We are looking for papers for the panel Infrastructure as the Boundary Media/Medium at the coming 4S (Society of Science and Society Studies) conference at Seattle, WA, United States, September 3-7, 2025. We hope to encourage submissions from different disciplines including media studies, critical infrastructure studies, urban planning, and history of STS. Submission (~250 words abstract) processes should be completed via official website of 4S below.

Rin Huang (they/she)

Department of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Washington, Seattle

Tianren Luo (He/him)

Department of Comparative Literature, Brown University

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4S Open Panel (No. 12): Infrastructure as the Boundary Media/Medium

Infrastructure operates along two distinct yet interrelated valences: inhumanness and embodiment. Alan Liu underscores this duality in his initiative for critical infrastructure studies, observing that it “obviates older distinctions between material base and cultural superstructure.” Infrastructure is often theorized as unseen materiality, submerged below the surface and removed from everyday communal horizons (Starosielski), or as a physical substrate that extends beyond the confines of “screen and studio” (Parks). Yet, the role of human agents remains essential to its full functioning, as infrastructure relies on human labor for maintenance and exists among complex modes of social or political “interconnection.” Infrastructure invites a range of affective investments: it becomes an object and site of desire, hope, and imagination, shaping sensations and producing distinct modes of engagement. Furthermore, bodies—human and nonhuman—lost invisibility within standardized infrastructure, demonstrated by STS case studies on cables, labor unions, and knowledge institutions. This broader view is also reflected in AbdouMaliq Simone’s concept of “people as infrastructure” and more recent discussions of “emotional infrastructure.” Together, these scholarly perspectives contribute to an intricate intellectual landscape that resists any simplistic dichotomy – the very notion of infrastructure itself mediates.

Why has “infrastructure” emerged as a powerful mediation perspective? Susan Leigh Star’s “boundary object” suggests infrastructure as the “trading zone” facilitating social discourse exchanges. Conflicts and negotiations continuously reverberate in the mass technology-object network. This panel welcomes papers seeking to promote conversations between Critical Infrastructure Studies and Media Studies, exploring how STS and the humanities can mutually enlighten each other.

Proposal Format:

Short Abstract (250 words max)

Proposal Deadline:

January 31, 2025

Notice of Acceptance:

March 15, 2025

Proposal Submission:

https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_seattle.php

Panel Organizers:

Rin Huang, rinhuang@uw.edu

Tianren Luo, tianren_luo@brown.edu