Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and women's and gender studies and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the University of Michigan, has been elected incoming president-elect of the Society for Social Studies of Science, an international nonprofit association for researchers in science and technology studies (also known as science, technology, and society studies). The interdisciplinary field, often called STS, examines issues ranging from the social life of emerging technologies and public trust in expertise to equity in innovation and the role of science in policymaking.
Parthasarathy will serve a three-year leadership term with the society, known as 4S: one year as president-elect starting in October 2026, followed by a two-year term as president, from 2027 to 2029.
In a statement, Parthasarathy emphasized her commitment to translating STS ideas for the public and policymakers.
"It's important for STS to inform the most serious questions of our time, from how to manage AI and other emerging technologies to why there is declining trust in expertise," she said. "Particularly at a moment when the humanities and social sciences are under attack at universities across the world, I believe that 4S can play an important role in supporting colleagues, demonstrating how STS thinking is crucial for societies to realize better futures, and cultivating new STS concepts to meet tomorrow's challenges."
Parthasarathy's scholarship focuses on the politics of knowledge and expertise in public policy, as well as the social, equity and political dimensions of technological innovation and innovation policy in cross-national and global perspective. She is the author of Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care and Patent Politics: Life Forms, Markets, and the Public Interest in the United States and Europe. She is writing her third book on the politics of inclusive innovation, with a focus on sanitation and menstruation in India.
A longtime member of 4S, Parthasarathy previously served as the student representative to the 4S Council, where she helped establish the STSGRAD listserv and worked with colleagues to create the society's student section. She later served on the 4S Council from 2014 to 2017 and has held editorial roles with leading STS journals, including Engaging Science, Technology, and Society and Science, Technology, & Human Values.
About the Society for Social Studies of Science
The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) is an international, nonprofit association founded in 1975 that fosters interdisciplinary and engaged scholarship in social studies of science, technology, and medicine (a field often referred to as STS). Comprising researchers and practitioners, the field of STS includes Science and Technology Studies; Science, Technology, and Society; and comparable domains of research, teaching, and practice in many languages.
