organizers

Abby Kinchy, Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Abby Kinchy is a sociologist working in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Her research centers on: 1) the social and political dynamics of controversies over new and potentially dangerous technologies, 2) how activists negotiate multiple scales of governance (local, national, international) when confronting food, water, and energy challenges, and 3) the use of citizen science as a tool of social movements and as form of civic organizing. She is the author of Seeds, Science, and Struggle: The Global Politics of Transgenic Crops (MIT, 2012). She was the principal investigator for the Watershed Knowledge Mapping Project, an NSF-sponsored study using a combination of GIS mapping and qualitative interviews to find how volunteer water monitoring projects help rural communities to understand and respond to the impacts of the natural gas industry.

Roopali Phadke, Professor of Environmental Studies at Macalester College

Roopali Phadke is a political scientist working at the nexus of environmental studies, science and technology Studies (STS) and development studies.  Her research focuses on 1) energy and climate policy, 2) citizen science, community based research methodologies and participatory technology assessment, and 3) sustainable development initiatives and institutions. She is currently the principal investigator on a NSF-sponsored study on Mining Futures in the United States. She also recently completed a NOAA-GLISA funded project on diversity and deliberation in urban climate adaptation called Ready & Resilient, which received a 2016 award for institutional innovation from the Climate Adaptation Partnership. In 2015-16, she was one of the co-organizers of the U.S WorldWide Views on Climate and Energy project, sponsored by the Danish Board of Technology to provide citizen input into the Paris COP21 Summit. Her work appears in journals including Climate Risk Management, Environmental Politics, Antipode and Science as Culture.

Jessica Smith, Associate Professor of Engineering, Design & Society at Colorado School of Mines

Jessica Smith is an anthropologist who studies the mining and oil and gas industries, with a focus on corporate social responsibility, engineering, labor, and gender. As Associate Professor in the Engineering, Design & Society Division of the Colorado School of Mines, she teaches and conducts interdisciplinary research with engineers and applied scientists. She is the author of Mining Coal and Undermining Gender: Rhythms of Work and Family in the American West (Rutgers University Press, 2014), which was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation. She co-organized the 2016 Energy Ethics: Fragile Lives and Imagined Futures conference at the University of St. Andrews and was recognized by the National Academy of Engineering for her Corporate Social Responsibility course serving as a national exemplar in teaching engineering ethics. Her research appears in journals such as Energy Policy; Science, Technology & Human Values; Social Studies of Science, American Anthropologist; and Science & Engineering Ethics.