ISA Publications Committee Meeting
I was thrilled to visit Taipei again after the pandemic, this time for the International Sociological Association’s executive committee meeting. More specifically, I was there in my capacity as the editor for Current Sociology Monographs and SSIS book series. It was great to spend a few days with this group of lovely people. Academia Sinica … Continue reading
Three Conferences in China
In mid-September I visited China for the first time since the pandemic. I was thrilled to see friends and colleagues in Chengdu and in Beijing. It was a real honour to discuss how to open up science communication with a distinguished panel this Tuesday in Beijing at the 2023 World Conference on Science Literacy (please … Continue reading
Co-Host UK-India G20 Event in Delhi
I felt very privileged to co-organise this UK-India dialogue on BioGovernance and Science Diplomacy with Krishna Ravi Srinivas at the RIS in Delhi last week, as part of a series of discussions leading up to this year’s G20 meeting. (Background paper and full agenda can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eMdA5Gzn) We were thrilled to have Dr Renu Swarup give the opening … Continue reading
Decolonising policy
Following my Critical Policy Studies article on decolonising science policy , it was great to be invited to contribute to the panel “Beyond Critical? Decolonialising Policy Studies organised by CPS editing team at the 6th International Conference on Public Policy. My wonderful colleague Dr. Trude Sundberg also gave a talk at the event, on the topic ‘Decolonialising … Continue reading
Legacies of the Asilomar
The three day event, ‘Engineering Life: Regulating Science, Risks, and Society in Europe‘, organised by Luis Campos (Rice University), Francesco Cassata (University of Genoa and Centro Linceo ‘B. Segre’), and Christina Brandt (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) in June was a real intellectual treat. I was glad to be able to contribute a talk, titled ‘From Self-Governing to … Continue reading
Ahead of the Future
As an empirical sociologist, I normally avoid speculating about the future in public. But I was immediately intrigued when I received the invitation to give a talk at the Future Trends Forum organised by the Bankinter Innovation Foundation. This is partly because this year the Forum brought together scientific experts from the fields of AI, … Continue reading
‘Augmented Agency’ at the End of April
At the time of writing, it’s already August. I have been on the road a lot since April. This also includes two extended travel with my parents to celebrate their respective 70th birthday 🎉. The ‘Augmented Agency ∝ Augmented Fairness Forum’ was definitely a highlight of GSEJ’s event of 2022/23 (notice the symbol in the … Continue reading
Science Participation in Brazil
Another event I organised recently was an ISRF funded forum on ‘Citizen science and Our Social-Technical Future: A Brazilian Perspective’, you can now watch the main talks on Youtube It was so wonderful to have an almost 150-minute discussion with leaders of the citizen science movement in São Paulo. The recording can be found on Youtube. At the … Continue reading
Recent Work Relating to Human Genome Editing
It was a privilege to be a main speaker again at the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing on 6-8 March 2023 at the Francis Crick Institute. It was also a great pleasure to meet up with so many friends that I haven’t been able to see for quite a long time due to COVID. … Continue reading
BioGovernance Commons Session on CRISPR
The first two months of 2023 were exceptionally intense for me. One main reason was that I, and Prof. Ruipeng Lei in China co-organised another BioGovernance Commons session on 11 Feburary. It was the first time that Jiankui He agreed to speak at a open discussion with Chinese academics on CRISPR technology since his release from prison. … Continue reading
Joy Zhang 