United States

Objective: how can science advice help counteract misinformation and disinformation? What are the challenges? How can diplomacy rely on evidence to counteract global polarization and fake news?



AAAS TWAS 2022

Science Advice to Address Misinformation and Disinformation 

Truth and Responsibility
“Truth and Responsibility” is a call to reimagine anthropology to meet the demands of the present moment. The imperative to bear witness, take action, and be held accountable to the truths we write and circulate invites us to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities. To whom are we giving evidence and toward what ends? For whom are we writing? To whom are we accountable, and in what ways? We are thrilled to announce the theme of the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting to be held in Baltimore, MD: Truth and Responsibility.

Many consider anthropology to be a holistic social science dedicated to cross-cultural understanding as a way to reduce bigotry and more fully comprehend “what it means to be human.” Others push against this readily circulated origin story, arguing that “human” remains a highly contested, political category—evident as the presumed set of rights and protections associated with the “human” continue to be stripped away violently in the communities in which some of us live and work. Which violent histories and epistemologies must anthropologists take responsibility for in telling truth(s) about the discipline’s development? How do the dual histories of settler colonialism and slavery continue to influence anthropological thought and practices? In these political times, how can anthropologists throughout the globe work to secure a capacious, progressive vision of the human? How might movements for anti-racism, decoloniality, queer liberation, and healing such as #BlackLivesMatter, #ProtectMaunaKea, and #MeToo push a future anthropology out of the ashes of the anthropological past? Finally, what are the limits and possibilities of the anthropological imagination?

Across subfields, we find truths in patterns of human behavior, language, evolution, and cultural worlds. Industry-positioned anthropologists do this by extending the boundaries of the discipline not as an administrative solution to job shortages but as a source of intervention and knowledge production. Increasingly, anthropologists who make use of the scientific method question how status and identity help to decide which facts come to represent truth. How might quantitative researchers use our methods to identify patterned truths, and what responsibility do we hold in challenging conventional wisdom about these patterns? What responsibility do we have to both our colleagues and larger publics, to push toward increased transparency and ethical grounding in our data collection, analysis, and presentation?

Pedagogy is a key medium for the communication of anthropological truths. Which (and whose) truths are foregrounded in our curricula? What are the possibilities for a liberatory pedagogy in a precarious, “post-truth” era? Conferences, museums, organizing spaces, and classrooms are sites where pedagogy and various forms of communication can help us interrogate the performativity of truth. How might anthropologists conceive of truth performances? Might visual, aural, and choreographic performances during AAA sessions offer anthropologists alternative genres for truth-telling and truth-making that provoke discussions about responsibility?

In accordance with the urgency of the year’s theme, the questions posed in this call for papers do not have easy answers. The hope is that those who submit proposals will take up these questions and engage in collective thinking and imagining about the truths we hold, the truths we challenge, and the responsibilities we bear in co-creating a free and more equitable world. All panel proposals should have a statement about how the panel has incorporated the goals of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and/or analysis of power.

Executive Session proposals have already been selected and speak directly to the theme “Truth and Responsibility.” To practice the critical reflexivity this call for papers invites, we asked that Executive Session submissions explicitly address the diversity of session participants, such as organizational/institutional affiliation, career stage, race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, class, religion, national identity, and gender. Proposals for Executive Sessions that demonstrated a commitment to equity and inclusion and/or a clear analysis of power (i.e. anti-imperialist, anti-white supremacist, decolonial, anti-ableist, feminist, anti-transphobic, anti-xenophobic, etc) were given priority. We are excited to be in conversation with residents of the Baltimore region and look forward to the discussions, performances, and actions generated by the dynamic group of anthropologists attending the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting.

AAA Annual Meeting 2021

“Truth and Responsibility” is a call to reimagine anthropology to meet the demands of the present moment. The imperative to bear witness, take action, and be held accountable to the truths we write and circulate invites us to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities. To whom are we giving evidence and toward what ends? For whom are we writing? To whom are we accountable, and in what ways? We are thrilled to announce the theme of the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting to be held in Baltimore, MD: Truth and Responsibility.

panel

[![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/948cf014279d85a14af949fc212a46d6.png)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dVnFNLYZ4E2LchKr_lvnBQfKcJUa0nFW/view?usp=sharing) 
**Welcome to the 2022 AAAS-TWAS Course on Science Diplomacy! **

We look forward to engaging with you all: participant pairs, speakers, facilitators and moderators throughout this course. 
We hope that thanks to this course, you will learn about key definitions, actors, and frameworks of science diplomacy; explore key contemporary international policy issues; and build a skillset to develop careers at the intersection of science and diplomacy. 

