Science, Technology, and Society – Lunch Seminar
Fall 2025 Schedule
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
| Sept. 5 | [no talk; introduction to course for enrolled students] | |
| Sept. 12 | Elaine Short Tufts Computer Science | “Human-Centered AI for Accessible and Assistive Robotics: Towards a Disability-Centered HRI” |
| Sept. 19 | Jess Keiser Tufts English | “AI, Art, and Immanuel Kant” |
| Sept. 26 | Katie Ulrich Harvard Academy for Intl + Area Studies | “Plant(ation)-Based Fuels & Plastics: What Renewable Bioproducts Say About Our Approach to Climate Change” |
| Oct. 3 | Becca Lewis MIT Comparative Media Studies | “Reactionary Futurism: The Rise of Technofascism in Silicon Valley” |
| Oct. 10 | Anncy Thresher Northeastern Philosophy/Public Policy | “Killing Nature to Save It: Conservation Science, Biotechnology, and Ethical Extermination” |
| Oct. 17 | Sarah Pinto Tufts Anthropology | “Death and Decision-Making in Indian Oncology” |
| Oct. 24 | Alex Collins Tufts Community Health | The impact of housing, criminalization, and the built environmental on access to harm reduction interventions for people who use drugs. |
| Oct. 31 | AI Regulation Panel | |
| Nov. 7 | [no Lunch Seminar] | |
| Nov. 14 | Adriana Craciun BU English, Radcliffe | Svalbard Global Seed Vault |
| Nov. 21 & 28 | [no Lunch Seminar] | |
| Dec. 5 | Larry McGrath Researcher & Author | Anthropology & AI |
About the lunch seminar
The STS Lunch Seminar is a weekly speaker series run by the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at Tufts. It is open to the public and attended by interested students, faculty, staff, and community members. This semester, the seminar will meet Fridays from 12-1:15pm EST, in Lincoln-Filene Hall, Room 201.
Seminar format: Speakers typically present for about about 35–45 minutes, leaving about 30 minutes for Q&A, during which every audience member has the opportunity to ask a question or make a comment.