Short Abstract

This meet-up is for people interested in the social study of microbes. We especially welcome the new and the microbially curious who seek community and camaraderie in this particular academic niche. We also welcome members of our existing networks to foster cross-pollination and soft support.

Description

The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes (CSSM) is a hub for social scientists and artists conducting research on human-microbial relations. Our mandate has been to develop theory and methods to better make sense of the complex relations between humans, nonhumans, microbes, their environments, and their knowledge-making practices—all to anticipate the research questions for what is yet to come. This futurity is the inspiration for this meet-up as microbes are more-than-now with imminent and still unfathomable microbial phenomena to emerge.

We are particularly interested in gathering the microbially curious or newly immersed scholars who seek community and camaraderie in this particular academic niche. We also welcome members of our existing networks—former Fellows, hosts/participants of our previous external seminars, past students from our PhD school, and intellectual allies—to foster cross-pollination and soft support. (If the final program will allow, and for those in the know, we'll aim to recreate our potluck-style lunches of U35.)

Topically, this meet-up is for anyone engaging in research that centres microbes or microbial phenomena, including: antimicrobial resistance (AMR), zoonosis, One Health and its critiques, pandemic preparedness, viruses and viromes, phages, hygiene, hospital-acquired or nosocomial infections, biosecurity, biosafety, synbio and bioengineering, microbial innovations, precision fermentation, cellular agriculture, microbial patenting, microbiomes, gut-brain axis, vagus nerve, fermentation, composting and bokashi, bioremediation, soil microbes, aquatic microbes, extremophiles, microbial ethnographies, microbial lab ethnographies, more-than-representational methods, inter- and trans-disciplinary collaborations with various microbe experts, practice-based research and "making and doing" involving microbes, and more.

For more information on CSSM and our research culture, please see our article in EASST Review: https://easst.net/easst-review/42-2/introducing-the-centre-for-the-social-study-of-microbes-a-slime-mouldian-approach-to-research/