The inaugural lecture in the Trevor Pinch Memorial Lecture Series for Innovative STS (Science and Technology Studies) will be held on Wednesday, April 22, to coincide with Earth Day. Sociologist Steven Yearley will give a talk titled “Sink Politics: Natural Knowledge and Climate Policy” at 3:30 p.m. in Atkinson Hall, room 121. The event is free and the public is welcome.
“Trevor Pinch was one of the most exciting and brilliant STS scholars in the world, so it’s entirely fitting that the lecture series in his honor aims to showcase not just ‘good’ STS, but genuinely innovative scholarship. We’re delighted that our first speaker will be Steven Yearley from the University of Edinburgh,” said Suman Seth, Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science and chair of the Department of Science and Technology Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Steve’s talk, scheduled for Earth Day, 2026, looks at climate politics and technoscientific knowledge and I anticipate that it will be lively, possibly contentious, and definitely fascinating.”
In his talk Yearley will highlight the changing ways scientists, campaigners, the climate-policy communities and national policymakers have thought about and, increasingly, acted on carbon or greenhouse-gas “sinks” in the last three decades. “Sinks” are the natural absorption of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases by natural processes; for example, dissolved in the oceans or taken up by trees, soils and animals with shells.
“Science and technology studies provides an excellent framework for analyzing this case,” Yearley said. “Sink politics give us a powerful and perhaps hopeful insight into the co-making of knowledge, policy and territory.”
Yearley is the Professor of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge at the University of Edinburgh and is known for his work on the sociology of science and on environmental sociology, and his analyses bridges these two fields. His current research is on carbon sinks, particularly coastal and marine sinks around the U.K. and coastal zones of western Europe, a new frontier for climate policy.
His work has included explicating the challenges faced by environmental campaign groups when mobilizing scientific evidence, as well as analyzing the difficulties in applying scientific knowledge in official environmental policy contexts. His most recently completed research project was part of a large-scale, multi-discipline network examining options for industrial decarbonization in the U.K. after Brexit and the pandemic.
Yearley has also directed the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum and served as Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. In recognition of his cross-disciplinary work, Yearley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2010.
The late Trevor Pinch, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in S&TS, helped found multiple areas of study related to science, technology and sound, and helped found the Department of Science and Technology Studies. This Memorial Lecture Series is funded by a bequest from Pinch as well as private donations; additional contributions to the series are welcome.
Linda B. Glaser is news and media relations manager in the College of Arts and Sciences.
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