IstanbuLab — STS Talks
Speaker: Prof. Ulrike Felt
Moderator: Dr. Duygu Kaşdoğan
Curators: Doç. Dr. Ebru Yetişkin, Dr. Duygu Kaşdoğan
TAMING THE NUCLEAR: BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE IMAGINARIES
Whatever choice might be made in any given national context (and beyond) to expand the use of or to phase out of nuclear energy, we have come to live in “nuclear times”. And this well beyond any temporal horizon we usually think about. This invites to pose the question of what we can collectively learn from the ways nuclear pasts evolved? What futures did we imagine back then and how did major incidents (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima) disrupt the respective prevailing imaginaries of the nuclear and make us develop new ones?
Using the notion of "taming the nuclear" this talk will explore the different ways in which contemporary (Europen) societies have been dealing with "the nuclear" when faced with major issue and when needing to rethink nuclear futures — be they with or without active nuclear power plants. In doing so, this talk specifically addresses the role of art works used in imagining and simultaneously trying to tame an uncertain future. This ranges from efforts to address the nuclear through comic-like stories, over exhibitions to film projects. These spaces are different to usual science and technology oriented spaces of imagination and reflection and potentially offer alternative ways to open up and address the complexities at stake.
Ulrike Felt is Professor of Science and Technology Studies since 1999. She is currently head of the STS department and of the interfaculty research platform “Responsible research and innovation in academic practice” at the University of Vienna. From 2014 to 2018 she has also been dean of the Faculty of Social Science. Her research focuses on governance, democracy and public engagement as well as on changing academic research cultures. She has published widely covering fields of the life sciences/(bio)medicine, nuclear energy, nanotechnology, sustainability/environmental research and digital developments. Since 2017 she is president of European Association for the Study of Science and Technology.
Dr. Duygu Kaşdoğan received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies Program from York University (Toronto) in 2017. She was a visiting researcher in the Anthropology Department at MIT (Cambridge, USA) in 2013-2014; and, a research fellow in the Sociology Department at Koç University under the TÜBİTAK Co-Funded Brain Circulation Scheme fellowship programme in 2016-2017. Dr. Kaşdoğan works in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University since 2018. Her research interests focus on science-society relations, urban infrastructures, and sustainability. Since September 2019 she is a council member of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).
The event is free of charge. Invitations available from the Akbank Sanat ticket office on the event day, one hour before the event begins.