Dr Tara Mahfoud
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Email
tara.mahfoud@essex.ac.uk -
Location
5A.336, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
by appointment
Profile
Biography
Tara Mahfoud is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Criminology. Before joining the 糖心Vlog, she was a Research Associate in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at King鈥檚 College London. She has also held positions at Harvard University, the University of Edinburgh and the American University of Beirut. Additionally, she serves as Co-Convenor of the British Sociological Association鈥檚 Science and Technology Studies Study Group, and is Associate Editor of the journal Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. Trained in sociology and anthropology, Tara's research explores the cultural, social, and political contexts and implications of developments in the neurosciences. Her work has been published in leading international journals including Media and Society, Science Technology & Human Values, the Journal of Responsible Innovation, and Issues in Science and Technology.
Qualifications
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PhD King's College London,
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MA School of Oriental and African Studies,
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BA American University of Beirut,
Appointments
糖心Vlog
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First Year Undergraduate Director, Sociology, 糖心Vlog (1/1/2023 - present)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Science and Technology Studies
Neuroscience and Society
Dual Use
Responsible Research and Innovation
Medical Anthropology
Conferences and presentations
Entangling mind and machine: artificial intelligence, neuroscience and neurotechnology
Society for the Social Studies of Science Annual Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 16/7/2024
What鈥檚 so personal about personalised brain models?
Invited presentation, 鈥淩e-configuring Health and Illness at the Brain-Computer Interface鈥� Workshop, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, 27/6/2024
Laboratories of Friendship: On Critical Friendship and Responsible Research and Innovation
Society for the Social Studies of Science Annual Conference, Honolulu, United States, 9/11/2023
The Biological Imitation Game: Sublime Explorations of the boundaries between human, animal and machine in Large Scale Brain Modelling.
British Society for the Philosophy of Science Annual Conference, Bristol, United Kingdom, 6/7/2023
Locating Epileptogenic Zones: Personal Medicine, Personalised Models, and Virtual Brains
Society for the Social Studies of Science Annual Conference, Mexico City, Mexico, 8/12/2022
A-Models: A-Model: Model Assemblages, A-Contextual Data, and Organism Agnosticism
Invited presentation, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies Seminar Series, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 14/11/2022
Laboratories of Friendliness: An Ethnography of the Human Brain Project
Invited presentation, Studying Elites: challenges, opportunities & progressive potential, Studying Elites: challenges, opportunities & progressive potential, London, 9/6/2022
The Biological Imitation Game; Or the Sublime Similarity of Brain Simulation.
Critical Borders: Radical (Re)visions of AI Conference, University of Cambridge, 18/10/2021
Multiple Roles, Identities & Perceptions of 鈥楨thics & Society鈥� in the Human Brain Project
Society for the Social Studies of Science Annual Conference, 6/10/2021
Visions of Unification and Integration: Building Brains and Communities in the European Human Brain.
British Sociological Association Annual Meeting, 13/4/2021
Visions of Unification and Integration: Building Brains and Communities in the European Human Brain.
Invited presentation, Culture, Mind and Brain Seminar Series, McGill University, 18/3/2021
Between Open Science and Security: Mitigating Dual-Use in European Digital Neuroscience Infrastructure.
Making Europe through Infrastructures of (in)security Workshop, Vienna, Austria, 13/11/2020
Formal and Informal Infrastructures of Collaboration in the EU鈥檚 Human Brain Project.
EASST/4S 2020 Conference, 20/8/2020
Formal and Informal Infrastructures of Collaboration in the EU鈥檚 Human Brain Project.
International Workshop, From multidisciplinary collaborations to interdisciplinary communities., London, United Kingdom, 16/1/2020
The Biological Imitation Game; Or the sublime similarity of brain simulation.
Invited presentation, Seminar, Neurological Imaginaries Seminar Series, Toronto, Canada, 8/11/2019
Blue Skies and Glimmering Stars: Visions of the Human Brain Project.
Invited presentation, Seminar, Fellows Meeting, Cambridge, United States, 22/10/2019
Agonistic Friendship in Interdisciplinary Engagements.
Conference, Science in Public, Manchester, United Kingdom, 10/7/2019
On Friendship: Reflections on Reflexivity in Responsible Research and Innovation.
Conference, Science in Public, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 19/12/2018
鈥淒ata Communities: the politics of unification and integration in European neuroscience.
Conference, 117th Annual Meeting, San Jose, United States, 16/11/2018
Big Data and Machine Learning for Neuro-Diagnostics: Opportunities and Challenges for Clinical Translation"
Conference, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies: Critical Inquiries in Theory and Practice, Manchester, United Kingdom, 9/9/2018
Visions of Unification and Integration: an ethnography of the European Human Brain Project.
Conference, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology, Lancaster, United Kingdom, 26/7/2018
A-Model: Simulation, Neuroinformatics, and Classification in the Neurosciences.
Invited presentation, Workshop, Laboratories of health: human and non-human subjects, London, United Kingdom, 1/6/2018
On Oliver Sacks鈥檚 Awakenings as Ethnography.
Invited presentation, Workshop, Neurovision, London, United Kingdom, 1/5/2018
The complex and conflicted ethics of collaboration.
Keynote presentation, Conference, Transdisciplinary Research Linking Neuroscience, Brain Medicine and Computer Science., Vienna, Austria, 9/2/2017
For model鈥檚 sake! Curation, Integration, and Strategic Data Collection in the European Human Brain Project
Conference, 115th Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, United States, 16/11/2016
Blue Seas and Glimmering Stars: Visions of the Human Brain Project.
