Announcements
A collection of STS news items, in the order submitted, including grants and awards, new books and other publications, and people news.
Last updated 02/24/2010 by Jay Burlingham.
MSc Medicine, Science & Society, King’s College London
URL: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/interdisciplinary/cbas/msc/index.html
Updated: February 24 2010
What is the impact of President Obama’s policies on the global economy of embryonic stem cell research? What ethical and regulatory issues does the current boom of personal genome tests raise? Issues like these lie at the core of the MSc Medicine, Science & Society at the Centre for Biomedicine & Society (CBAS), King’s College London. This MSc explores new and important areas for Science and Technology Studies (STS) and the social sciences, ranging from stem cells to nanomedicine. It explores the implications of innovative biomedicine for identities, innovations, bioethics, regulation, science, medicine, and healthcare. The MSc is well suited to social science, science and humanities graduates. Full/part-time options are available: www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/interdisciplinary/cbas/msc/index.html
MSc information leaflet: www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/02/50/21/MScMedicineScienceSocietyFlyer.pdf
King's College London is a global leader in health science research, hosting more Medical Research Council (MRC) Research Centres (five) than any other University. The CBAS MSc and MA therefore examine the social science aspects and ethical dimensions of innovative biomedicine in a unique supporting context. The courses also allow students to expand a specialist interest by selecting from an impressive range of Masters Options. There are clear career trajectories and exciting PhD prospects for those graduating from these two Masters course. The life sciences are a major growth area within contemporary social science, and are key areas for research funding. For further information please see the CBAS website: www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/interdisciplinary/cbas/
MA Bioethics & Society, King’s College London (New for 2010)
URL: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/interdisciplinary/cbas/mabas.html
Updated: February 24 2010
Developments in the biosciences raise important ethical issues that are increasingly being addressed by multidisciplinary research teams from the fields of philosophy and social science through, for example, the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award that created the London and Brighton Translational Ethics Centre (hosted at CBAS). This innovative MA in Bioethics & Society enables students to combine philosophical ethics modules taught by staff at the world famous Centre of Medical Law & Ethics (CMLE, School of Law) with social science and ethics modules from our CBAS MSc in Medicine, Science & Society. Students will be able to pursue their Dissertation with staff from CBAS and/or CMLE. Full/part-time options are available: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/interdisciplinary/cbas/mabas.html
King's College London is a global leader in health science research, hosting more Medical Research Council (MRC) Research Centres (five) than any other University. The CBAS MSc and MA therefore examine the social science aspects and ethical dimensions of innovative biomedicine in a unique supporting context. The courses also allow students to expand a specialist interest by selecting from an impressive range of Masters Options. There are clear career trajectories and exciting PhD prospects for those graduating from these two Masters course. The life sciences are a major growth area within contemporary social science, and are key areas for research funding. For further information please see the CBAS website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/interdisciplinary/cbas/
New eBook: Hatched: New Zealand’s Future
URL: http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/services/sustainablesoc/hatched/
Updated: February 15 2010
Hatched: The Capacity for Sustainable Development is a new eBook from Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, New Zealand's foremost environmental research organisation.
Hatched is an eBook of research findings, stories and tools exploring five key areas of capacity required for New Zealand’s long-term success:
- Thinking and acting for long term success - can NZ be a future maker not a future taker?
- Businesses as sustainability innovators – improving and marketing businesses’ sustainability performance.
- Individuals as citizen consumers – what it takes to live sustainably.
- Facing up to wicked problems - creating solutions to complex, value laden and multi-party problems.
- The future as a set of choices - the next steps needed for NZ’s long-term success.
Hatched has been written for practitioners working within the public, business and community sectors and is free to download.
New Journals: Science as Culture, New Genetics and Society, and Engineering Studies
Updated: February 15 2010
Science as Culture (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/csac) , a 'critique of the way science is going', New Genetics and Society (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/cngs), a focus for leading-edge social science research on the new genetics and related biosciences, and Engineering Studies (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/test) , a new journal devoted to the scholarly study of engineers and engineering, these Routledge journals are available to individual 4S members at special annual print-only subscription rates. For more information, visit the 'News and Offers' page from the journal homepages or via the 4S members page.
