Events for April 2012
April 3, 2012
Matthew N. Eisler
Innovation and Ideology: Producing and Interpreting Facts from Lab to Policy Salon in the Energy R&D Sector
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
If advanced industrial civilization could be characterized by a central paradox, it is that its capacity to deliver a higher quality of life to hundreds of millions of people over the last half-century has also, over the long term, undermined this way of life and the biosphere. Over the last four decades policy makers have tended to seek the solution to the riddle of sustainability in “innovation,” an opaque expression connoting advanced science and engineering as a thrifty, expeditious, and apolitical fix for social problems. This presentation explores the forces perpetuating this idea in case studies of post-1945 enterprises of energy and power source R&D in the United States. In articulating the relationship between laboratory practices, energy R&D policy, and energy and economic policies over time—how the production and interpretation of knowledge of physical matter interfaces with the production and interpretation of knowledge of society—I hope to illuminate the power of institutions of science and technology to shape desirable outcomes.
Matthew N. Eisler focuses on the history of the socio-institutional relationships between science and technology post-1945. He concentrates on the political economy of knowledge-making in the academy, government, and industry, especially in enterprises relating to sustainable energy. He has explored the dynamics of linear ideology/project management, utopian/futurist discourse, science and engineering patronage, and the construction of expert authority in case studies of fuel-cell research and development and energy-related nanoscale science, engineering, and technology programs. Eisler is currently investigating these themes in a broad history of the science, technology, and social relations of energy “innovation institutions” within the federal R&D establishment, with a focus on D/ARPA, the Institute for Defense Analyses, and constituent organizations of the Department of Energy, including ARPA-E.
Eisler obtained a doctorate in the history of science and technology at the University of Alberta in 2008. He was the 2008–2009 Harris Steel Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Western Ontario’s Department of History and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, from 2009 to 2011. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Center for Contemporary History and Policy at the Chemical Heritage Foundation.
April 9, 2012
Thomas Schlich, McGill University
A Bizarre Ritual: The Controversies about Surgical Gloves in 1890s Germany
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 3:30-5:30 pm
Location: 337 Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania
April 10, 2012
Juan-Andres Leon
Chemist-Industrialists in Germany’s Age of Scientific Philanthropy (1870s–1930s)
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
Between German unification in the late 19th century and the Great Depression of the 1930s, a new and very unique form of social and political participation emerged within scientific and industrial circles in Germany. Inspired by the model of American private philanthropy as well as the highly successful organization of chemical research in German industry, chemists who held leadership positions in such large corporations as Bayer, BASF, and Krupp, in conjunction with scientifically trained allies in other industries and the academy, sought to reproduce these successes in many other fields in the natural sciences—from those considered to be “applied” to much “purer” ones such as astronomy.
The social and cultural origins of this movement, as well as the challenges to which German industry was exposed in the early 20th century, are crucial for understanding the development of this particular form of social, political, and scientific practice. In this talk we will see how as a result, in contrast to the American philanthropic tradition of the financial support of science, there emerged a strong preference for direct collaboration in scientific research with personnel, materials, instrumentation, and political sponsorship to guarantee these industrialized sciences’ support by the state. This practice of industrial support of science, beyond reflecting the historical context from which it emerged, had a central role in the shaping of the German form of capitalism that remained dominant throughout the 20th century.
Juan-Andres Leon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Harvard University Department of the History of Science, where he is finishing his dissertation, “Citizens of the Chemical Complex.” He is also project manager of digitalization at Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. A trained physicist as well as a historian, he has previously written on the impact of the Atoms for Peace initiative on Latin America’s scientific elites. Leon is the 2011–2012 winner of the CHF/SHAC Rumford Scholarship.
April 13, 2012
Robert Friedel, University of Maryland
American Bottles: the Road to No Return
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:00-2:00pm
Location: 402 Claudia Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania
April 14, 2012
The Future of Health Care’s Past: A Symposium in honor of Dr. Joan E. Lynaugh
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 9:30am to 4:30pm
Location: Ann L. Roy Auditorium, Claire M. Fagin Hall, 418 Curie Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Join the Barbara Bates Center for a day-long symposium that will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Center by honoring one its co-founders, Joan Lynaugh, PhD, RN, FAAN. Dr. Lynaugh’s contributions as a nurse historian are unparalleled. Through her extensive scholarship she has expanded the scope of historical inquiry within nursing science by placing it within the larger framework of health care study. In addition, Dr. Lynaugh’s role of mentor has influenced generations of historians and health care professionals.
