Science in the context of society
“My whole journey, so to speak, started in the second year of my studies,” Marie-Sophie says. “In that year Australia’s forests were in flames, the coronavirus pandemic just started, George Floyd had just been murdered, so the Black Lives Matter movement was on the rise again, and misinformation was all over the internet.” In the meantime, Marie-Sophie was learning what for her felt like ‘super theoretical computing science’. She started wondering: what am I doing? Why do I learn about all the scientific knowledge that already exists - often presented as facts – without connecting it to the problems it may have caused or can possibly help to solve? “There are real problems that we need to solve right now!”
Marie-Sophie realised that she was missing the connection to society in her education. She took matters into her own hands by getting a sustainability testimony, writing a thesis about misinformation, and doing the Science in Society Master’s specialisation. “This felt like I’m not just learning science for the sake of science, but that I also learn why it’s good and what it means to learn about science. Academia has a certain responsibility to society. We should make use of the opportunities we get to have a positive impact on the world, talk to society and let society talk to us. We are not almighty people who know everything, just because we’re scientists. Instead, I think science and society are really interconnected.”
Working together to create meaningful education
“Taking control of my own learning process makes studying much more meaningful”, Marie-Sophie stated enthusiastically. Right now, she is co-creating a course about sustainability in computing science together with Bernard van Gastel. Marie-Sophie laughs: “He says that I kind of invited myself.” “At the time I was doing the sustainability testimony, relatively little came from Computing Science.” When she heard that Bernard got to set up a department for sustainability at the computing science department, she approached him to have a chat about her experiences. “Bernard realised that it was very helpful to have a student there who has an overview of the curriculum and who knows what it’s like to follow a course.” What was meant as just one conversation ended up in co-creating an entire course.