#  Science, Technology, and Society Seminar: STS Circle at Harvard 

 



    ![Two-toned blue graphic background with the name of the seminar in white on top.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2025-04/Seminar%20STS%20Circle_0.png?itok=lofjKFnq) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **November 9, 2026** 

 12:15PM - 02:00PM EST 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS South, S354**  

 [1730 Cambridge Street  
Cambridge, MA 02138  
United States



 ](<https://www.google.com/maps?q=US MA Cambridge 02138 1730 Cambridge Street>) 

A light lunch is provided for those that register by 1:00pm on the Thursday before the event.

 

 

 



 

## The Contemporary Crisis Around Epistemology: Between Naïve Positivism and Sturdy Knowledge

### Speaker

- Gabriella Coleman, Faculty Associate. Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.

### Chair

- Sheila Jasanoff, Faculty Associate. Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies; Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy, Committee on Degrees in Environmental Science and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.

### Contact

**Tenzin Dadak**  
[tdadak@hks.harvard.edu](mailto:henryaustin@hks.harvard.edu)

### Abstract

This essay homes in on two visible epistemological expressions that share and reinforce a similar foundation. The first is a naïve form of liberal epistemology, common in journalism and science, for which truth-telling is treated as a straightforward exercise in reason. The second is the dominant framing of AI, cast by its most ardent supporters as the highest-octane intelligence machine the world has ever seen. These ostensibly antipodal sentiments intersect and feed into a more general zeitgeist around questions of knowledge, truth, and facts. Both treat knowledge as something obvious, readily accessible, and easily settled, and neither camp contends with how difficult it is to establish robust knowledge even under the best conditions. Against this backdrop, I argue that social scientists need to recommit to sturdy knowledge, an existing vision indebted to an long standing literature in STS and the history of science and one that refuses both the hubris of naïve objectivity and the retreat into relativism.

### Bio

Gabriella (Biella) Coleman is the Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Anthropology at [Harvard University](https://anthropology.fas.harvard.edu/people/gabriella-coleman), a faculty associate at the [Berkman Center for Internet and Society](https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/gcoleman), and a faculty affiliate in the [History of Science Department](https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/people/gabriella-coleman). Her scholarship covers the politics, cultures, and ethics of hacking. She is the author of two books on computer hackers: *Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking* (Princeton University Press, 2012) and *Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous* (Verso, 2014), winner of the 2015 Diana Forsythe Prize. She is the founder and editor of [Hack\_Curio](https://hackcur.io/), a video portal into the cultures and politics of hacking, and in 2022 hosted the BBC4 radio and podcast series, [The Hackers](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012fjk) and delivered the Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures at the University of Rochester. She writes for popular media outlets including the New York Times, Wired, and the Atlantic. She formerly held the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University and was an assistant professor at NYU. In 2005, she received her Ph.D. in Socio-cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago.



 

##  Register for in-person or virtual event 

 



 [ Register to attend virtually arrow\_circle\_right ](https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/4S-AsB5NSqieO6_0XxEmAw#/registration) [ Register to attend in person arrow\_circle\_right ](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_DsiFs2FnLWaKYDpMIk_4GoxPIPh7HCihCzdLoVBCYiaZkg/viewform) 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ 2026–2027 ](/academic-year/2026-2027)
- [ Science, Technology, and Society Seminar: STS Circle at Harvard ](/seminars/science_society/schedule)
 
 

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