Talking to microbes across the natural and social sciences

WHEN: Monday 7 October 2024 from 10:00 to 15:20
WHERE: building of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Národní 3, Prague 1

Participation is free.

The seminar will be held in English.

Compulsory registration here.

PROGRAM: 

PANEL 1: HOW CAN SCIENCE STUDY MICROBES?      10:00 – 11:20

• Will LaFleur (University of Helsinki): Social and Relational
  Microbes: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations for the
  Social Study of Microbes
• Petr Baldrian (Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of 
  Sciences): How We Study Microbiota in the Environment

COFEE BREAK 11:20 – 11:40

PANEL 2: HOW CAN PEOPLE EXPERIENCE MICROBES?   11:40 – 13:00

• Joshua Evans (The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for
  Biosustainability at the Danish Technical University): Holobiont
  Hand Taste: a transdisciplinary invitation
• Václav Smolík (Oceterie) with Tereza Stöckelová and Lukáš Senft
  (Institute of Sociology CAS): Vinegar Fermentation as a Multisensory Encounter with Microbes (in Czech with English translation)
  LUNCH BREAK + tasting of vinegars by Václav Smolík 13:00 – 14:00

PANEL 3: HOW CAN PEOPLE (MIS)USE MICROBES?        14:00 – 15:20

• Kateřina Kolářová (Faculty of Humanities, Charles University):
  (Un)Making Value with Biotic Technologies
• Jan Jansa (Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of 
  Sciences): Microbial Communities in Ecosystems and Their Place in 
  the One Health Framework
  

ANNOTATIONS:

Will LaFleur: Social and Relational Microbes: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations for the Social Study of Microbes
This talk introduces one key strand of studying microbes socially, namely, through relational approaches to doing science. The presentation details the relational turn in social sciences and how it differs from more classical ways of doing social science, as well as science. It discusses how the messiness, uncertainly, and blurriness of microbial life often necessitates a relational approach to understanding the sociality of microbes.

Petr Baldrian: How We Study Microbiota in the Environment
This talk will provide an overview of current technologies and approaches to measure microbial abundance, activity, community composition, and microbial functions in various habitats (e.g., soils and plants).

Joshua Evans: Holobiont Hand Taste: a transdisciplinary invitation
“Hand taste” is the seeding of fermentation ecologies with one’s own hand microbiome. While already plenty arresting, when understood holobiotically, in which macro-organisms are recast as ecologies of host and microbiota, it suggests an even more complex story: how body and food microbiomes, taste perception and preferences, and food preparation and eating practices all shape each other. Drawing on emerging yet scattered studies and some examples from my own work, I aim to show how working with fermentation, hand taste, and the holobiont paradigm invites conversations among disciplines, and eventheir mutual transformation.

Václav Smolík: Vinegar Fermentation as a Multi-sensory Encounter with Microbes (in Czech with English translation)
A performative dialogue between a vinegar producer who cooperates with microbes during fermentation processes and anthropologists who taste, enjoy, and analyze this human-microbial collaboration.

Kateřina Kolářová: (Un)Making Value with Biotic Technologies
The presentation engages with applications of microbiome research into healthcare products, treatments, and network-building. It responds to caution that commodification of the microbiome remains unexplored in social studies research. It offers a discussion of “biotic technologies” (ranging from personalized probiotics and nutrition to biotic syrups, and from rigorous personalized regimens that require committed self-tracking to those that involve swallowing a customized pill) and traces unexpected similarities in how these technologies produce value and ways of (under)valuation of more-than-human lives.

Jan Jansa: Microbial Communities in Ecosystems and Their Place in the One Health Framework
From the perspective of a soil biologist and ecologist, I will contemplate the role of microbes in various ecosystem processes and
their importance in ecosystem and human health, briefly presenting the One Health concept including its challenges, potential strengths, and shortcomings.