Last October, Bruno Latour - the famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist - passed away. He was perhaps best known for being one of the pioneering figures in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). His work covered a dizzying array of ideas – laboratory cultures, actor-networks, nature and politics – often written with a distinctly playful, irreverent, and provocative flair. And his ideas have been, and remain, influential over disciplinary space and time. After a career spanning four decades, they have travelled widely across intellectual borders and landscapes, and have renewed relevance today when considering vexing technoscientific issues and the how. 

To remember the life and work of Bruno Latour, Dr Dan Santos helped co-organize a half-day event with Professor Sujatha Raman (Centre for the Public Awareness of Science) and Professors Celia Roberts and Adrian Mackenzie (College of Arts & Social Sciences). The event was open to everyone – in-person and online, those who knew or had met Latour and those who were less familiar but still interested in his work. With around 40 people attending throughout the day, the mix of participants made for some amusing anecdotes and fascinating conversations.

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Being at this particular historical juncture – when the contours of expertise are being questioned, when our relationship to nature is being fundamentally redefined on multiple fronts (geologically, socially, culturally), and when climate change presents a formidable challenge to thinking about the present and the future, made for timely engagement with (re)visiting his work. The event was organized around four phases in his career, and we collectively tried to make sense of excerpts and figures from representative texts, including Science in Action, We Have Never Been Modern, The Pasteurization of France, Politics of Nature, and Down to Earth. Such collective sense-making constituted an experiment in engagement, assembling insights both familiar and fresh. Latour may have been polarizing but he was often provocative, and he always offered much to mull over.

The occasion was also one of beginnings. Latour’s passing in October 2022 was the impetus for wanting to host the event, but the idea came up at the first meeting of the Science and Society @ ANU network soon afterwards. Dan helped co-found the Science and Society @ ANU network late last year, and this was the first formal event of both the network and the year. The network is intended to be an open and inclusive community where scholars interested in the relationships between society, technology relationships can share work, discuss and collaborate. Following Latour then, as the community emerges we might note, and reflect on, the concerns that come to matter, the collectives we enable and assemble, and the worlds we contribute to and build together.

This event commemorating Bruno Latour was the first formal event of the network. There are plans to have both regular events, where scholars can share and present their work, to more singular events organized around a theme or an influential figure.

If you’d like to receive email updates about future events, please get in contact with Dan (dan.santos@anu.edu.au).