Call for Nominations, Society for the History of Technology: 2010 Sidney M. Edelstein Prize
Deadline: April 15 2010
URL: http://shotnews.net/?p=1215
Updated: February 14 2010
The Edelstein Prize is awarded annually to the author of an outstanding scholarly book in the history of technology published during the preceding three years. Previously known as the Dexter Prize, the Edelstein Prize was established in 1968 through the generosity of the late Sidney Edelstein, a noted expert on the history of dyes and dye processes, founder of the Dexter Chemical Corporation, and 1988 recipient of SHOT’s Leonardo da Vinci Award. The prize, supported by a gift from the Sidney and Mildred Edelstein Foundation, consists of $3500 and a plaque.
Publishers, authors, and readers may nominate a title for the prize. Please send one copy to each of the committee members listed below, postmarked by 15 April. A book is eligible for three years following its copyright date (so that books copyrighted in 2007, 2008, or 2009 are eligible for the 2010 prize). Books originally published in a language other than English are eligible for the three years following the copyright of the English translation.
A book must be renominated in years two and three of eligibility in order to be reconsidered. Renomination requires that a copy of the book be sent to any new committee members, and that ALL the committee members receive an email renominating the book. All committee members must receive a book or renomination message dated by the deadline in order for a book to be considered. Deadline: 15 April 2010
For recent winners and more information, please contact the committee chair or Bernie Carlson, SHOT Secretary at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or see the prize’s web page at: http://www.historyoftechnology.org/awards/edelstein.html.
2010 Selection Committee
Francesca Bray (Chair)
Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh
SSPS, Chrystal Macmillan Building
15a George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LD
United Kingdom
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Eda Kranakis
Department of History
University of Ottawa
155 Séraphin Marion St.
Ottawa Ontario K1N 6N5
Canada
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
William K. Storey
History Department
Millsaps College
1701 North State Street
Jackson MS 39210
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The IEEE Life Members’ Prize in Electrical History
Deadline: April 15 2010
URL: http://www.historyoftechnology.org/awards/ieee.html
Updated: February 03 2010
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Life Members' Prize in Electrical History, supported by the IEEE Life Members' Fund and administered by the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), is awarded annually to the best paper in the history of electrotechnology-power, electronics, telecommunications, and computer science-published during the preceding year. Any article published in a learned periodical is eligible if it treats the art or engineering aspects of electrotechnology and its practitioners. The article must be written in English, although the journal or periodical in which it appears may be a foreign language publication. The prize consists of a cash award of $500 and a certificate. To nominate an article, please send a copy (paper or electronic) of the article to each member of the prize committee. Deadline for the 2009 prize is April 15, 2010.
Andrew J. Butrica (chair)
Apt. 913-South
5225 Pooks Hill Road
Bethesda, MD 20814
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Robert MacDougall
Department of History
University of Western Ontario
Social Science Centre 4328
London, Ontario N6A 5C2
CANADA
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Eden Medina
School of Informatics and Computing
Indiana University
901 E. 10th Street, Room 305
Bloomington, IN 47408
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Andrew J. Butrica
MERCURIANS
ANTENNA Newsletter
P.O. Box 30224
Bethesda, MD 20824-0224
USA
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
www.mercurians.org
Call for Nominations, Cushing Memorial Prize in History and Philosophy of Physics
Deadline: March 15 2010
Updated: January 15 2010
The family, students, friends, and colleagues of Jim Cushing are pleased once again to solicit nominations for the James T. Cushing Prize in the History and Philosophy of Physics.
In recognition of Jim’s well-known role as a nurturer of new talent in the profession, this annual prize is intended to recognize and reward the work of younger scholars. The next winner will receive $1,000 and an invitation to deliver a paper in the University of Notre Dame's History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium series during the 2010-2011 academic year.
Work is eligible by nomination only. Eligible are all papers in the history and philosophy of physics published by a younger scholar within the three years prior to the nomination (i.e., published no earlier than January 2007). Without defining “younger scholar,” our intention is to favor work produced by scholars who are no more than five years or so beyond completion of the Ph.D. or, in a comparable way, new to the fields of the history and philosophy of physics.
Nominated work will be evaluated by a committee of three people drawn from the members of the Advisory Committee. A nomination should consist of a brief description of the significance of the nominated work and such information about the author as the nominator might think helpful to the evaluation committee (e.g., an abbreviated c.v.). The deadline for receipt of nominations is 15 March 2010. The winner will be announced in May 2010.
Nominations will be accepted by mail, fax, and email.