We expect more than 20 distinguished experts and practitioners to provide their invaluable contribution by sharing their expertise and experience throughout the course, starting from the inaugural session and through five thematic sessions: on diplomacy for science, science in diplomacy, science for diplomacy, science advice, and careers in science diplomacy. To make the course even more engaging, we also include a policy simulation on food security, led by the Centre for Systems Solutions, and group activities led by us.

This is the ninth edition of the AAAS-TWAS course. For the second year in a row we are experimenting with a new format whereby attendees participate in pairs made up of an early career scientist and a colleague from the diplomatic or policymaking arena. The 2021 pilot programme was well received and opens new opportunities to enhance collaboration across the scientific and diplomatic communities. Congratulations to participants on being part of the second cohort of science diplomacy pairs! We encourage you to read the following two stories about last year’s course, available here and here. 

For the first time ever, you will have the opportunity to interact continuously with other attendees on the virtual space of the Underline platform called “gather.town”, where you can network amongst yourselves in a more life-like way. In gather.town, participant pairs have been provided with their own table where they can meet and talk with each other, and there are other spaces to facilitate interaction between participants, including pairs from last year’s course. 
We expect participant pairs to enjoy using this highly interactive platform and take advantage of gather.town as much as possible, not only to widen their understanding about science diplomacy and discuss how the scientific and diplomatic communities can address global challenges, but also to build personal and collaborative relationships that can last beyond the days of the workshop. In fact, it is our hope that these partnerships across disciplines can lead to long-lasting institutional collaborations among you that may create positive change in your countries and regions based on science diplomacy initiatives.

AAAS and TWAS have partnered since 2011 to organize a week-long summer course at TWAS headquarters in Trieste, Italy, to introduce science diplomacy to participants mostly from the global South and explore key contemporary international policy issues relating to science, technology, environment and health. Since 2014, more than 350 alumni from over 50 countries have participated. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the course has been held virtually in 2020 and 2021. Should you wish to know more about this partnership, you can find more information as well as articles about past courses here. 

We look forward to an enriching and interactive course with you! 
Sincerely, 
The AAAS and TWAS organizing committee

The AAAS-TWAS Science Diplomacy training program was established in 2014 to expose scientists, policymakers, diplomats and other interested stakeholders and institutions to science diplomacy concepts, explore key contemporary international policy issues relating to science, technology, environment and health, and build a skillset to allow for careers at the intersection of science and diplomacy. Over the past years, we have trained over two hundred emerging leaders from more than 50 countries to address science diplomacy from global and regional perspectives. 

Broad Introduction of Science Diplomacy: Kim Montgomery, AAAS

Addressing preconceptions on science diplomacy 
A broad conversation with one speaker from each one of the panels focused on one of the pillars of the AAAS-RS framework on science diplomacy. Speakers will address preconceptions on science diplomacy and provide big picture answers before going into details during their next session.

Setting the scene: Introduction and Historical Background to Science Diplomacy

Objective: discuss the role of diplomacy for advancing the worldwide scientific enterprise, particularly in setting up large-scale research infrastructure. What lessons can be learned from large infrastructure projects that are at different stages of development?





Diplomacy for science: Large scale infrastructures 

Objective: reflect on the importance of scientific advice in negotiations related to environmental issues, particularly in connection to scare resources (freshwater), and global commons (oceans). How has scientific advice influenced ongoing negotiations to address regional and global environmental challenges?



Science in diplomacy: Negotiations on water and environmental matters

Centre for Systems Solutions (CRS) staff will guide participant pairs through the activities that will take place on Thursday, 28 July as part of the Cascading Climate Impacts social simulation: Future of Food.



Science in Diplomacy: Brief on Simulation

The Cascading Climate Impacts social simulation: Future of Food 

Objective: Reflect on the role that science has had in influencing relationships between countries, particularly when diplomatic relations are fraught. How does the soft power of science interact with international relations?



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Next from AAAS TWAS 2022

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