Sing, Muse, of the triumphs and tribulations of Latin American scholars gathered to discuss the fragile threads linking Science, Technology, and Society. Sing, Muse, of the congress held earlier this year in Colombia, barely a couple of days after the presidential election with the rising shadow of fascism. Sing, Muse, of that uneasy feeling, sharpened throughout three days of intellectual exchange, leading to the realization that our inquiries must choose between the Scylla of romanticism and the Charybdis of rationalism. From the beginning I felt the hospitality of the professors of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, despite them being busy with final arrangements. Too aware of my peripheral role in this community, I decided to stay at the margin and pay close attention to others. A feminist ethnographer working with textiles gave the inaugural lecture. She started by confessing her ambivalent feelings about the usefulness of these international meetings. She next remembered one of the first congresses of the Latin American network, where John Law eagerly spoke about non-human agency. Despite the lack of remuneration and the inevitable waste (printed materials, disposable coffee cups, megabytes of stored files in the cloud, etc.), the committee accepted the challenge of hosting the 16th Congress of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (ESOCITE), hoping it would be an opportunity to connect different researchers and projects. The nostalgia in the room was almost palpable. (read more...)