By mail:
Cushing Memorial Prize Nominations
History and Philosophy of Science Graduate Program
346 O'Shaughnessy
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
By fax: 574-631-7418 (“Cushing Memorial Prize Nomination” on cover sheet)
By email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Please be sure to include the following information:
• The name, institutional affiliation, phone number, fax number (if available), mailing address, and email address for both the nominator and the nominee.
• A full reference to the published work (i.e., journal name, volume, page numbers, URL if available, etc.).
For more information:
• Phone: Darrin Snyder Belousek at 919-835-1474 or Don Howard at 574-631-7547.
• Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
• Website: http://www.nd.edu/~cushpriz/
Further Information:
http://www.nd.edu/~cushpriz/
The D. Kim Foundation for the History of Science and Technology in East Asia
Updated: January 14 2010
The D. Kim Foundation for the History of Science and Technology in East Asia is pleased to offer several annual fellowship awards and grants for 2010-2011. Established in 2008 the D. Kim Foundation is dedicated to furthering the study of the history of science and technology in East Asia since the start of the 20th century. Comparative studies of East Asia and the West as well as studies in related fields (mathematics, medicine and public health are also welcome). The Foundation provides fellowships and grants to encourage and support graduate students and young scholars in the field.
Dissertation Fellowship
Eligibility: PhD candidate who is writing his/her dissertation.
Amount of award: $25,000
Exchange Student Fellowship
Eligibility: Student who wishes to expand his/her scholarly experience by studying abroad.
Amount of award: $20,000 full-year, $10,000 half-year
Traveling/Research Grant
Eligibility: Must present a paper at an international conference, workshop or annual meeting, or do a short-term research project (less than a month).
Amount of award: Up to $2,500
Group Grant
Eligibility: Grants will be available to groups that organize workshops or international meetings. These meetings must be held in the United States and conducted in English.
Amount of award: Up to $5,000
For further information visit our website: www.dkimfoundation.org.
Masters (MSc) programme in Digital Anthropology at University College London
Deadline: June 30 2010
Updated: January 14 2010
Early application deadline: June 30, 2010
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/digital-anthropology/
The new MSc in Digital Anthropology--begun in the Autumn of 2009--is well positioned for becoming a world leader in the training of researchers in the social and cultural dimensions of information technologies and digital media.
Digital technologies have become ubiquitous. From Facebook, Youtube and Flickr to PowerPoint, Google Earth and Second Life. Museum displays migrate to the internet, family communication in the Diaspora is dominated by new media, artists work with digital films and images. Anthropology and ethnographic research is fundamental to understanding the local consequences of these innovations, and to create theories that help us acknowledge, understand and engage with them. Today's students need to become proficient with digital technologies as research and communication tools. Through combining technical skills with appreciation of social effects, students will be trained for further research and involvement in this emergent world.
This MSc (nominally one year of full-time study) brings together three key components in the study of digital culture:
1. Skills training in digital technologies, including our own Digital Lab, from internet and digital film editing to e-curation and digital ethnography.
2. Anthropological theories of virtualism, materiality/immateriality and digitisation.
3. Understanding the consequences of digital culture through the ethnographic study of its social and regional impact.
Bursaries
There is a £5,000 annual bursary shared between this programme and the MSc in Material and Visual Culture, as well as 3 x £1,000 bursaries for all anthropology MA/MSc programmes. See here for further details on funding opportunities.
The programme is suitable both for those with a prior degree in anthropology but also for those with degrees in neighbouring disciplines who wish to be trained in anthropological and related approaches to digital culture. There is scope for those with specialist interests to work closely with information system designers, curators, communication specialists as well as our own digital studio. In addition to its importance for careers such as media, design and museums, digital technology is also integral to development, theoretical and applied anthropology.
University College London is one of the highest rated universities in the world, coming fourth after Harvard, Cambridge, and Yale in the 2009 annual Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings.
The Dept. of Anthropology at UCL is the world's leading centre for the study of Material and Visual Culture. We publish The Journal of Material Culture and several relevant book series. We have nine specialist staff in material and visual culture, and currently supervise nearly fifty PhD students specifically in this field, including many with topics in Digital Anthropology.
