Events for September 2008
September 12, 2008
Michael Gordin, Princeton University
The Origins of Nuclear Forensics: Making VERMONT and the U.S. Detection of the First Soviet Atomic Test
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, Regional Colloquium
Time: 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., followed by social hour and light dinner
Location: The Franklin Institute
222 N. 20th St.
The Philadelphia Area Colloquium in History of Science, Technology and Medicine reconvenes with discussion of a draft chapter from Gordin’s forthcoming book. The book, provisionally titled “Red Cloud at Dawn: Stalin, Truman and the Flow of Atomic Knowledge,” describes how the United States and the Soviet Union constructed knowledge of foreign nuclear programs during the “atomic monopoly,” from the end of the Second World War through the first Soviet atomic test.
September 16, 2008
Mats Fridlund, University of Aarhus and University of Copenhagen
“Bullets, Bombs & Broadsheets: The Materialist Origins of Modern Terrorism”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation,
Common to the first wave of terrorism that emerged in the 19th century were the prevalence of participants with advanced scientific expertise and the appropriation of chemically related science and technologies such as dynamite, revolvers, clandestine printing presses, and the illustrated mass press. This talk addresses the role of these technologies in shaping or even allowing this new terrorism to emerge and whether--then as well as today--access and expertise can be seen as playing a defining role in the emergence of new forms of terrorism.
Mats Fridlund is a visiting associate professor of history of ideas at the University of Aarhus and researcher of materiality studies and history of terrorism at the University of Copenhagen. He has published on the history of technological nationalism, the history and culture of engineering, the development of electric power, and telecommunications technologies in the 20th century. His current research concerns the history of the technologies of terrorism from the 19th to the 21st centuries.
September 18, 2008
Terry Christensen, Oregon State University
Miranda Paton, Cornell University
Brown Bag Lunch with Presentations by PACHS Dissertation Research Fellows
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: American Philosophical Society Library
105 South Fifth Street
Two PACHS Fellows will report on dissertation research carried out in several Philadelphia area archives and libraries. Terry Christensen (Oregon State University) will discuss “John Archibald Wheeler: A Study in the Pedagogy, Philosophy, and Politics of 20th-Century Physics.” Miranda Paton (Cornell University) will discuss “Henry Fairfield Osborn, Ernst Mayr and the Synthesis of Biology: The Utility of a ‘silly, pompous, conceited old man’ .”
September 18, 2008
Patricia Kenschaft, Montclair State University
“Minority Mathematicians”
Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics (PASHoM) | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Villanova University
A summary of some of the known facts about minority participation in the mathematical community, including some biographies, some statistical information, and a report of a survey of black mathematicians of New Jersey twenty years ago.
September 22, 2008
Symposium on Mendel in the 21st Century: The Scientific, Social and Ethical Impact of Genetics in our World
Villanova University, College of Arts and Sciences | Visit site »
Dates: Monday, September 22, and Tuesday, Sepember 23
Place: Villanova University
Symposium speakers will be drawn from fields ranging from history and philosophy of science to molecular genetics, genomics, biotechnology and evolutionary biology, psychology, ethics, medicine, and law. Speakers will discuss the impact of 21st century genetics in our society from the perspective of their respective disciplines.
September 22, 2008
Paul Edwards, University of Michigan
“Climate Science as a Global Knowledge Infrastructure”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, HSSC Fall 2008 Workshop | Visit site »
Time: 3:30 - 5:15 p.m.
Place: 337 Claudia Cohen Hall
September 23, 2008
Dóra Bobory, Independent Scholar
“An Experimental Noble Household: Count Batthyany’s Alchemy in Sixteenth-Century Hungary”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
The 16th century was the age of the so-called prince-practitioners, noblemen who supported alchemical projects and were personally involved in the experimentation. Alchemy was a passion shared by many German, French, Danish, Bohemian, and Moravian noblemen, such as the Hungarian Boldizsár Batthyány, an influential aristocrat and patron of natural philosophy. The talk details some curious instances of his correspondence, with special attention to the materials and apparatus he and his correspondents used, the alchemical notions they were familiar with, the readings they relied on, and the nature of their experiments. Bobory questions whether different political or economic circumstances also influenced the way “scientific” ideas were transmitted and perceived.
Dóra Bobory is an independent scholar who graduated from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Her main field of interest is early modern history of science, specializing in the history of alchemy, botany, and the divinatory arts. She is currently writing her first monograph on the natural philosophical pursuits of the Hungarian count Boldizsár Batthyány.