Workshop, Research, Reverie & The Wandering Imagination., Cambridge, United Kingdom, 6/9/2016
Spurious Categories: A study of data-model symbiosis in the Human Brain Project
Conference, Lives and Deaths of Data, Barcelona, Spain, 2/9/2016
Belief, Time and 鈥楤ig Neuroscience鈥�: Negotiating what to model in the European Human Brain Project
Workshop, Vital Brains: The Making and Use of Models in Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany, 7/4/2016
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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The Sociological Imagination (SC111)
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Psychiatry and Mental Illness (SC326)
Current supervision
Publications
Journal articles (8)
Aicardi, C. and Mahfoud, T., (2024). . Science, Technology and Human Values. 49 (2), 403-430
Geminiani, A., Kathrein, J., Yegenoglu, A., Vogel, F., Armendariz, M., Ben-Zion, Z., Antoniu Bogdan, P., Joana, C., Diaz Pier, M., Grasenick, K., Karasenko, V., Klijn, W., Kokan, T., Alina Lupascu, C., Luhrs, A., Mahfoud, T., Ozden, T., Egholm Pedersen, J., Peres, L., Reiten, I., Simidjievski, N., Ulnicane, I., van der Vlag, M., Zehl, L., Saria, A., Diaz-Pier, S. and Passecker, J., (2024). Interdisciplinary and collaborative training in neuroscience: Insights from the Human Brain Project Education Programme. NeuroInformatics. 22 (4), 657-678
Ulnicane, I., Mahfoud, T. and Salles, A., (2023). . Journal of Responsible Innovation. 10 (1), 1-18
Datta Burton, S., Mahfoud, T., Aicardi, C. and Rose, N., (2021). . Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 46 (1-2), 138-157
Mahfoud, T., (2021). . New Media and Society. 23 (2), 322-343
Fletcher, JR., Cavaliere, G., Ermansons, G., Fonseca, S., Green, C., Mahfoud, T., Maun, E., McLean, S., Wynne Bannister, E. and Tinker, A., (2020). Capacity building in practice: how involving early career researchers in research awards can contribute to their development. Social Research Practice (9)
Mahfoud, T., Aicardi, C., Datta, S. and Rose, N., (2018). . Issues in Science and Technology. 34 (4)
Mahfoud, T., (2014). Extending the mind: a review of ethnographies of neuroscience practice. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 8 (JUNE)
Books (1)
Mahfoud, T., McLean, S. and Rose, N., (2017). Vital Models The Making and Use of Models in the Brain Sciences. Academic Press. 0128125586. 9780128125588
Book chapters (1)
Mahfoud, T., McLean, S. and Rose, N., (2017). Preface. In: Progress in Brain Research. Elsevier. xi- xx
Conferences (1)
Datta Burton, S., Aicardi, C., Mahfoud, T. and Rose, N., (2018). Understanding Interstate Competitiveness and International Security in European Dual-Use Research
Reports and Papers (5)
Mahfoud, T., Guggeinheim, M. and Marres, N., (2024). Re:Constructs | Exchanges between STS and Sociology
Bitsch, L., Salles, A., Evers, K., Changeux, J-P., Stahl, B., Aicardi, C., Burton Datta, S., Mahfoud, T., Reinsborough, M., Rose, N., Kl眉ver, L., Ladegaard, SF., Alves, E., Nordfalk, F., B氓dum, N., Eke, D., Knight, W., Grasenick, K., Romero, PF., Ulnicane, I., Rosemann, A., Ogoh, G., Matar, A., Fernow, J., Bringedal, B., Christen, M., Domingo-Ferrer, J., von Schomberg, R., Illes, J. and Rommelfanger, K., (2023). Ethics and Society in Brain Research: Implementing Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the Human Brain Project (HBP)
Mahfoud, T., Aicardi, C., Bitsch, L., Datta Burton, S., Evers, K., Farisco, M., Rose, N., Rosemann, A., Salles, A., Stahl, B. and Ulnicane, I., (2021). Opinion on Trust and Transparency in Artificial Intelligence.
Aicardi, C., Datta Burton, S., Mahfoud, T. and Rose, N., (2019).
Aicardi, C., Bitsch, L., B氓dum, NB., Datta, S., Evers, K., Farisco, M., Fothergill, T., Giordano, J., Harris, E., J酶rgensen, ML., Kl眉ver, L., Mahfoud, T., Rainey, S., Riisgaard, K., Rose, N., Salles, A., Stahl, B. and Ulnicane, I., (2018). Opinion on 鈥楻esponsible Dual Use鈥�: Political, Security, Intelligence and Military Research of Concern in Neuroscience and Neurotechnology
Other (4)
Mahfoud, T., Bowen, S., Ermansons, G., McLean, S. and Quinton, P., (2020).,Somatosphere
Pokorny, J., De Meyer, K., Haueis, P., Mahfoud, T. and McLean, S., (2018).The Mercurial Life of Drugs: Psychedelics as models, risk factors, and treatments for mental disorders. Somatosphere
Mahfoud, T., (2017).Malignant: How Cancer Becomes Us / a conversation with Lochlann Jain. Somatosphere
Mahfoud, T. and McLean, S., (2015).Towards Neuro-Social Science: The Politics and Pragmatics of Collaboration.. Somatosphere
Contact
Academic support hours:
by appointment
