I am very pleased to share that my new article, “Sociotechnical imaginaries and enabling infrastructures: Türkiye’s digitally mediated pandemic response,” has now been published online in Medical Humanities. The article asks a question that reaches beyond the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic: What makes innovation possible, and under which social, institutional and infrastructural conditions […]
Category: Medicine & Society
STS Encounters in the Mediterranean: Looking Forward to STS-CAT 2027
I am very happy and honored to have been invited as a keynote speaker to the 1st STS-CAT International Conference, “STS Encounters in the Mediterranean,” organized by the Associació Catalana d’Estudis de la Ciència i la Tecnologia (STS-CAT). The conference will take place from 3–5 February 2027 at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans in Barcelona. I […]
New Publication: Thinking Prosthetic Design Beyond Function
Almost exactly two years ago, I began a long journey of writing, thinking, and revisiting questions around prosthetic design, disability, embodiment, and transformation. I am very happy to share that the article has now finally been published in Design Issues as part of the Special Issue The Design Turn: Design Studies Beyond Design: Melike Şahinol, […]
New Publication: Gendered Reconfiguration of Care via Digital Interfaces During the Pandemic
I am happy to share that a small research project, which began some time ago, has now found its conclusion in a newly published article co-authored with Emine Öncüler Yayalar. In this article, we examine how care was reorganized through digital interfaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask how digital platforms, applications, and mediated forms […]
Call for submissions: Working Papers Cultural and Sociotechnical Studies
I am very happy to announce that submissions (in German or English) to the series Working Papers kultur- und techniksoziologische Studien (Working Papers Cultural and Sociotechnical Studies) are welcome at any time. All papers are published open access via an OJS platform, receive a DOI, and are embedded in the German sociological research infrastructure SocioHub. […]
New review published: Claudia Liebelt’s Istanbul Appearances
I’m delighted to share my book review of Claudia Liebelt’s Istanbul Appearances: Beauty and the Making of Middle-Class Femininities in Urban Turkey, now published in Contemporary Sociology. The book opens a window onto Istanbul’s “beautyscapes”- salons, clinics, everyday routines—showing how beauty work is tightly woven into class mobility, gendered respectability, and urban transformation. Rather than […]
Published in Nature: Children must be co-researchers, too
I’m thrilled to share that my latest correspondence article is out in Nature. In it, I argue that children’s meaningful, age-appropriate participation should be central to the development and evaluation of health technologies. Children should be involved in health technologies not merely as “users,” but as citizen co-researchers. The article is available here: Şahinol M. […]
Reflections on a Citizen Science Award: A Path Shaped by Many Hands
I am deeply honored to have received the “Wissen der Vielen – Citizen Science Research Award” (3rd place) for my article: Melike Şahinol (2022): 3D-printed children’s prostheses as enabling technology? The experience of children with upper limb body differences. Journal of Enabling Technologies, 16 (3), 204–218. https://doi.org/10.1108/JET-02-2022-0017 This article was developed as part of my […]
Call for Papers: Disability, Technology and Change
Open Collection in NanoEthics – Submissions Now Open I am delighted to announce that I am co-editing an Open Collection in the journal NanoEthics on the topic “Disability, Technology and Change.” Together with Robert Stock (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Magdalena Zdrodowska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków), we invite submissions that explore the complex and multifaceted relationships between […]
Circulating Instruments, Situated Contexts: Reflections from 4S Seattle
I had the pleasure of presenting our paper “Circulating Instruments, Situated Contexts” at the #4S2025 conference in Seattle in the panel “Imagination, Design, and Repercussions of Medical Technologies.” Our research looks at the global circulation of surgical instruments, tracing how materials, knowledge, and expertise move between Samsun (Türkiye), Tuttlingen (Germany), and Sialkot (Pakistan) and how […]