Hi everyone, Just a few days left to send in abstracts for 4S open panels! I'm writing to invite you to apply for an open panel on theorizing stuckness in science and technology. Full description below. The full list of panels is here <https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_seattle.php>, submission instructions here <https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_seattle.php>. 4S will be in Seattle, September 3 - 6, 2025, and the deadline for 250 word abstracts is January 31. *Session Title:*Theorizing Stuckness in Science and Technology *Abstract:*What might we learn by studying science and technology through the lens of stuckness as opposed to progress? While critical conversations in STS have deconstructed progress narratives in science and technology, actors on the ground are well aware that their everyday work is far from smooth. Scientists are constantly frustrated with unexpected obstacles to their research plans (e.g., Messeri & Vertesi, 2015). Technologists who aspire to change the world often end up reproducing current structures of power (e.g., Rider, 2021). These experiences show up in empirical research, and yet are rarely theorized. In this panel, we propose foregrounding contexts of stuckness, inertia, and stagnation as a way to examine the production of scientific knowledge and technological projects and their societal impacts. Stuckness can be material, affective, discursive, and subjective; it can describe particular moments or extend into chronic conditions. On the one hand, moments of stuckness highlight how seemingly powerful experts are situated within material and structural constraints. On the other hand, experts often *feel* stuck, revealing the aspirations and expectations that experts might have about their work precisely as they fail to materialize. Stuckness enables us to bring together the material and discursive forces that shape the work of experts, moving towards an expansive understanding of how scientific and technological practices are produced. We invite scholars from a variety of fields and topic areas to explore stuckness, using the concept as a jumping off point for opening up new conversations about science, technology, and society: When do actors get stuck, and what responses does that elicit? How do different people experience stuckness? What might experiences of stuckness reveal about structural conditions, chronic issues, or routinized crises? We welcome papers that consider the theoretical and methodological possibilities that emerge from centering stuckness in the study of science and technology. Organizers: Shoko Yamada (shoko.yamada@yale.edu), Michelle Venetucci (michelle.venetucci@yale.edu) Yale University