<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">[This may be of interest to some on this list. Apologies for any cross-posting.]</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">
FIRST CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">2nd conference on *Undone Science in Computer Science* — A conference to<br>
explore epistemological and ethical dimensions of computer science through<br>
the concept of undone science<br>
<br>
* *Luxembourg, 23-25th March 2026* (hybrid)<br>
* Calling for short talk proposals (1-3 pages abstracts)<br>
* Submission deadline: *October 9th 2025* (anywhere on Earth)<br>
* Post-proceedings model: we will send a call for full papers after<br>
the conference<br>
* Some travel funding available for speakers<br>
* More information at <<a href="https://www.undonecs.org/2026/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.undonecs.org/2026/</a>><br>
<br>
<br>
PRESENTATION<br>
<br>
As researchers, we are committed to advancing computer science <br>
in a way that is both epistemologically and ethically sound.<br>
With the *Undone Computer Science* conference, we provide an informal<br>
venue to pause and reflect on these aspects of our scientific<br>
practices. Our goal is to *bring together computer scientists from<br>
across the field, but also social scientists, philosophers and<br>
historians of science, and other scholars* interested in discussing the<br>
ethical and epistemological dimensions of our work.<br>
<br>
We welcome abstracts exploring these dimensions, and encourage<br>
submissions from a wide range of perspectives. *Abstracts should be<br>
1-3 pages*, clearly outlining the main arguments and contributions of<br>
the proposed talk.<br>
<br>
*As a guiding question, we propose to apply the concept of undone<br>
science [1] to computer science.* Undone science refers to questions<br>
that are left unaddressed, ignored, or unfunded for various reasons,<br>
yet demonstrably worthy of exploration. It highlights the idea that<br>
the production and dissemination of knowledge are variously<br>
influenced, leading to biases in the choice of research that is done,<br>
and eventually in a “systematic non-production of knowledge” [2].<br>
<br>
We might want to understand, for instance, whether the way in which<br>
computer science is established eventually leaves out some potentially<br>
crucial questions and areas of investigation, and what pushes some<br>
questions or methods to be ignored whilst others might be favoured.<br>
The striking example of AI ethics indeed reminds us of some of the<br>
society-impacting case studies which originally motivated the<br>
analytical concept of undone science—including corporate influence<br>
denounced by critical voices [3], and the debate on requirements and<br>
evaluation criteria to improve research by acting on what is funded<br>
and published [4].<br>
<br>
But undone science could also refer to the consequences of<br>
“theoretical commitments” [2], i.e., dominant paradigms, when they<br>
blind us collectively about what is worthy or not of exploration—all<br>
the while accounts of paradigm shifts in our young domain remain rare.<br>
It could refer as well to technical or methodological biases, such as<br>
when the availability of certain software or hardware at the right<br>
time determines which research idea “wins” [5], or when the haste<br>
towards automation in algorithm design leads to a loss of valuable<br>
insights compared to alternative paths where people are involved in<br>
data exploration [6].<br>
<br>
Undone science also refers originally to questions first recognised by<br>
actors from civil society—for computer scientists, the free software<br>
movement and civil liberties organisations come to mind.<br>
<br>
We believe that the concept of undone science can further help bring<br>
out the epistemological and ethical aspects of research in computer<br>
science, and encourage submissions from a wide range of perspectives.<br>
<br>
Undone Computer Science is an informal peer-reviewed conference with<br>
separately reviewed post-proceedings: depending upon the eventual<br>
number and quality of submissions, we intend to follow up the conference<br>
with a call for full papers to be published in an open-access journal.<br>
(Presenting at the conference does not commit to submit a full paper;<br>
nor is it necessary to present at the conference to respond to the call<br>
for full papers.)<br>
<br>
<br>
POTENTIAL TOPICS<br>
<br>
It is not necessary to be familiar with the concept of undone science in<br>
order to contribute. *Potential topics include, but are not limited to:*<br>
<br>
* Areas of research in computer science meeting challenges that will<br>
