Dr. Thoko Kamwendo, Author at International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society

Exploring and Mapping STS approaches to Science and Belief

Summary: A strength of the emerging academic field of Social Studies of Science and Belief is its theoretical and methodological diversity. In its current form the field combines approaches from sociology, religious studies, history, psychology, anthropology, and science and technology studies (STS). However, this diversity also means that it can be a challenge for scholars within the field to make use of approaches from outside their home disciplines. This project is designed to address this challenge. First, we will map and consolidate existing relevant and useful approaches from STS, with the principal research question: ‘how have approaches from STS been usefully applied to the study of science and belief, and what insights have they yielded?’ We will then develop a book proposal for an edited volume on STS approaches to science and belief. This process will include a 1-day online workshop to discuss potential contributions and organisation of the edited

The Cover That Wasn’t To Be

By Dr. Thoko Kamwendo I am busy putting together an edited collection of essays that take an STS approach to the study of science and religion, funded by the INSBS. As many of you know, there are several parts to creating an edited volume, including making tricky decisions about the cover. I recently received options for the front cover of the volume from Palgrave who will hopefully publish it sometime in the new year. As a freelance graphic designer, I really wanted a chance to design the front cover myself. But it was not to be. There are rules around covers of edited volumes that we have to abide by. So, I want to do the next best thing and share it with all of you in this blog post. I call it the Cover That Wasn’t to Be. Let me share the thinking behind it. The original idea behind

S3 Episode 4: STS and Religion in Conversation with Dr Thokozani Kamwendo, Dr Caroline McCalman, Dr Will Mason-Wilkes & Dr James Riley

In this episode James and Will welcome Dr Thokozani Kamwendo, post-doctoral researcher at Durham University, and Dr Caroline McCalman, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham, for a roundtable discussion on the relationship between scholarship in Science & Belief and Science & Technology Studies (STS). Thoko is the editor of a collection exploring this relationship, with Caroline providing a single-authored and co-authored contribution. As well as hosting the podcast, both James and Will are scholars very much at the intersection of these disciplines, and are also contributing chapters to the volume. In a departure from the usual format, James and Will hand over the hosting duties (at least temporarily) to Thoko, who leads us through the motivation for the volume, before Caroline, James and Will outline their own contributions, before engaging in a more wide-ranging discussion of the value of this kind of inter-disciplinary project for both STS scholars and