Science Communication as a Human Right
18-19 June 2024
QUT Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane
Building on previous ICA pre- and post-conferences (Paris, 2022 and Toronto, 2023), this ICA 2024 pre-conference on Science Communication as a Human Right invites communication scholars and practitioners to examine the place and practice of science communication from a human rights perspective. This event is supported by ICA’s Environmental Communication and Journalism Studies Divisions to encourage fruitful intersections of neighbouring fields of communication, bringing insights and experience from environmental communication, health communication, journalism, and other fields together with the science of science communication to tackle major scientific and social challenges. This 1.5-day pre-conference will be held in Brisbane City and showcases work that engages with science communication in its diverse forms and from a variety of perspectives.
Scientists and scientific institutions have significant and lasting impacts on society, making communication with their communities crucial. This pre-conference considers the role of science communication as access and empowerment: a means of accessing community knowledge, empowering knowledge-making communities outside of academia, and giving voice to diverse knowers as a human right. We highlight work focused on Indigenous techniques and worldviews, including the cultural communication of sciences. For example, in Aotearoa New Zealand, the inclusion of te Āo Māori (the Māori worldview) is recognised as an alternative scientific knowledge system, to the point where key principles of this worldview are included in legislation to protect Aotearoa New Zealand’s environment. Adequately communicating scientific knowledge grounded in te Āo Māori is a human right. Similarly, we recognise Australia’s first scientists and the multiple social, cultural and economic benefits that come from effective Indigenous adaptive management on Country.
We argue that the outputs of research belong to the community and need to be communicated—but this stance is fundamentally different from arguments regarding the rights of taxpayers’ involvement in public research. Firstly, it expands inclusion from only those who vote or pay taxes (and whose nation states pay for science) to all human beings. Secondly, it expands consideration from publicly-funded science to all science, including privately-funded and personal academic endeavours. Furthermore, it changes the justification from a democratic and economic one (a secondary obligation in the use of public money), to an integral part of how science can and should be done, so that every human can “share in scientific advancement and its benefits” (Article 27 UDHR). Finally, this pre-conference recognises the need to better understand and manage external actors attempting to undermine science communication through mis/disinformation and conspiracy theories related to science, verbal attacks on scientists’ credibility, and co-ordinated harassment of scientists and communicators.
This pre-conference offers a platform for emerging and established scholars within and beyond the ICA community to present, discuss, and connect. We particularly encourage participation from researchers with interests in intercultural communication and equity, diversity, and inclusiveness fields to take part. We aim to better understand local projects and initiatives in regions, communities, and localities particularly those in East Asia, India, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, and how (much) the perception and handling of science, scientific knowledge, scientists, and scientific institutions are impacted by specific cultural contexts. We welcome those whose work resonates with the event theme but may not consider themselves to be doing “science communication”. We also encourage practitioners to share their insights and experiences. PhD students and early- and mid-career researchers will have the opportunity to meet and exchange their ideas with renowned experts in the field. They will also have opportunities to receive valuable feedback on their work and advice for their careers.
Contributions at this ICA pre-conference focus on the following aspects while referencing the overarching topic of the pre-conference, human rights, in its broadest sense:
- Global health, in terms of people and planetary health (e.g., disease spread and treatments, water and land access and quality, climate impacts, and the politicisation of health and environmental science)
- Inclusive science reporting/journalism with regards to authorship, content, and access
- The role of science in environmental communication
- All systems of knowledge, knowledge communication/exchange, and worldviews
- Indigenous knowledge and the contributions of First Nations scientists
- Science communication considerations of gender and inclusivity, including ‘queer’ science communication practice, theory, and research agendas
- Misinformation and conspiracy theories involving scientific knowledge, actors and institutions
- Verbal attacks on science/scientists/science communicators, including criticism, (ad-hominem) credibility attacks, and harassment
- Empirical research from various theoretical and methodological perspectives
- Theoretical contributions to science communication research
- Methodological contributions to science communication research
- (Public) discourses about public good science communication
- Science communication as a profession: skills, practitioner case studies, education, careers
- New and innovative approaches to science communication from traditional science communication institutions as well as arts, (political) activism, and businesses.
Dates and conference format: This 1.5-day hybrid conference opens with a keynote presentation on the morning of 18 June 2024, and closes with a keynote panel session prior to lunch on 19 June 2024.
Keynote Speaker: Professor Sujatha Raman, UNESCO Chair for Science Communication for the Public Good, Australian National University.
While the conference is hybrid for audience participation, authors of accepted abstracts will present their papers live (in person) in Brisbane in concurrent sessions.
The event offers formal and informal networking and professional development sessions to support ECR and PhD students, including organised mentorship connections among participants.
Program: View the full program here.
Conference venue: Owen J. Wordsworth Room, Level 12, S Block, QUT Gardens Point Campus, 2 George Street, Brisbane City, QLD 4000
Committee members
Fabien Medvecky (Otago/NZ), Franzisca Weder (WU/A), Temilade Sesan (UofI, NIR), Rhian Salmon (VUW/NZ), Bernhard Goodwin (LMU/GER), Marina Joubert (SUN/SA), Lars Guenther (LMU/GER), Kati Doehring (Cawthron Institute/NZ), Jana Egelhofer (LMU/GER), Melina Gillespie (CSIRO and ASC/AUS), Samantha Vilkins (QUT/AUS) and Michelle Riedlinger (QUT/AUS).
Sponsors: Generously supported by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS, Australian National University), Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre of Research Excellence (TPM) and the Australian Science Communicators (ASC).