require or have required *shifts in viewpoint*; conditions<br>
responsible for *certain kinds of research being over- or<br>
under-represented*; reasons for a set of *questions being<br>
neglected* in an area.<br>
<br>
* Epistemological questions and challenges, for instance arising<br>
from the *interdisciplinary nature* of computer science, or<br>
dealing with the articulations between theory and practice;<br>
investigations on the values of computer science.<br>
<br>
* How *social movements or civil society organisations* (e.g. free<br>
software movement) play a role in identifying areas of research<br>
being left aside, in providing new research questions, or on the<br>
contrary in demanding that some kind of research remains undone.<br>
<br>
* Challenges of integrating ethical and political questioning<br>
regarding *social, economic, and environmental consequences* of<br>
our work into the process of making “good science”. Concrete<br>
examples of questions stemming from ethical consideration being<br>
introduced to a domain (why/how), are welcome.<br>
<br>
* How *ethics codes* (including for instance the ACM Code of Ethics)<br>
can be leveraged (or fail) to present some questions as being<br>
worthy of exploration; more broadly how guiding principles can be<br>
put in place to enrich the research practices in an area.<br>
<br>
* Explorations of the *influence of publishing practices* within our<br>
community, and of popular research methodology and scientific<br>
writing guides provided within our fields, on the selection,<br>
execution, and dissemination of research.<br>
<br>
* Examinations of biases and limitations present in commonly-used<br>
*educational curricula* (for instance leading to or stemming from<br>
a lack of diversity, be it social or methodological).<br>
<br>
* More generally, any discussion of “systematic non-production” or<br>
non-dissemination of knowledge in a broad sense, whether in<br>
computer science in general or a specific area, whether past or<br>
present; whether due to *limitations of available methodologies,<br>
blind spots of dominant paradigms, institutional and industrial<br>
biases, lack of social representation,* or other factors.<br>
<br>
We look forward to receiving your abstracts, and to an engaging and<br>
thought-provoking conference.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
the organisers<br>
<br>
<br>
KEY DATES<br>
<br>
* Submission deadline: October 9th 2025 (anywhere on Earth)<br>
* Author notification: December 8th 2025<br>
* Conference: 23-25th March 2026, hosted by the University of Luxembourg<br>
<br>
<br>
SUBMITTING<br>
<br>
* Instructions:<br>
1. Abstracts should be 1-3 pages in length (excluding bibliography) <br>
and should succinctly present the key arguments and<br>
contributions of the proposed talk. The submission can<br>
contain appendices or a link to a longer version, but the<br>
point of the submission should be clear from the first three<br>
pages (reviewers are not obligated to read any further).<br>
2. Submissions should be uploaded to EasyChair in PDF format: <br>
<<a href="https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=undonecs26" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=undonecs26</a>><br>
3. The conference being aimed at a wide range of research domains,<br>
authors are welcome to include a brief biography if relevant for<br>
the contribution (up to 5 lines).<br>
4. Authors can opt for lightweight double-blind reviewing (with<br>
the identity of the authors revealed to the reviewers after they<br>
submit their review). In this case, the submission should simply<br>
be prepared with authors and institutions omitted, and all<br>
citations in the 3rd person. The biography can still be included<br>
in an anonymised form (omitting the names of both people and<br>
institutions).<br>
5. Unfinished or exploratory contributions, that would benefit<br>
from discussion at the conference prior to their possible<br>
development into full papers, are welcome. There is no<br>
submission category, but authors can make it clear in the<br>
submission if they strongly prefer a short or a long<br>
presentation slot.<br>
6. For a paper accepted at the conference, at least one author is<br>
generally expected to present in person, but we will work to<br>
make remote presentations possible. (Feel free to inquire in<br>
advance with the organisers.)<br>
7. Recognising the importance of the promotion of multilingualism<br>
in science [7], we welcome submissions in multiple languages<br>
(e.g. translations of the same 1-3 p. talk proposal), provided<br>
that the submission can be reviewed from the English version<br>
alone. In addition, in special situations where a talk proposal<br>
cannot be submitted in English, please contact the chairs in<br>