For further information about this course contact Lane DeNicola(.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
For making an application, note that the UCL bureaucracy may take a while to catch up with what is a new course, so in order to ensure your application is received we recommend that you download the application form from:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate-study/application-admission/downloadable-applications
And send this directly to:
Dr. Lane DeNicola
Department of Anthropology
University College London
14 Taviton Street
London WC1H OBW
New Book: Sciences from Below: Feminisms, Postcolonialities, and Modernities
Updated: January 14 2010
Sandra Harding
Duke University Press, 2008
A preeminent science studies scholar shows how feminist and postcolonial science studies challenge the problematic modernity versus tradition binary.
http://www.dukeupress.edu/books.php3?isbn=978-0-8223-4282-3
Mullins Award Winner—2009
Updated: January 14 2010
23 graduate student papers were nominated for this award. Many, many were truly excellent and we are confident that most will eventually be published. Still, our committee (including Andrew Lakoff, Daniel Kleinman, and Cathy Waldby) concluded that Manjari Mahajan’s paper, “Governing through the Non-Governmental: Shifting Terrains of Public Health in India’s AIDS Epidemic,” stood out. Mahajan explores the ways in which the Indian government, in a significant departure from its past public health practices, has relied heavily on non-governmental organizations to provide AIDS-related health services. In doing so, Mahajan argues a new mode of what she terms “contractual accountability” is developing. But Mahajan does much more than render a rich story, analyzing the political and epistemic implications of India’s approach to AIDS and showing the ways in which NGOs in India have become crucial players in knowledge production and expertise about AIDS, sexuality, culture and morality.
New Book: Schools under Surveillance: Cultures of Control in Public Education
Updated: January 14 2010
Rutgers University Press, 2010
Torin Monahan (Vanderbilt University) and Rodolfo D. Torres (UC Irvine), editors
Schools under Surveillance gathers together some of the very best researchers studying surveillance and discipline in contemporary public schools. Surveillance is not simply about monitoring or tracking individuals and their data--it is about the structuring of power relations through human, technical, or hybrid control mechanisms. Essays cover a broad range of topics including police and military recruiters on campus, testing and accountability regimes such as No Child Left Behind, and efforts by students and teachers to circumvent the most egregious forms of surveillance in public education. Each contributor is committed to the continued critique of the disparity and inequality in the use of surveillance to target and sort students along lines of race, class, and gender.
For more information, see the publisher's website at http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/Schools_Under_Surveillance.html
New Graduate track at UMass Boston
Updated: January 14 2010
From personalized genomics to measurements of sea-level rise, from al Qaeda websites to citizen technology-assessment panels, from brain-based education to labor-saving inventions for use in developing countries, social and scientific changes are intertwined. "Science in a Changing World," a new graduate track at UMass Boston prepares students to participate in questioning and shaping the direction of scientific and social changes, as well as to teach and engage others to participate in this important endeavor.
Masters degree and Graduate certificate with face-to-face, online, and at-a-distance course offerings.
Students with diverse backgrounds and career paths--from laboratories to field research, journalism to policy formulation, teaching to activism--are welcome to join the track. The teachers, advisors, courses, and research & engagement projects will lead them to examine Science and its Social Context and to develop valuable professional skills in Research, Writing & Evaluation for Civic Engagement and in Collaborative processes & Problem-Based Teaching around real-world issues involving science and technology.
Applications accepted to start in spring and fall. For more information, see http://www.stv.umb.edu/SICW.html or contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
New Book: Experimental Secrets: International Security, Codes, and the Future of Research
Updated: January 14 2010
University Press of America, 2009
Brian Rappert (University of Exeter)
Experimental Secrets addresses an unsettling question asked in recent years about the implications of modern biotechnology: might the knowledge being gained be used to further—rather than prevent—the spread of disease? In other words, might the life sciences become the death sciences? To avert this prospect, many governments, science agencies, and others have proposed researchers should subscribe to codes of conduct. Experimental Secrets recounts five years of international efforts to devise such codes. These initiatives have raised a question of profound significance: Are there limits to what should be known or communicated in the name of security?
To convey the experiences of policy-making, Experimental Secrets offers a marked departure from typical forms of academic writing. It seeks to convey a sense of what has been at stake with codes through ways of writing that question the conventions of statecraft, science, and social research. Different styles of writing, formats of texts, and points of views are mixed in an effort to convey the tensions, frustrations, and promises associated with international diplomatic efforts. In doing so, this book examines how those in STS and elsewhere undertaking research in conditions of secrecy could use what is missing from their accounts as a creative resource.
