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Joseph Renow is a sociologist of science and technology who focuses on the intersection of expertise and society. Put another way, he spends a lot of time with scientists, engineers, and others observing and discussing what they do, say, and think. A common theme in his work is the places where experts do what they do. What exactly happens within the hallowed and mysterious spaces of universities and laboratories, and how are such places indispensable for the people who use them? In the end, his work aims to stimulate and develop the discourses around the role of expertise as science and technology increasingly (perniciously?) mediate even the most intimate aspects of our lives.

Education

Ph.D., Loyola University Â鶹APP

M.A., Loyola University Â鶹APP

B.S., University of Southern Indiana

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

American Sociological Association
Society for Social Studies of Science
Midwest Sociological Society

Projects

Previous projects include a university library, an archeological field-site, and a museum. These projects examined the socio-political contexts from which these sites emerged, but also how once built the sites themselves became instrumental in stabilizing the material and social arrangements through which facts are made and circulated. Put simply, how these sites made facts true and real.

His current project extends the interest in sites of practice to hospitals and clinics, where he cast a critical eye towards the diseases, machines, and practices that are (and are not) allocated space. In the end, the project aims to demonstrate how once built such sites are not neutral backdrops, but powerful and invisible agents that favor earlier decisions about what (and whose) diseases matter.

Expertise

Science and Technology, Expertise and Society, Space and Place, Culture and Knowledge