In numerous fields of science, work, and everyday life, humans and machines have been increasingly entangled, developing an ever-growing toolbox of interactions; and this is happening on a local, regional and global level. These entanglements and interactions are changing the structures and practices of our working lives, and they are modifying the way in which science and technology are organized. Furthermore, the new practices, entanglements, possibilities and restrictions effect far-reaching changes in the lives and identities of human beings, affecting - to name just a few aspects sex, gender, sexual identity, age, skin color, migration, or cultural background . These factors are both modified and modifiers in the ongoing new entanglements between humans and machines.
These questions have been tackled both in their complexity and in single case studies by PhD program "Gendered Configurations of Humans and Machines. Interdisciplinary Analyses of Technology" (in short: KoMMa.G); a joined program of Technische Universität Braunschweig, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences and Braunschweig University of Art, sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Culture, Lower Saxony.
After almost three years of individual and collaborative, interdisciplinary research, we now want to bring our own perspectives and (preliminary) results into resonance with related research on an international level, which is why we are organizing this conference. The conference aims at bringing together international researchers working on subjects in the fields of engineering, technology, humanities, and the social and natural sciences, who are interested in reflecting on interdisciplinarity/multidisciplinarity, on science and technology studies, as well as gender, feminist, queer, intersectional, and postcolonial studies.
The conference is divided into five panels considering the different yet connected dimensions of the conference topic. The first panel aims at reflecting on the meaning of interdisciplinarity itself, while the following sessions focus on the relations of human, machine and gender from diverse disciplinary perspectives and in different areas of research:
Galit Wellner: "I-Algorithm-Dataset: Mapping the solutions to gender bias in AI"
Cecile Crutzen: "The win-win-Competition of Humans and Non-Humans"
Mitali Thakor: "Objects, Inhumans and Robotics: Queer STS Future"
Chia-Ling Wu: "Making Multiple Babies: Assisted Conception Controversy and Risk Governance"