For more information, see the publisher's website at http://www.univpress.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=%5EDB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0761844759
IEEE History Center Life Member Internship
Deadline: March 01 2010
Updated: January 14 2010
Scholars at the beginning of their career studying the history of electrical technology and computing are invited to contact the Center to be considered for a paid Internship at the Center's offices on the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The intern program seeks to provide research experience for graduate students in the history of electrical and computer technologies, while enlisting the help of promising young scholars for the Center's projects. The Intern generally works full-time for two months at the History Center on a Center project that is connected to his or her own area of interest. This time is usually during the summer, but other arrangements will be considered. Interns are also encouraged to consult with the Center's staff and its associates, and guided to research resources in the area. The internship is designed for those near the beginning or middle of their graduate careers, but advanced undergraduates, advanced graduates, and, on rare occasions, recent Ph.D.s will also be considered. Special consideration is often given to scholars from outside the United States who might not otherwise have an opportunity to visit historical resources in this country.
The stipend paid to the intern is US$3,500, but additional funds may be available to defray travel costs, depending on the intern’s circumstances. This internship is supported by the IEEE Life Members Committee.
There is no formal application form. To apply, please mail a curriculum vitae showing your studies in electrical history along with a cover letter describing the sort of project you would be interested in doing (see contact information below). The deadline for contacting the IEEE History Center is 1 March 2010.
IEEE and Rutgers are AA/EO employers. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply for all positions. The IEEE History Center is cosponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)—the world’s largest professional technical society—, and Rutgers—the State University of New Jersey. The mission of the Center is to preserve, research, and promote the legacy of electrical engineering and computing. The Center can be contacted at: IEEE History Center, Rutgers University, 39 Union Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8538, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/index.html
New Book: Protocol Politics: The Globalization of Internet Governance
Updated: January 14 2010
The MIT Press, 2009
Information Revolution and Global Politics Series
Dr. Laura DeNardis, Yale Law School
ISBN-10: 0-262-04257-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-262-04257-4
“The Internet is approaching a critical point. The world is running out of Internet addresses.” So begins Protocol Politics, a new book by STS Scholar Laura DeNardis, a Research Scholar and Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and the Executive Director of the Yale Information Society Project. Internet engineers developed a new technical protocol, IPv6, to address this problem but IPv6 adoption has barely begun because of technical, cultural, and economic constraints. DeNardis's key insight is that technical standards are political. IPv6 serves as a case study for how protocols more generally are intertwined with socioeconomic and political order. IPv6 intersects with provocative topics including Internet civil liberties, U.S. military objectives, globalization, institutional power struggles, and the promise of global democratic freedoms. DeNardis offers recommendations for Internet standards governance, based not only on technical concerns but on principles of openness and transparency, and examines the global implications of looming Internet address scarcity versus the slow deployment of the new protocol designed to solve this problem.
MIT Press Book Description http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11893'
2010 ESST European Award for Aspiring Undergraduates in Science, Technology and Society (STS)
Deadline: June 30 2010
Updated: January 14 2010
Undergraduates studying at any European university and in any relevant field (engineering, the sciences, the social sciences and the humanities) are invited to apply for the 2010 ESST European Award sponsored by the European Masters Programme in Society, Science and Technology (ESST). An amount of 1,000 € will be awarded for the best original undergraduate paper or essay on any topic related to Society, Science and Technology. All submissions must be between 2,000 and 3,000 words in length and must be written in English. The deadline is 30 June, 2010.
For more information about the ESST European Masters Programme see:
http://www.esst.eu
Further details about the 2010 ESST European Award are available from:
http://www.esst.eu/award
Bakken Travel Grants
Deadline: February 19 2010
Updated: January 14 2010
Scholars and artists are invited to apply for travel fellowships and grants, which the Bakken Library and Museum in Minneapolis offers to encourage research in its collection of books, journals, manuscripts, prints, and instruments. The awards are to be used to help defray the expenses of travel, subsistence, and other direct costs of conducting research at the Bakken for researchers who must travel some distance and pay for temporary housing in the Twin Cities in order to conduct research at the Bakken.
Visiting Research Fellowships are awarded up to a maximum of $1,500; the minimum period of residence is two weeks, and preference is given to researchers who are interested in collaborating informally for a day or two with Bakken staff during their research visit. Research Travel Grants are awarded up to a maximum of $500 (domestic) and $750 (foreign); the minimum period of residence is one week.
The next application deadline for either type of research assistance is 19 February 2010.
