About 6S 2022 Sketch Groups

An initiative of the Student Section of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (6S), the 6S Sketch Groups are a new year-long program organized around research exercises focused on themes of shared interest of participants.

What

STS Faculty will lead the sketch groups through a research design and methods curriculum drafted by program leads. 2022 curriculum is shared publically here. Sketch exercises draw from an archive of existing sketches developed for the 2020 6S workshop (proceedings here) and the 2021 6S workshop (proceedings here). We imagine new sketches will continue to be developed over the years, building pedagogical resources for STS students and faculty.

When

In 2022, sketch group participants will commit to attending four virtual meetings between April and November culminating in a celebratory (hopefully in-person) dinner held at the annual 4S meeting at Cholula (Mexico) 7-10th December 2022.

Who

As part of this new pilot program, in 2022, there will be a total of two Sketch Groups, each consisting of no more than 10 participants. The participants of Sketch Groups will be selected through an application process that upholds principles of diversity and inclusion. We look forward to forge new group kinship and networks of diverse positionalities, histories, and experiences.

Current doctoral students, candidates and post-docs from across the world were encouraged to apply to this program. The 6S Representatives read all complete applications to develop the short-list of 2022 participants. We reviewed applications using a transparent criteria (available to view here). Criteria included review of the applicant's prior community engagement experience, commitment to full participation in the sketch group and how they practice STS thinking in their dissertation/research projects. The importance of applicant's STS practice was relevant to the selection process rather than necessarily the merit of their dissertation/research projects themselves.

A 6S engagement liaison is appointed to coordinate and facilitate the Sketch Group from amongst the participants of the sketch group. The engagement liaison will be offered an honorarium of $250 USD for their efforts and time. Faculty mentors will be offered a $500 USD honorarium for their efforts and time.

Why

The 6S Sketch Groups program replaces and merges aspects of the previous 4S mentorship program and 6S annual pre-conference workshop format. The 6S Representatives, with the approval of 4S Council, believes that leveraging multiple meetings over time and a small group structure will create opportunities for more complex mentoring relationships (peer/near-peer mutual mentoring alongside junior-senior mentoring; mentoring based on topical interests as well as identity categories; depth of relationship that can only be built over time).