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Institute for Studies of Science

Join the ISoS inaugural conference at ZiF, Bielefeld on October 24, 2025

abstract lights — © Zacharie Elbaz / Unsplash

Science in Practice and in Society

Inaugural Conference of the Institute for Studies of Science (ISoS) on October 24, 2025

We are delighted to celebrate the founding of the Institute for Studies of Science (ISoS) as a Central Academic Institute at Bielefeld University. Our inaugural conference, “Science in Practice and in Society”, will be held at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) in Bielefeld (Germany), on October 24, 2025.

The Institute for Studies of Science (ISoS) has recently been founded as a forum and research hub dedicated to the pursuit of integrated and interdisciplinary studies of science, medicine, and technology. ISoS integrates perspectives from philosophy, history and sociology to reflect on science and its relationship with society. Our program is rooted in an interdisciplinary working mode, involving close collaboration with the sciences. At our inaugural conference, we will discuss interdisciplinary perspectives on the practice of science and its entanglement with society – and explore how these aspects are intertwined.

Keynote speakers

Barbara Prainsack, University of Vienna

Maël Lemoine, University of Bordeaux

Adrian Wüthrich, Technische Universität Berlin

Update:

We regret that Simone Rödder and Gabriele Gramelsberger, who were looking forward to participating, will unfortunately not be able to join our roundtable discussion.

We are, at the same time, very pleased to welcome Youssef Ibrahim (Universität Hamburg) as a participant in the discussion!

Conference Program

	Programme	Chair
09:00 - 09:15	Registration
09:15 - 09:30	Welcome Opening Address by Michaela Vogt, Vice-Rector for International Affairs, Diversity and Society
09:30 - 10:30	Barbara Prainsack (Universität Wien) “In the shadows of power: Troubling the foundations of evidence-based policy making“	Holger Straßheim
10:30 - 11:00	Break
11:00 - 12:30	ISoS Lightning Talks Lara Keuck: "Introducing the History and Philosophy of Medicine Group" Julie Schweer: "Computer Simulations as Tools in Explanatory Practice" Anton Killin: "Understanding Individualisation" Niels Taubert: "Open Knowledge Commons for an Open Society" Alejandro Esguerra: "Towards a Dark Sociology of Science" Christian Zumbrägel: "Fish on the Ladder – Fishways as Sites of Multidisciplinary Research" Carsten Reinhardt: "Historical Studies of Sciences"	Marie Kaiser
12:30 - 13:30	Lunch
13:30 - 14:30	Adrian Wüthrich (Technische Universität Berlin) "Scientific Practice and the Philosophy of Science: The Case of Network Epistemology"	Carsten Reinhardt
14:30 - 15:00	Break
15:00 - 16:30	Roundtable: Science in Practice and in Society Silke Beck (TU München) Meta Cramer (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Youssef Ibrahim (Universität Hamburg) Julia Schubert (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt) Sebastian Pfotenhauer (TU München)	Holger Straßheim Julie Schweer
16:30 - 17:00	Break
17:00 - 18:00	Maël Lemoine (Université de Bordeaux) "Does philosophy contribute to the production of scientific knowledge?"	Lara Keuck
19:00	Dinner (NUMA, Bielefeld)

Registration

The registration deadline for in-person attendance has ended on September 30. The talks and the roundtable discussion will be made accessible to online listeners via Zoom. In case you are interested, please send a short message to: isos@uni-bielefeld.de.

For administrative questions, please contact: isos-office@uni-bielefeld.de.

Location

The conference takes places at the ZiF - the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefeld:

Center for Interdisciplinary Research
Bielefeld University
Methoden 1
33615 Bielefeld
Germany

For travel information to ZiF, please click here:
https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/einrichtungen/zif/about/contact/

Organizers and Contact

Dr. Julie Schweer

Coordination ISoS

E-mail: isos@uni-bielefeld.de
Telephone: +49 521 106-67454
Room: Gebäude X A4-241

Silke Berger

Administration and finances

E-mail: isos-office@uni-bielefeld.de
Telephone: +49 521 106-3064
Room: Gebäude X B2-204

Prof. Dr. Holger Straßheim

Professor of Political Sociology

E-mail: holger.strassheim@uni-bielefeld.de
Telephone: +49 521 106-4627
Telephone secretary: +49 521 106-3868
Room: Gebäude X C3-210

Prof. Dr. Marie I. Kaiser

Wissenschaftsphilosophie

E-mail: kaiser.m@uni-bielefeld.de
: Homepage
Telephone: +49 521 106-4605
Telephone secretary: +49 521 106-6894
Room: Gebäude X A4-100

Prof. Dr. Carsten Reinhardt

E-mail: carsten.reinhardt@uni-bielefeld.de
: Homepage
Telephone: +49 521 106-4665
Telephone secretary: +49 521 106-6515
Room: Gebäude X A3-200