News and Events

EASTS Editors Win 4S Awards

Two of this year's 4S awards, the Infrastructure Award and the Bernal Prize, have gone to EASTS editors. Created in 2015, the Infrastructure Award is a relatively new one, aiming to "recognize exemplary initiative to build and maintain infrastructure supporting Science and Technology Studies." EASTS is not only the first academic journal to receive this award but also the first recipient based outside of Europe and the United States.

The selection committee notes that "EASTS was established just over a decade ago but has become an exciting, well-respected forum for publishing STS scholarship. Thanks to each of its issues it is possible to enjoy careful work centered on the wide range of STS topics that bridge STS with others, amplifying interpretations, languages, and insights, presented moreover in distinctive and attractive covers to the audience."

On behalf of all of EASTS's editors, Wen-Hua Kuo has penned an acceptance statement:

Though a relative newcomer, EASTS has been an active and visible presence at 4S meetings via its editorial meetings, paper sessions, and activities like "EASTS night." This in turn makes East Asia visible to the world—through not only the scholarly articles EASTS carries but also the research notes, forums, review articles, and essays. Since its very inception, EASTS has committed itself to being more than "just another STS journal"; aside from its own publishing role, EASTS has provided an umbrella for a growing network of STS scholars across Asia, transcending the various national STS societies and giving a space for global scholars to work within. By recognizing infrastructure as a network and a platform for building society, we are grateful that our work with the journal has been recognized this way. With this award, EASTS will continue to work closely on an expanding, interactive, and also challenging STS world in which East Asia is not an outsider but is a permanent part.

In EASTS's receiving of this award, we would like to thank Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology for its unconditional and generous support. We also want to thank Duke University Press, our publishing partner since 2012, for their world-class service and professionalism.

Trevor Pinch, a senior member of EASTS's advisory board, is the winner of this year's Bernal Prize. A renowned scholar in the field, Pinch has a deep connection to EASTS. He was one of the few mainstream scholars consulted and invited to the first EASTS conference in Taiwan back in January 2006, and since then he has become a firm supporter of the journal. His commentary paper for that first conference, titled "Studying Scientific Controversy from the STS Perspective"¹ and coauthored with Christine Leuenberger, is not only a piece that witnesses the history of EASTS but also remains an accessible, valuable work for those who want to understand the potential of East Asian STS as seen from the perspective of our first-ever issue. We congratulate Professor Pinch on his distinguished achievement and are deeply grateful for having him with us.

Other EASTS editors who have won the Bernal Prize include John Law (2015), Adele Clarke (2012), Evelyn Fox Keller (2011), and Brian Wynne (2010). For more information about the 4S Prize announcement, see http://www.4sonline.org/prizes.

EASTS Holds Workshop with HKIHSS

Collaborating with the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKIHSS), EASTS held the first international workshop on food technology in Hong Kong and in Puli, Taiwan, in May (for details, see below).

EASTS has been committed to the promotion of STS scholarship in Asia since our inception. Nonetheless, unlike our international conference meetings, held regularly every two or three years (the last one in 2017 at the 4S), this workshop was a more theme-focused, publication-oriented occasion for which scholars were carefully chosen and invited to present their work alongside a commitment to be a part of future thematic issues of EASTS.

Getting off the ground in August 2017 through several discussions with Wen-Hua Kuo, the workshop's key organizer is Angela Leung, an EASTS advisory editor and the director of...