September 25, 2008
Pre-Conference Program: “Crossing the Digital Divide”
American Association for the History of Nursing and the School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Place: Hyatt Regency Penn’s Landing, 201 S. Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia
Optional session preceding the 25th Annual Conference of the American Association for the History of Nursing. This interactive program features faculty from the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University. CHNM faculty will demonstrate how new technologies and internet resources can enrich historical scholarship and bring nursing history stories to broader audiences. Space is limited and pre-registration is required.
September 25, 2008
Judith Walzer Leavitt, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Make Room for Daddy: Men and Childbirth in Mid-Twentieth Century America”
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science and The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
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Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia,
19 South 22nd Street
This program is free and open to the public. The lecture will be preceded by a reception, at 5:30 p.m.
Judith Leavitt examines how expectant fathers fared during hospital-based childbirth in the middle years of 20th-century America, ca. 1935-1985. Until very recently, historians describing the childbirth experience entirely neglected fathers-to-be. In the popular literature expectant fathers were caricatured and ridiculed as incompetent, ignorant fools pacing in the hallways and waiting rooms of hospitals. Leavitt argues that we cannot fully understand childbirth and its changes without adding fathers to the story and analysis. Her talk (and the forthcoming book upon which it relies) rescues fathers from childbirth history’s oblivion and reveals--not so surprisingly, but still insufficiently recognized--that these men, too, helped to shape childbirth events.
Leavitt will recount the stories of expectant fathers--many in the fathers’ and the mothers’ own voices. Her talk will remind listeners of their own experiences, and it will demonstrate that men’s childbirth stories are significant because fathers-to-be were active participants in changing hospital practices. At the same time as they tried to help their wives through their travails, these men increased available roles for themselves as they struggled to figure out their own preferences. Their accounts, whether humorous or serious, emotionally charged or ambivalent, show that men’s diverse responses to childbirth have mattered.
Judith Leavitt is Rupple Bascom and Ruth Bleier Professor of Medical History, History of Science, and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has written widely on 19th- and 20th-century public health and women’s health, addressing questions and issues at the intersection of science and society--that is, placing medical science securely into its social, economic, and political context. Her books include a study of Mary Mallon ("Typhoid Mary"), a history of childbirth in America, and a history of public health in Milwaukee. She is a past president of the American Association for the History of Medicine and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
September 25, 2008
Keith Thomson
“The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America”
The Academy of Natural Sciences | Visit site »
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: The Academy of Natural Sciences
RSVP
Keith Thomson, professor emeritus of natural history at the University of Oxford and former president of the Academy of Natural Sciences, will recount highlights from his book. The Legacy of the Mastodon tells the story of a great American scientific adventure starring giant extinct mammals and dinosaurs. Prominent Philadelphians such as Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Leidy, Edward Drinker Cope play the central roles, together with the Academy and the American Philosophical Society. Thomson has written more than 200 scientific papers and 12 books. He has served as director of the University Museum at Oxford, director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and dean of Yale University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
September 26, 2008
American Association for the History of Nursing: 25th Annual Research Conference
American Association for the History of Nursing and the School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Dates: Friday, September 26 - Sunday, September 28
Place: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
The American Association for the History of Nursing and the School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, are co-sponsoring the Association’s twenty-fifth annual conference to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 26 - 28, 2008. The Annual Conference provides opportunities for scholarly exchanges of knowledge about the development of nursing and healthcare in the United States and across the globe. Our program and celebration features paper and poster presentations, exhibits, networking opportunities, a banquet and a live auction. Also see September 25 for information re pre-conference program.
For further information contact Janet Tomcavage at tomcavag@nursing.upenn.edu.
September 30, 2008
Sarah Vogel, Columbia University
“The Politics of Plastics: The Scientific, Political and Economic History of Bisphenol A.”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
In spring 2008 the debate about the safety of bisphenol A became front-page news. A number of researchers and environmental advocates contended that low doses of this chemical, used in plastics production, could alter endocrine function and development and manifest as disease. The industry trade association held steadfast to the position that bisphenol A is safe. Defining the stakes in this political and scientific debate is the central objective of this presentation. This seemingly myopic conflict over bisphenol A, defined by the relationships among environmental health research, chemical regulation, environmental advocacy, and industry trade associations, reveals a broader understanding of the development of the American administrative state since the 1950s.
Sarah Vogel received her Ph.D. from Columbia University’s Department of Sociomedical Sciences. She concentrated in 20th-century American history, environmental history, and the history of public health. She also holds master’s degrees in public health and environmental management from Yale University.