For more details and application guidelines, please contact:
Elizabeth Ihrig, Librarian
The Bakken Library and Museum
3537 Zenith Avenue So.
Minneapolis, MN., 55416
e-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://www.thebakken.org
New Book: The Making of a Building: A Pragmatist Approach to Architecture
Updated: January 14 2010
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2009. XII, 227 pp., 24 ill.
ISBN 978-3-03911-952-3 pb.
Order online: http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?vID=11952&vLang=E&vHR=1&vUR=2&vUUR=1
How do architects learn about a building-to-be? How does a building emerge and gain reality in the model shop, in scaling, in option making, in architects' - and engineers' - discussions, in public presentations? What does it mean to design? What does it mean to add a building to the city? Drawing on rare ethnographical material of architects at work at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) of Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam in the period 2001-4, this book offers a novel account of the social and cognitive complexity of architecture in the making.
The author dismisses both stylistic periodization and socio-political constructivist methods as being inadequate to the task of understanding the dynamic process of how architects generate design through space and materiality, instead showcasing the potentials of the pragmatist approach as a research tool in the field of architecture. Offering a new way of understanding architecture as practice that takes place within the interactive networks of human and non-human actors, the book also tells the intriguing story of the extensions of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Contents: Pragmatist Approach to Architecture - The Social Life of Buildings - Ethnography of Design - Visualisation in Design - Scale Models - Design Cognition - Comparative Historical Enquiry in Design - Architecture of Addition - New York - Manhattan - Design Controversies - American Architecture - Marcel Breuer - Michael Graves - Rem Koolhaas - Actor-Network Theory.
The Author: Albena Yaneva is a Lecturer in Architectural Studies at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. In her research she draws extensively on the Actor-Network Theory to explore fieldworks in architecture, industrial design, contemporary art, and museum studies.
New Book: The Sociology of Intellectual Life: The Life of the Mind in and Around the Academy
Updated: January 14 2010
By Steve Fuller, 'Theory, Culture and Society' series, Sage Publications (London)
This book outlines a social theory of knowledge for the 21st century. It deals directly with a world in which it is no longer taken for granted that universities and academics are the places and people that best embody the life of the mind. While Fuller defends academic privilege, he takes very seriously the historic divergences between academics and intellectuals, attending especially to the different features of knowledge production that they value. Among this book's features include:
* an account of the vexed relationship between postmodernism and the university as an institution;
* the role tensions endemic to an academic who wishes also to function as an intellectual;
* a critical survey of the emerging fields of social epistemology and the sociology of philosophy, set against the rise of Anglophone analytic philosophy in the 20th century;
* a discussion of the ethics and politics of public intellectual life, especially given its largely improvisational character.
Save 50% order online at http://www.uk.sagepub.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book229759&
quoting promo code UK09AF024. E-book also available at £24.95 (ISBN 978-1-84920-523-8). The website also includes a link to the author's podcasts about the book, as well as the text of the introduction and chapter one. The author is also happy to be contacted about the book at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
William Kinsella is Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Science, Technology, and Society at
Updated: January 14 2010
William Kinsella has been appointed to a three-year term as Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Science, Technology, and Society at North Carolina State University (http://ids.chass.ncsu.edu/sts/). He has also received a U.S. Fulbright scholar award for research to be based at the University of Stuttgart during the Spring 2010 term. His Fulbright research project is titled "Nuclear Energy in Germany: Institutional, Political, and Public Communication in a Changing Social Context."
Research Grants from the Friends of the UW Madison Libraries
Deadline: February 01 2010
Updated: January 14 2010
The Friends of the University of Wisconsin—Madison Libraries is pleased to offer a minimum of four grants-in-aid annually, each one month in duration, for research in the humanities in any field appropriate to the library’s collections. The purpose is to foster the high-level use of the University of Wisconsin—Madison Libraries’ rich holdings, and to make them better known and more accessible to a wider circle of scholars. Awards are $2,000 each, or $3,000 for those traveling from outside North America.
Memorial Library, the university’s principal research library is distinguished in almost every area of scholarship. It boasts world-renowned collections of:
•history of science from the Middle Ages through the Enlightenment
•pseudo science and medical and scientific quackery
•the largest American collection of avant-garde “Little Magazines”
•a rapidly growing collection of American women writers to 1920
•many other fields
Generally, applicants must have a Ph.D. or be able to demonstrate a record of solid intellectual accomplishment. Scholars and graduate students who have completed all requirements except the dissertation are also eligible.
