The international Scientific Expertise, Communication and Trust (SECAT) conference was run by the (Mis)trust of Scientific Expertise research group at Aarhus University on the 27-28th of September 2022 and took place as a virtual event.

More than 200 people from across the world registered for the event. The conference included 10 panel sessions, 44 presentations, and 3 keynote talks with lively engagement from the audience.

Global challenges and local perspectives

This conference provided a platform for critical scholarly engagement from different disciplinary angles on matters relating to science, communication and trust, especially as the past years brought matters relating to these themes to the forefront of our lives.

Legacy and social media in the 2020s have been dominated by narratives about the pandemic and climate change. These existential threats have highlighted humanity’s indebtedness to scientific knowledge, as well as the challenges of mediating scientific recommendations, and the significance of values and culture for science.

Although such risks are global, their effects are uneven and are experienced locally, posing moral questions about social justice. How can one communicate about science in ways that promote trust and foster engagement?
 

SECAT 2022 keynote speakers

Brian Trench 
Senior lecturer emeritus, School of Communications, Dublin City University, Ireland

Maja Horst
Professor, Division for Responsible Innovation and Design, DTU Technical University of Denmark

Mia-Marie Hammarlin
Senior Lecturer, Media and Communication Studies, Lund University 
 

Organising committee

The conference was held by the interdisciplinary project group at Aarhus University, (Mis)trust of Scientific Expertise, which investigates trust and mistrust of scientific expertise from a cultural perspective. The research project is funded by AUFF, Aarhus University Research Foundation.