advance to determine if the PC is able to review it.<br>
<br>
* Acceptance criteria:<br>
1. *Computer Science:* we seek contributions pertaining to<br>
computer science (in a broad sense comprising both works *in*<br>
computer science and works *on* computer science),<br>
2. *Author expertise:* we expect authors to contribute in<br>
accordance with their domains of expertise, in a broad sense;<br>
for instance a contribution on ethical issues by a computer<br>
scientist can be rooted in their research practice, a<br>
contribution by a social scientist can be rooted in the study<br>
of an example or through field work; a contribution by a<br>
philosopher or historian of science can be rooted in the study<br>
of computer science as a specific domain of production of<br>
knowledge and scientific practice.<br>
3. *Undone science:* we expect that the question of undone<br>
science will inspire presentations that lead to meaningful<br>
reflections touching upon ethical or epistemological aspects<br>
of computer science in a broad sense, without requiring<br>
expertise in epistemology and ethics. For instance, a<br>
submission from a computer scientist could outline a potential<br>
ethical question, rooted in their research practice, even if <br>
its consequences in ethics cannot be fully elaborated at this<br>
point. (In doubt, feel free to inquire with the organisers<br>
about a potential topic.)<br>
<br>
* As a general goal, the programme will leave ample time for<br>
individual presentations and for discussions. To this end, the<br>
program committee can decide to allot presentation slots of<br>
varying durations according to the extent of individual<br>
submissions and to the authors' expressed preference.<br>
* We will endeavour to always give considerate and constructive<br>
feedback about proposed abstracts.<br>
* Accepted abstracts will be made available online in the programme<br>
of the conference.<br>
* PC and general chairs are not allowed to submit. Members of the PC<br>
are allowed to submit talk proposals in double-blind reviewing.<br>
* For all submissions, usual strict rules regarding conflicts of<br>
interest apply (see the COPE guidelines <<a href="https://doi.org/10.24318/ElTeSLhp" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.24318/ElTeSLhp</a>><br>
or the ACM policy on conflicts of interest<br>
<<a href="https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/conflict-of-interest" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/conflict-of-interest</a>>).<br>
<br>
Please contact the chairs below regarding any question.<br>
<br>
<br>
REGISTRATION & ATTENDING<br>
<br>
* Inscription fees: we aim for low fees of around 100€.<br>
* The venue has good accessibility and we strive to make our<br>
conference accessible; more information will be provided on the<br>
website of the conference. Feel free to inquire with the<br>
organisers.<br>
* A limited number of travel grants might be offered for speakers<br>
who require it. Feel free to inquire in advance with the<br>
organisers.<br>
* The talks will be streamed online.<br>
<br>
Please visit the website <<a href="https://www.undonecs.org/2026/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.undonecs.org/2026/</a>> or contact<br>
us below if you need more information.<br>
<br>
<br>
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE<br>
<br>
Mohamed Abdalla (University of Alberta)<br>
Gabriel Alcaras (Médialab, Paris)<br>
Antoine Amarilli (INRIA, Lille)<br>
Yackolley Amoussou-Guenou (Univ. Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas)<br>
Marc Anderson (Independent researcher, Ottawa)<br>
Ambre Ayats (Univ. Eastern Finland)<br>
Enka Blanchard (CNRS, Paris) — principal chair<br>
Aurélie Bugeau (LaBRI, Univ. Bordeaux)<br>
Juan Carlos De Martin (Politecnico Di Torino)<br>
Liesbeth De Mol (CNRS, Univ. Lille)<br>
Pierre Depaz (HfG Karlsruhe)<br>
Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay (Centre Internet et Société, CNRS, Paris) — chair<br>
Chantal Enguehard (Univ. Nantes)<br>
Elina Eriksson (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm)<br>
Ksenia Ermoshina (The Citizen Lab, U. Toronto & CNRS, Paris)<br>
Ben Green (U. Michigan)<br>
Felienne Hermans (VU Amsterdam)<br>
Robin K. Hill (U. Wyoming)<br>
Jun Kato (AIST, Japan)<br>
Os Keyes (University of Massachusetts Lowell)<br>
Laura Kocksch (Aalborg University)<br>
Shriram Krishnamurthi (Brown University, USA)<br>
Oded Lachish (University of London)<br>
Giuseppe Longo (ENS Paris)<br>
Fabrizio Li Vigni (Centre Internet et Société, CNRS, Paris)<br>
Janos Makowsky (Emeritus, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa)<br>
Florence Maraninchi (Ensimag, Grenoble)<br>
Ola Michalec (Univ. Bristol)<br>
