[csaa-forum] Fwd: [TransAsiaSTS] Emerging Issues in Science and Society Symposium, 27 &29 April

[Thao Phan]

*[image: EISS-2021-Eventbrite-banner.jpeg]*


*Emerging Issues in Science and Society 2021Unprecedented Science*

*Date: *Tuesday 27 April & Thursday 29 April, online

*More details and registration: *
https://scienceandsocietynetwork.deakin.edu.au/27-29-april-emerging-issues-in-science-and-society-eiss-symposium/
<https://scienceandsocietynetwork.deakin.edu.au/27-29-april-emerging-issues-in-science-and-society-eiss-symposium/>

To meet the great challenges of this century we need the best science, but
also the best social and humanities research. The answers that science
provides are often not enough to make the changes we need to see in the
world. Only when researchers work together across disciplinary divides can
we be sure we are asking the right questions.

The Emerging Issues in Science and Society (EISS) symposium is supported by
the National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science at the
Australian Academy of Science. Over two days, scientists will be in
conversation with humanities and social scientists to generate new answers
and new questions to address some of the biggest challenges of our time.

The theme for this year’s EISS is *Unprecedented Science* and will feature
sessions on modelling COVID-19, the “anthropause,” re-framing biocultural
collections, and biometrics and the politics of recognition.

*Session descriptions:*

*Session 1: The Anthropause*

The Anthropause is the global and ongoing reduction in human mobility
resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This temporary “pause” in mass-travel
represents a unique opportunity to examine the relationship between humans
and nature, and to examine what changes need to occur for a more
sustainable future. In this panel, our speakers explore the implications of
this unpredicted lack of human activity in terms of its ecological impacts,
the ethics of human-environment interaction and new possibilities for
more-than-human cities.
*About the presenters:*

*Wendy Steele* is an Associate Professor in Cities and Sustainability at
the Centre for Urban Research (CUR) at RMIT University in Melbourne. She is
also an expert commentator on urban planning, policy and governance. Her
current research focuses on the governance and planning of cities in a
climate of change with an emphasis on climate justice/security, critical
urban infrastructure and cyborg/smart cities.

*Euan Ritchie* is a Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation in the
School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Centre for Integrative
Ecology at Deakin University. Euan’s research is focussed on finding
solutions to the challenges of conserving biodiversity in a human-dominated
and rapidly changing world. He also invests significant time in science
communication and environmental policy.
*About the chair:*

*Will Smith* is an Associate Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute
at Deakin University. He is an anthropologist and human geographer whose
research critically explores environmental governance, indigenous
livelihoods and climate change in the Philippines. He is the author of
Mountains of Blame: Climate and Culpability in the Philippine Uplands
(University of Washington Press, 2020).

 *Session 2: Biometrics and the politics of recognition*

Are biometric tools forces of good, heralding a brave new world where
systems can be trusted, or an oppressive world of surveillance and
governmentality? How good are these technologies, and how can they be used
for good? What are the key issues, beyond the binaries of good and evil
that often overwhelm the debate? Professor Raj Vasa, an expert in AI and
complex software design, and Dr Pawan Singh, social scientist and
contemporary historian, discuss the technical and social aspects of facial
recognition and other forms of biometrics. Their conversation will be
moderated by Dr Shiri Krebs, an expert in AI law and national and
international security.
*About the presenters:*

*Rajesh Vasa* is an innovator and entrepreneur with over two decades of
experience spanning both industry and academia with a specialisation in
artificial intelligence and complex software systems design. He leads the
translational research at the Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute at
Deakin University. His recent and current work spans multiple areas
including building intelligent homes, assessing clinical risk from medical
data streams, improving patient care in hospitals, analysis of data from
complex simulations, conversational agents to work in educational settings,
and analysing data streams to improve productivity in various settings

*Pawan Singh* is a visiting fellow at the Australia India Institute. From
2016-2019, he was a New Generation Network Fellow in contemporary histories
at Deakin University. With a PhD in Communication from the University of
California San Diego, he has also served as a Hindi-news media language and
translation consultant for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a
project commissioned by the Gates Foundation. His research examines the
right to privacy in India from a legal, technological and cultural
perspective, particularly as these relate to questions of social
identities, justice and visibility within datafying systems such as
Aadhaar, the Indian biometric identity project.
*About the chair:*

