Registration is now open here for the upcoming (online/hybrid) PhD training workshop of the Netherlands Graduate School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC)
The subject of ‘expertise’ has been a central topic for STS scholarship for decades. It is bound up with questions of trust and authority (whose expertise counts, or is even recognized as such), of participation and collaboration (what are the dynamics of interaction between holders of different types of expertise, such as professional and citizen scientists, or citizen-spokespersons and less influential citizens, etc.), and of epistemic justice (what are the underlying mechanisms and consequences of excluding, silencing or discrediting particular knowledges). In recent years, these questions have become all the more timely, going to the core of how not only the science system, but also how (democratic) societies operate. Studying expertise in action can take STS researchers right into the heart of heated controversies, but it can also lead them to work with taken-for-granted assumptions that may hide under the veneer of consensus. In this workshop, we will encounter a variety of perspectives and approaches, both conceptual and methodological, to help us understand the role and function of different forms of expertise in contemporary society.
This PhD training workshop will mostly take place online (encompassing a combination of synchronous and asynchronous elements), from Monday 3 November to Wednesday 5 November 2025. In the weeks immediately prior to the workshop, site visits to relevant at various locations within the Netherlands will take place. Confirmed site visits include Museum Boerhaave in Leiden on October 28 or the Rathenau Institute in The Hague on October 30, 2025. Participants will go to one of these locations. Those who reside outside the Netherlands will prepare through an alternative activity.
The confirmed speakers at this event will include Steve Epstein (Northwestern University), Jaron Harambam (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Eva Kunseler (Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Noortje Marres (University of Warwick) and Aarthi Sridhar (Dakshin Foundation).
Registration for this workshop is possible between September 10 and September 26, 2025.
WTMC PhD candidates who are registered to do the full WTMC trajectory can register for free. For external PhD candidates a participation fee of € 900 is charged. A discounted fee of € 750 is available for PhD candidates who are individual members of WTMC.
After their acceptance, external participants will receive an email with an invoice and online-payment request and receipt. To participate, you must pay the fee via the online payment request. Registration to the workshop is final after the advance payment has been received by WTMC.
NB: For this workshop, a few free seats are reserved for STS PhDs who are affiliated with institutions in low- and middle-income countries AND who do not have access to institutional funding. If you are interested in one of the free seats, please send a 1-page letter in which you explain your motivation why you would like to join the workshop directly to the training coordinators Alexandra Supper: a.supper@maastrichtuniversity.nl and Evelien de Hoop: e.de.hoop@vu.nl before September 26, 2025.
Contact: If you have any content-related questions regarding this workshop, please feel free to contact the training coordinators Alexandra Supper: a.supper@maastrichtuniversity.nl or Evelien de Hoop: e.de.hoop@vu.nl
For practical questions, please contact wtmc@vu.nl
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