Cultural Studies of Science and Technology (CSST)
The Cultural Studies of Science and Technology workshop brings together faculty working at the intersections of the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Through reading groups, discussions of works in progress, and invited speakers, we explore the myriad ways in which scientific and technological ideas and practices take shape within, and shape, their social and cultural contexts. The workshop’s scope is interdisciplinary and expansive: we are interested in both contemporary and historical articulations of scientific and technological practice, engaging faculty from history, English, philosophy, and anthropology, among other disciplines. Members of the workshop conduct active research on such diverse topics as biotechnology, computing and information technology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, the philosophy of science, and the changing shape of scientific work under globalization. Each year’s workshop focuses on a central theme: for example, we centered our reading and discussions in 2006-07 around the works of Bruno Latour, in preparation for the series of seminars he conducted at Rice in spring of 2007.
5 October, Friday, 4:30 p.m.
Thomas Kuhn and Interdisciplinary Conversation: Why Historians and Philosophers of Science Stopped Talking to One Another
Humanities Building 119
Jan Golinski, Professor of History and Humanities, University of New Hampshire
Dr. Golinski has published research on the history of chemistry, on the problems of method in the history of science and on the social history of science in Britain in the 18th century. His most recent book is British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment.
Co-sponsored by the History of Philosophy Workshop and the German and Slavic Studies Department.
19 March, Wednesday, 4 p.m.
Empire of Ice Cream: How Life Got Sweeter in the Postwar Soviet Union
119 Humanities Building
Jenny Smith, Postdoctoral Associate in the History of Science and Medicine Program, Duke University.
This lecture is part of the HRC's Cultural Studies of Science and Technology Workshop. Contact Amy Ninetto at aninetto@rice.edu or x3117.
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