The grants-in-aid are designed primarily to help provide access to UW—Madison library resources for people who live beyond commuting distance. Preference will be given to scholars who reside outside a 75-mile radius of Madison. The grantee is expected to be in residence during the term of the award, which may be taken up at any time during the year.
Applications are due 1 February of any year. For application forms or more information, see http://giving.library.wisc.edu/friends/grant-in-aid.shtml, or write to Friends of the University of Wisconsin—Madison Libraries, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 990 Memorial Library, 728 State St., Madison, WI 53706, or contact the Friends at 608-265-2505; fax: 608-265-2754, E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Further Information:
http://giving.library.wisc.edu/friends/grant-in-aid.shtml
The History of Science Society 2009 Prize Winners
Updated: January 14 2010
The History of Science Society awarded its 2009 prizes at the HSS annual conference, which was in Phoenix. The HSS wishes to congratulate its prize winners.
Sarton Medal: (for lifetime achievement)
John E. Murdoch
Professor, Harvard University
Pfizer Award: (for the best scholarly book)
Harold J. Cook
Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine and professor at University College London
Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (Yale University Press, 2007)
Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize: (for the best book for a general audience)
Charles Seife
Associate Professor, The Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University
Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking (Viking Adult, 2008)
Derek Price/Rod Webster Prize: (for the best article in Isis)
Angela N. H. Creager, Professor, Princeton University and Gregory J. Morgan, Associate Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology “After the Double Helix: Rosalind Franklin's Research on Tobacco mosaic virus" (Isis, 2008, 99:239-272)
Joseph H Hazen Education Prize: (for excellence in teaching the history of science)
Frederick Gregory
Professor, University of Florida
Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize: (for the best book on the history of women in science)
Monica H. Green
Professor, Arizona State University
Making Women's Medicine Masculine. The Rise of Male Authority in Pre-Modern
Gynaecology (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Nathan Reingold Prize: (for the best unpublished article by a graduate student)
Rachel N. Mason Dentinger, University of Minnesota
“Molecularizing Plant Compounds, Evolutionizing Insect-Plant Relationships: Gottfried S. Fraenkel and the physiological study of insect feeding in the 1950s."
New Book: The Materiality of Learning Technology and Knowledge in Educational Practice
Updated: January 14 2010
Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Estrid Sørensen, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
The field of educational research lacks a methodology for the study of learning that does not begin with humans, their aims, and their interests. The Materiality of Learning seeks develop a novel spatial approach to educational research that focusses on the materiality of learning. Drawing on science and technology studies (STS), and especially on the spatial thinking of After-ANT, Estrid Sørensen compares an Internet-based 3D virtual environment project in a fourth-grade class with the class’s work with traditional learning materials, including blackboards, textbooks, notebooks, pencils, and rulers. Taking into account pupils’ and teachers’ physical bodies, Professor Sørensen analyzes the multiple forms of technology, knowledge, and presence that are enacted with the materials. This book is an important reference for professionals and graduate or postgraduate students interested in a variety of fields, including educational studies, educational psychology, social anthropology, and STS.
• Original ethnographic descriptions showing the fine details of how materials influence the learning process • Introduces the advanced and complex Actor-Network Theory to the educational field, clarified for the reader through detailed ethnographic descriptions
‘Sørensen shows in the book that it is indeed possible to write a genuine and theoretically sophisticated post-humanist analysis, while showing care and empathy for the people invovled.’ Prof. Torben Elgaard Jensen, Technical University of Denmark
New book: The Origins of Sociable Life: Evolution After Science Studies by Myra J. Hird
Updated: January 14 2010
This ambitious, agenda-setting study considers the origins of sociable life from a microontological perspective. More specifically, it suggests ways of engaging with bacteria in other-than passive or pathogenic characterizations. We know much more about living organisms "big-like-us" than we do about those organisms which originated life on Earth and sustain the biosphere through complex symbiotic and recycling relationships. This book details scientific research on bacterial capabilities such as perception, communication, community organization and symbiosis. It critically analyzes evolutionary theories about the development of species (including neo-Darwinism, epigenetics and symbiogenesis). It also draws on bio-philosophical discussions of sexual difference, identity, environmentalism and ethics, providing a transdisciplinary framework with which to engage the social and natural sciences together to recognize bacterial liveliness in structuring social relations.