For a full list of scheduled speakers, and to register, please visit the event page.
April 16, 2012
Jonathan Metzl, Vanderbilt University
Fallen doctors: An Ethnography of Medical Transgression
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 3:30-5:30 pm
Location: 337 Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania
April 17, 2012
Alex Csiszar
In the Air or on the Page? Making Argon Public
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
When Lord Rayleigh and William Ramsay announced in early 1895 that an element in the air existed that had escaped anyoneʼs notice, their work was hailed as a triumph not simply by chemists and physicists but also by the wider Victorian press. The discovery of argon was also, however, a locus of controversy over propriety and property in making scientific claims that dragged on for several years, as a host of new gases were put forward as pretenders to elemental status. At issue were not simply matters of scientific priority but rather of the appropriate means by which scientific discoveries were transformed into public knowledge claims, of the nature and the rights of the relevant publics for those claims, and of the rights and responsibilities of researchers and others to follow up on and extend their substantive findings.
Alex Csiszarʼs research interests include the history of 19th-century scientific publishing in France and Britain. His current book project, Broken Pieces of Fact: The Rise of the Scientific Journal, examines the circumstances in which the scientific journal emerged to become the principal institutional site for the representation, certification, and registration of authoritative natural knowledge. He is assistant professor of the history of science at Harvard University.
April 18, 2012
History of Women’s Health Conference
Pennsylvania Hospital | Visit site »
The Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, will host its seventh annual History of Women’s Health Conference on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 (keynote speaker TBD). We invite interested persons to send a one to two page proposal or abstract of your topic by Friday, November 11, 2011 for consideration. The History of Women’s Health Conference focuses on women’s health issues from the late 18th century to the present. This conference encourages interdisciplinary work. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, obstetric and gynecology issues (fertility, infertility, birth control methods, menopause), adolescence (health, cultural influences, body image, puberty, eating disorders), mental health topics, geriatric concerns, overall women’s health, access to health care, minority health, nursing, midwifery, female healers, and more.
The History of Women’s Health Conference began in 2006 as part of the Pennsylvania Hospital’s celebration of co-founder Benjamin Franklin’s tercentenary. Each year since, scholars from the humanities and health care professionals gather to discuss the past, present, and future state of women’s health. The conference is jointly sponsored by the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department and the Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Collection.
Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation’s first hospital, is a 515-bed acute care facility that provides a full range of diagnostic and therapeutic medical services and functions as a major teaching and clinical research institution. For more information please visit our web site at pennhealth.com/pahosp. For more on our collections or the history of Pennsylvania Hospital, please visit www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc
Please e-mail your one to two page proposals to:
Stacey C Peeples, Curator-Lead Archivist, Pennsylvania Hospital peepless@pahosp.com
Please call (215-829-5434) or e-mail with any questions or for more information.
April 19, 2012
Francine F. Abeles, Kean University
Hypotheticals, Conditionals, and Implication in Nineteenth Century Britain
Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics, Villanova University | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Room 103, Mendel Science Center, Villanova University
Abstract: Modern logicians ordinarily do not distinguish between the terms hypothetical and conditional. Yet in the late nineteenth century their meanings were quite different and their tie to implication unclear. In this paper, Francine Abeles will explore the views of four prominent British logicians of the period, W. E. Johnson, J.N. Keynes, H. MacColl, and J. Venn on these issues.
April 19, 2012
Jamin Wells, University of Delaware
‘Plenty of Glory but no Dividends’: Marine Salvage and the Lore of the Shore in Late-Nineteenth Century America
Hagley Library Research Seminar Series
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Copeland Room of Hagley’s library building just North of Wilmington, Delaware
Commentator: Michelle Craig McDonald (Richard Stockton College)
The seminar is open to the public and is based on a paper that is circulated in advance. Those planning to attend are encouraged to read the paper before coming to the seminar. Copies may be obtained by emailing Carol Lockman, clockman@Hagley.org.
Please visit hagley.org/info for driving directions.
April 20, 2012 - April 21, 2012
Seminar
47th Annual Joint Atlantic Seminar for the History of Biology
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
The 47th Joint Atlantic Seminar for the History of Biology will be held at the University of Pennsylvania, beginning with an opening reception and plenary the evening of Friday April 20th, followed by the presentation of papers, a faculty panel, and a dinner on Saturday April 21st. The event is being co-sponsored by the History and Sociology of Science Department, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science (PACHS).
