals, volunteers, and green urbanisms in contemporary China. Hoffman earned her B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University, M.A. in China Regional Studies from the University of Washington, and Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from UC Berkeley. At the symposium, Hoffman will discuss Risk.

Saadia M. Pekkanen is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Professor of International Studies at UW, with adjunct appointments in Political Science and Law. She is founding director of the Space Law, Data, and Policy Program and the Program on Strategy, Policy, and Diplomacy Research. Her scholarship examines international relations and international law, with particular emphasis on outer space, security, diplomacy, and the foreign affairs of Japan and Asia. Pekkanen has published eight books and is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Space Security. She earned master’s degrees from Columbia University and Yale Law School and a doctorate in Government from Harvard University. She is an elected member of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) and a lifetime member of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR). At the symposium, Pekkanen will discuss War.

Tim Brown is an assistant professor in the UW Department of Bioethics and Humanities whose research spans biomedical ethics, philosophy of technology, feminist thought, and neuroethics. His work examines how neurotechnologies may affect agency, identity, embodiment, and social inequity. Brown is a founding member and longtime contributor to the Neuroethics Thrust within UW’s Center for Neurotechnology and has contributed to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts with the International Neuroethics Society. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Washington and his B.A. in Philosophy from UC Santa Cruz. At the symposium, Brown will discuss Power.

Lead Conveners | Thematic Dinner Conversations

Leah Ceccarelli is a professor in the UW Department of Communication, director of the Science, Technology, and Society Studies Graduate Certificate, and is on the Society + Technology faculty leadership team. Her body of work examines the rhetoric of science, including how scientists communicate across disciplines and with public audiences and how scientific controversies take shape in public discourse. She is the author of Shaping Science with Rhetoric and On the Frontier of Science and a Fellow of the Rhetoric Society of America. She earned her Ph.D. from Northwestern University. At the symposium, Ceccarelli will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Tradition.

Adrienne Russell is the Mary Laird Wood Professor of Communication at UW and co-director of the Center for Journalism, Media, and Democracy. Her research examines journalism, emerging technologies, political communication, activism, and the conditions that support democratic and participatory publics. She is the author of The Mediated Climate, Journalism as Activism, and Networked: A Contemporary History of News in Transition. Russell earned her Ph.D. in Journalism and Mass Communication from Indiana University Bloomington. At the symposium, Russell will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Authorship.

Aylin Caliskan is an associate professor in the UW Information School, an adjunct associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and co-director of the UW Tech Policy Lab. A computer scientist by training, her research examines artificial intelligence and its societal impacts, with special attention to ethics and safety in AI, privacy, natural language processing, multimodal machine learning, and human-AI collaboration. Her research was among the first to rigorously demonstrate that machine-learning models trained on language encode human-like biases. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Drexel University. At the symposium, Caliskan will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Expertise.

Brandon Locke is program manager for the Center for Advances in Libraries, Museums, and Archives (CALMA) in the UW Information School. CALMA brings together scholars and practitioners concerned with the past, present, and future of libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions, creating opportunities for research, collaboration, and public engagement across these fields. Locke has more than a decade of experience working in digital scholarship and advocating for open access publishing and ethical open data practices. At the symposium, Locke will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Openness.

Huatong Sun is a professor of Communication in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW Tacoma. Her research and teaching bring together communication, rhetoric, human-computer interaction, and design. Her decolonial design approach explores how technologies can be created in ways that address unequal power relations and support empowerment across cultures and communities. She is the author of the award-winning books Global Social Media Design and Cross-Cultural Technology Design. Sun earned her Ph.D. in Communication and Rhetoric/Human-Computer Interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. At the symposium, Sun will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Conspiracy.

Brittani Gambrell is an intellectual property and brand attorney at Schwabe, one of our event sponsors. Gambrell works with technology, retail, and consumer-product companies. Her practice encompasses intellectual property, privacy and data security, trademarks and copyright, advertising and marketing, software licensing, and e-commerce. Before joining Schwabe, she completed a year-long fellowship at Nike, working across consumer, sports and brand marketing, digital, and intellectual property teams. Gambrell earned both her J.D. and B.A. in Legal Communications from Howard University. At the symposium, Gambrell will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Privacy.

Emily Tseng is an assistant professor in UW’s Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering and an affiliate with the Center for an Informed Public. Her research explores how computing mediates harm, how to intervene, and what it means to do so responsibly. Trained as a scientist-advocate for survivors of intimate partner violence, she works across interpersonal, organizational, and societal levels to build safer sociotechnical infrastructures. Her current work includes participatory approaches to AI evaluation and safety, and research on how AI shapes norms of care and harm in interpersonal relationships. She earned her Ph.D. in Information Science from Cornell University. At the symposium, Tseng will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Care.

