Save the Date: STS Graduate Research Symposium

Date: Friday, September 19

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Location: ANN 106

Ph.D. students who received summer grant funding from STPL will share the results of their research. The daylong event will comprise four panels, each with a different USC faculty member serving as respondent. Students represent numerous disciplines and constituent schools of USC. We are grateful to Dornsife College and to the Annenberg School for their support of STS summer research stipends for Ph.D. students.

Please RSVP for the event at this link.

Silhouettes of people in a space with flowers and artistic effects projected on the walls.

Program Overview:

10:00–10:55 a.m – Panel I: Managing Nature

  • Aline Bravo Sandoval, “Mapping Experiences of a Dry River”
  • Jaden Morales, “Petro-Plantations: Energy and Non-Sovereign Statecraft in Puerto Rico”
  • Elana Simon, “Mapping Endangered Nature: Understanding Environmental Impact Reports for Urban Development from the Anomaly of the Listed Bumblebees”

Discussant: Prof. Andrea Ballestero (Anthropology)

11:00–11:55 a.m – Panel II: Techno-Visualities

  • Riley Gold, “The Simulated Runway: James J. Gibson’s Wartime Motion Picture Research”
  • Jiwon Park, “Designing Daejeon: Developmentalism, the Digital, and the 1993 Expo”
  • Alphoncina (Allie) Lyamuya, “Behind the Frosted Glass? Automated Humanitarian Cash Aid Delivery”

Discussant: Prof. Cristina Visperas (Communication)

11:55 a.m.–1:00 p.m. – Lunch

1:00–1:55 p.m – Panel III: Bio/Necropolitics

  • Kedi Zhou, “Frozen: Reimagine the Family and Reproductive Future Through ART”
  • Joel Ferrall, “Practicing the Waitlist: The Repeated Reinvention of Heart Transplant Allocation”
  • Charlotte Gibbs, “Human–Animal Relationships during the Holocaust”

Discussant: Prof. Nayan Shah (American Studies and Ethnicity / History)

2:00–2:55 p.m – Panel IV: Techno-Imaginaries

  • Stephen Yang, “Staging Seamless Assistance: Demoing Fantasies of Personal AI-to-Come”
  • Seongkyung Lee, “Developmentalism, Technocracy, and Democracy in the Age of AI: South Korea’s Dilemma”
  • Will Orr, “Epistemic Dirt: The Practices and Politics of Cleaning Data for AI Systems”

Discussant: Colin Maclay (Communication)