*Shiri Krebs* is an Associate Professor of Law at Deakin University and
Co-lead, Law and Policy Theme, the Australian Government Cyber Security
Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC). She is also an affiliate scholar at
Stanford University’s Centre for International Security and cooperation
(CISAC). Dr Krebs’ research focuses on predictive technologies in legal
decision-making processes, at the intersection of law, science and
technology. Her scholarship has been published at leading academic journals
(e.g. the Harvard National Security Journal) and granted her several
research awards, including the Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Researcher
Award for Career Excellence (Deakin University, 2019) and the American
Society of International Law (ASIL) ‘New Voices’ Award (2016). Dr Krebs has
taught in a number of law schools, including at Stanford University, where
she earned, with Honours, her Doctorate and Master Degrees in the Science
of Law.
*Session 3: Modelling Covid-19*

This session will discuss how mathematical modeling of emerging infection
and illness data have been interpreted by social and epidemiological
researchers to provide rapid information to inform policy in Victoria and
Australia.  We will also discuss how the politicians, health services and
the public have responded to this advice and compare to a global context.
 *About the presenters:*

 Professor *Catherine Bennett* has a distinguished career in public health
practice, research, academic governance and teaching. she specialises in
community transmission of infectious disease and trained in infectious
disease modeling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Catherine joined Deakin as Chair in Epidemiology in 2009 after eight years
with the University of Melbourne as Deputy Chair of the Academic Programs
Committee in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, and
Director of Population Health Practice in the Melbourne School of
Population Health.

*John Matthewson* is a philosopher of science with a background in clinical
medicine, based at the Albany campus of Massey University. His research
interests include: concepts of health and disease, and how these connect to
more fundamental biological notions such as evolutionary function;
scientific modelling, particularly regarding the limitations and trade-offs
faced by modellers, and what features of the modellers’ objectives and
subject domain affect those trade-offs; the delineation and investigation
of populations in biology, medicine, and the social sciences. The last of
these projects is the subject of a current Marsden Fast-Start grant,
through the Royal Society Te Apārangi.
*About the chair:*

Professor *Jeff Craig* is a Lecturer in Medical Sciences at School of
Medicine at Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Victoria. Prior to this, he
spent twenty years as a researcher at the Murdoch Children’s Research
Institute, Melbourne. He studies the role of epigenetics in mediating the
effects of early life environment on the risk for chronic disease. He is
currently developing epigenetic biomarkers from easy-to-collect biosamples.
 *Session 4: Re-framing biocultural collections*

How can we re-frame and re-centre Indigenous ways of knowing in Western
museum collections? What kinds of models for collaboration and
participation can we use to produce new histories and restore lost
knowledge practices? In this panel, our speakers will discuss the Robert
Neill fish collection held in the National Museum of Scotland and how a new
project aims to bring together Indigenous and Western scientific practices
as a model for cross-cultural and cross-sector collaboration between Menang
Nyungar cultural experts, museum partners, historians, and biologists of
marine species.
*About the presenters:*

*Tiffany Shellam* is an Associate Professor in History at Deakin
University. She works collaboratively with Noongar people and historians,
museum curators, archivists and librarians to critique the archives,
unearthing hidden and alternative histories generated by encounters between
Indigenous people and European explorers and setters in the early
nineteenth century

Second speaker TBC
*About the chair:*

*Emma Kowal* is a Professor of Anthropology in the Alfred Deakin Institute
for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. She is a cultural
and historical anthropologist who previously worked as a medical doctor and
public health researcher in Indigenous health. Much of her work is at the
intersection of science and technology studies, postcolonial studies and
indigenous studies. Her publications include the monograph Trapped in the
Gap: Doing Good in Indigenous Australia and the collection (co-edited with
Joanna Radin) Cryopolitics: Frozen Life in a Melting World. Her current
book project is entitled Haunting Biology: Science and Indigeneity in
Australia.
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