Praise for The Origins of Sociable Life: ‘Myra J. Hird provides a highly engaging and energetic account of contemporary scientific debates about microbes, detailing how they challenge mainstream understandings of evolution, identity, sex and ecology. Most importantly, she articulates why social scientists, feminists and queer theorists should pay careful attention to our inextricable entanglements with the microcosmos. Her enthusiasm for her subject matter is infectious.’ — Celia Roberts, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK
‘This book is an exciting and inviting account of the messy entanglements and inventions of the world’s tiny beings, those entities that shape scale upon scale of sociable living for all on the earth. Myra Hird’s book is richly researched and beautifully written, and it fulfills my appetite for an account of biology and biologists to live with and for. Hird shows how “thinking with micro-organisms”– and with their scientists – can be a fundamental practice for living well in multispecies, mortal worlds.’— Donna Haraway, Distinguished Professor, History of Consciousness Department, UC Santa Cruz, USA
For more information, see the publisher's website, http://us.macmillan.com/theoriginsofsociablelifeevolutionaftersciencestudie
New Book from Cary Wolfe: What Is Humanism? (U of Minn Press, 2009)
Updated: January 08 2010
WHAT IS POSTHUMANISM?
By Cary Wolfe
University of Minnesota Press | 392 pages | 2009
ISBN 978-0-8166-6614-0| hardcover | $75.00
ISBN 978-0-8166-6615-7| paperback | $24.95
Posthumanities Series, Vol. 8
Can a new kind of humanities-posthumanities-respond to the redefinition of humanity's place in the world by both the technological and the biological or "green" continuum in which the "human" is but one life form among many? Exploring this radical repositioning, Cary Wolfe ranges across bioethics, cognitive science, animal ethics, gender, and disability to develop a theoretical and philosophical approach responsive to our changing understanding of ourselves and our world.
Cary Wolfe holds the Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Chair in English at Rice University. His previous books include Critical Environments: Postmodern Theory and the Pragmatics of the "Outside," Observing Complexity: Systems Theory and Postmodernity, and Zoontologies: The Question of the Animal, all published by the University of Minnesota Press.
For more information, including the table of contents, visit the book's webpage:
http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/W/wolfe_posthumanism.html
For more information on the Posthumanities Series:
http://www.upress.umn.edu/byseries/posthumanities.html
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New Program in Science, Technology, and International Development at U of Edinburgh
Updated: January 08 2010
The Science, Technology and Innovation Studies Subject Group at the University of Edinburgh is launching a new postgraduate programme in Science, Technology and International Development from September 2010. The MSc programme (coursework plus dissertation) can be completed full-time over one year or part-time over two or three years. Alternatively a shorter programme (coursework without dissertation) can be followed for a Diploma or Certificate. The MSc Science, Technology and International Development is designed to equip students with an advanced interdisciplinary understanding of the historical, sociological, political and policy aspects of science and technology as they relate to international development. The programme provides a conceptual and policy-oriented approach the relationships between science, technology and international development. The programme prepares students for specialised practical work in international development or further academic study. Further information: see http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/stid or contact the Programme Director Lawrence Dritsas .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
Arthur L. Norberg Travel Fund
Deadline: January 15 2010
Updated: January 02 2010
The Arthur L. Norberg Travel Fund provides short-term grants-in-aid to help scholars with travel expenses to use archival collections at the Charles Babbage Institute. Each year we plan to award two $750 grants.
Applicants should send a 2-page CV as well as a 500-word project description that describes the overall research project, identifies the importance of specific CBI collections, and discusses the projected outcome (journal article, book chapter, museum exhibit, etc.). Applicants are strongly encouraged to examine the extensive on-line finding guides to CBI’s 200-plus archival collections at http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/archmss.html. Applicants should estimate how many days they plan to use CBI collections during their visit (travel should generally be in the calendar year of the award). To be eligible, scholars will reside outside the Twin Cities metropolitan region.
Notification of awards will be made within four weeks, and travel can commence directly thereafter. Questions pertaining to collection content and access can be directed to R. Arvid Nelsen, CBI Archivist, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Please direct questions about the Arthur Norberg Travel Fund to Jeffrey Yost, CBI Associate Director, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). For additional information, see http://www.cbi.umn.edu.
Materials must be submitted by email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or postmarked no later than 15 January 2010.
Further Information: http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/archmss.html