Marika Cifor is an associate professor in the UW Information School and adjunct faculty in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies. A feminist scholar of archival and digital studies, her research examines how communities marginalized by gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability, and HIV status document themselves and are represented through archives and digital cultures. She is the author of Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS and co-founder of the Information School’s AfterLab. She earned her Ph.D. in Information Studies from UCLA. At the symposium, Cifor will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Agency.

Agnieszka Jeżyk is the Maria Kott Endowed Assistant Professor of Polish Studies in UW’s Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures. Her research and teaching interests include twentieth- and twenty-first-century Polish literature and film, European avant-garde movements, poetry and poetics, horror studies, and psychoanalysis. Her current book project examines marginal subjectivities in Polish avant-garde poetry of the 1920s. Jeżyk earned her Ph.D. in Slavic Studies from the University of Illinois Chicago and her earlier degrees in Polish Literature and Culture Studies from Jagiellonian University in Kraków. At the symposium, Jeżyk will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Diversity.

Fiona Wills is Associate Vice Provost for Innovation Development & Commercialization at UW CoMotion, where she directs the Innovation Development Group overseeing intellectual property, material transfer agreements, innovation management, and licensing. Her team works with UW researchers to move discoveries toward public impact through licensing to existing companies, faculty-founded startups, and direct-to-user models. Wills has a scientific background in protein biochemistry and cell biology and previously worked in business development and health technology assessment. At the symposium, Wills will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Profit.

Shannon Cram is an associate professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW Bothell, where she coordinates the Science, Technology, and Society program. Her research examines relationships among nature, science, toxicity, and power, particularly how societies reckon with contaminated environments and define risk, health, safety, and security. She is the author of Unmaking the Bomb: Environmental Cleanup and the Politics of Impossibility, which examines remediation at Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Cram earned her Ph.D. in Geography from UC Berkeley. At the symposium, Cram will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on Risk.

Erin McElroy is an associate professor in the UW Department of Geography. Their research examines intersections of technology, gentrification, empire, racial capitalism, housing justice, and social movements, alongside practices of countermapping and transnational solidarity. McElroy is the author of Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions in Postsocialist Times and co-founder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, a collective that uses data visualization, mapping, oral history, and other tools to support housing justice. They earned their Ph.D. in Feminist Studies from UC Santa Cruz. At the symposium, McElroy will serve as Lead Convener for the dinner conversation on War.

Conversationalists | Fireside Chat

Ryan Calo is the Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor at the University of Washington, with appointments in the School of Law and Information School and a courtesy appointment in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. His research examines law and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotics, privacy, and misinformation. Calo is a founding co-director of the UW Tech Policy Lab, co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public, and faculty leader for Society + Technology at UW. He has testified before the U.S. Senate and German Parliament and spoken at the Obama White House and Aspen Ideas Festival. Calo serves on the board of Hugo House and earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan. At the symposium, Calo will join Gabriel Solis in a Fireside Chat to conclude the evening.

Gabriel Solis is Divisional Dean of the Arts and a professor of Music at UW. An ethnomusicologist and music historian, his research examines music, memory, racialization, jazz, popular music, contemporary Indigenous music, and emerging questions around AI-generated music. His scholarship has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Mellon Foundation. In addition to research and writing, he is a sax player who seeks the edges of jazz and improvised music. He earned his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology and Historical Musicology from Washington University in St. Louis. At the symposium, Solis will join Ryan Calo in a Fireside Chat to conclude the evening.

Schwabe is a Pacific Northwest law firm that offers an exceptional client experience based on a deep industry focus through the lens of our clients, colleagues, and communities. We provide a wide range of legal services through comprehensive, proactive advice, helping them achieve their objectives with strategy and care. With over 160 attorneys, Schwabe is one of the largest regional law firms in the Pacific Northwest, with offices in Portland, Bend, and Salem, Oregon; Seattle and Vancouver, Washington; Mountain View, California; and Anchorage, Alaska.

AI@UW envisions a future where AI at the University of Washington is a global model for innovation, diversity and societal impact — bridging disciplines and inspiring responsible applications of AI to address complex challenges. Our goal is to lead the way in advancing ethical, interdisciplinary AI research while fostering practical innovation to benefit society at large.

At the Information School, we prepare information leaders. We research information challenges and design solutions that improve people’s lives. We make information work.

We advance civic health through interdisciplinary research and education initiatives that help individuals, communities and institutions navigate our complex information environments.