Lionel Morel (INSA Lyon)<br>
Francesca Musiani (Centre Internet et Société, CNRS, Paris)<br>
Dawn Nafus (Intel, USA)<br>
Alberto Naibo (Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) <br>
Edlira Nano (Univ. Lyon 1)<br>
Lê Thành Dũng (Tito) Nguyễn (CNRS, Univ. Aix-Marseille) — chair<br>
Norberto Patrignani (Politecnico Di Torino) <br>
Tomas Petricek (Charles University, Prague)<br>
Jörg Pohle (Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin)<br>
Mark Priestley (The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park)<br>
Carina Prunkl (Utrecht University)<br>
Sophie Quinton (INRIA, Grenoble) — chair<br>
Pablo Rauzy (Univ. Paris 8)<br>
Luc Rocher (Univ. Oxford)<br>
Peter Roenne (Univ. Luxembourg)<br>
Peter Y A Ryan (Univ. Luxembourg)<br>
Valérie Schafer (Univ. Luxembourg)<br>
Ari Schlesinger (Univ. Georgia)<br>
Alan Sherman (UMBC, Maryland)<br>
Katta Spiel (TU Wien, Austria)<br>
Maté Szabó (Univ. Southern California)<br>
Tiphaine Viard (Télécom Paris)<br>
Salomé Viljoen (U. Michigan)<br>
Tone Walford (University College London)<br>
<br>
<br>
ORGANISERS<br>
<br>
*PC Chairs*<br>
Enka Blanchard (CNRS) — principal chair<br>
Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay (CNRS)<br>
Sophie Quinton (INRIA)<br>
Lê Thành Dũng (Tito) Nguyễn (CNRS)<br>
<br>
*General Chairs*<br>
Enka Blanchard (CNRS)<br>
Guillaume Munch-Maccagnoni (INRIA)<br>
<br>
*Local Organisers*<br>
Peter Roenne (Univ. Luxembourg) — local chair<br>
Peter Ryan (Univ. Luxembourg)<br>
Valérie Schafer (Univ. Luxembourg)<br>
<br>
Contact us at <<a href="mailto:undonecs-2026@sciencesconf.org" target="_blank">undonecs-2026@sciencesconf.org</a>><br>
<br>
<br>
BIBLIOGRAPHY<br>
<br>
[1] D. J. Hess (2016). Undone Science: Social Movements, Mobilized<br>
Publics, and Industrial Transitions. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262529495.<br>
<br>
[2] Frickel, S., Gibbon, S., Howard, J., Kempner, J., Ottinger, G., &<br>
Hess, D. J. (2010). Undone Science: Charting Social Movement and<br>
Civil Society Challenges to Research Agenda Setting. Science,<br>
Technology, & Human Values, 35(4), 444–473.<br>
<<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243909345836" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243909345836</a>><br>
<br>
[3] According to Green, tech ethics increasingly tends to be “subsumed<br>
into corporate logics and incentives”; according to Abdalla and<br>
Abdalla, actions of “Big Tech” to influence academic and public<br>
discourse are reminiscent of the tactics of Big Tobacco:<br>
* B. Green (2021). The Contestation of Tech Ethics: A Sociotechnical<br>
Approach to Technology Ethics in Practice, Journal of Social<br>
Computing, 2 (3), pp. 209-225, September 2021.<br>
<<a href="https://doi.org/10.23919/JSC.2021.0018" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.23919/JSC.2021.0018</a>><br>
* M. Abdalla & M. Abdalla (2021). The Grey Hoodie Project: Big<br>
Tobacco, Big Tech, and the Threat on Academic Integrity. In<br>
Proceedings of the 2021 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and<br>
Society (AIES ’21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York,<br>
NY, USA, 287–297.<br>
<<a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3461702.3462563" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1145/3461702.3462563</a>><br>
<br>
[4] C.E.A. Prunkl, C. Ashurst, M. Anderljung et al. Institutionalizing<br>
ethics in AI through broader impact requirements. Nature Machine<br>
Intelligence, 3, 104–110 (2021).<br>
<<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-021-00298-y" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-021-00298-y</a>><br>
<br>
[5] Sara Hooker. 2021. The hardware lottery. Communications of the ACM,<br>
64, 12 (December 2021), 58–65.<br>
<<a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3467017" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3467017</a>><br>
<br>
[6] Dawn Nafus. 2018. Exploration or Algorithm? The Undone Science<br>
Before the Algorithms. Cultural Anthropology, 33 (3) : 368–374.<br>
<<a href="https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/ca33.3.03" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/ca33.3.03</a>><br>
<br>
[7] Unesco. 2003. Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of<br>
Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace.<br>
<<a href="https://www.unesco.org/legal-affairs/recommendation-concerning-promotion-and-use-multilingualism-and-universal-access-cyberspace" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.unesco.org/legal-affairs/recommendation-concerning-promotion-and-use-multilingualism-and-universal-access-cyberspace</a>><div class="gmail-adL"><br>
</div>
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