The Joint Atlantic Seminar, founded in 1965, has fostered a long tradition of collegiality amongst historians of biology in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. It offers the opportunity for graduate students and other Historians of Science to present their work to a well-informed audience in an intimate and supportive setting. It has been a venue where many of today’s senior scholars in the field gave their first academic talk.
Events will primarily take place in Claudia Cohen Hall, located at 249 South 36th Street, between Spruce Street and Locust Walk, on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia.
Transportation:
Philadelphia is accessible by car (I-95; I-76), Amtrak rail from New York and Washington, and from various points in New Jersey via NJ transit and SEPTA (through Trenton). Philadelphia’s train station (30th Street) is located about a ten-minute walk from campus. Taxis and public transit are also available from 30th Street. Visitors may also want to fly into the Philadelphia International Airport. Taxis are available from the airport, as is public transit via SEPTA regional rail, which should be taken directly to the University City stop.
Parking around the campus is available on the street (metered) and in nearby parking garages.
Any additional questions, please contact: Andy Hogan at ahog@sas.upenn.edu.
Schedule
Friday, April 20
5:00pm
Opening Reception (3rd Floor Lounge)
6:00pm
Welcome
Susan Lindee Associate Dean for the Social Sciences (Penn)
Babak Ashrafi Director (Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science)
6:15pm
Plenary Talk (Seminar Room)
Adriana Petryna Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in Anthropology (Penn): “The Ends of the Sick Role in Transnational Medicine”
7:15pm
Reception with Dinner (3rd Floor Lounge)
Saturday, April 21
8:30am
Coffee, Tea, Bagels, and Pastries (Room G-17)
9:00am
Session I Epigenesis and Evolution (Room G-17)
Chair: Alex Csiszar (Harvard)
Sarah Eldridge (Princeton): “Dynamic Words: the Language of Epigenesis in 18th Century Biology and Culture”
Richard Nash (Johns Hopkins): “William Keith Brooks as a Late-Nineteenth Century Darwinian”
Myrna Perez (Harvard): “Stephen Jay Gould and McClean v. Arkansas: Scientific Expertise and the Nature of Science in American culture 1980-1985”
10:30am
Coffee Break
11:00am
Session II Studying the Senses (Room G-17)
Chair: Erika Milam (Maryland)
Marion Schmidt (Johns Hopkins): “Eugenic Prevention and Educational Perfection: Hereditary Deafness Research at the Clarke School for the Deaf in the 1930s and 40s”
Scott Phelps (Harvard): “Photographs of Agnosia: Neuropsychiatry and the ‘Pötzl Phenomenon,’ 1917-1924”
Adrianna Link (Johns Hopkins): “Documenting Human Nature: E. Richard Sorenson and the National Anthropological Film Center, 1965-1980”
12:30pm
Lunch (3rd Floor Lounge, Claudia Cohen Hall)
2:00pm
Session III Post-War Genetics and Society (Room G-17)
Chair: Luis Campos (Drew)
Maxwell Rogowski (Penn): “Modeling the ‘Near-White Negro’: Curt Stern and the Genetics of Race in the 1952 South”
Mary Mitchell (Penn): “Past Predicates; Tense Futures: Human Geneticists & Social Policy 1967-1973”
Robin Wolfe Scheffler (Yale): “From Polio to p53: The Life of Simian Virus 40”
3:30pm
Coffee Break
4:00pm
Session VI Aging Cells and Ancient DNA (Room G-17)
Chair: Dawn Digrius (Stevens)
Elizabeth Dobson (Florida State): “The Search for Ancient DNA, the Meaning of Fossils, and Paleontology in the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis”
Lijing Jiang (Arizona State): “Aging Catastrophe Comes with Protein: Cytoplasmic Inheritance and Epigenetics in Robin Holliday’s Cell Aging Research, 1963-1988”
5:00pm
Coffee Break
5:30pm
Faculty Panel (Room G-17)
Jane Maienschein (Arizona State)
Garland Allen (Washington)
Everett Mendelsohn (Harvard)
7:00pm
Dinner (3rd Floor Lounge, Claudia Cohen Hall)
Any additional questions, please contact: Andy Hogan at ahog@sas.upenn.edu.
April 22, 2012
Truth, Trust, and Fracking
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia Science Festival, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Temple University Libraries
Time: 2:00-4:00pm
Location: The Wagner Free Institute of Science
We often see debates between experts on scientific issues that affect our lives and livelihoods. What can we do when the experts disagree but their decisions have enormous impacts on us? Do we try to influence their debate? Do we trust one side? Do we trust our gut feelings? Hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale has brought up these questions and issues. Join us for a panel discussion with speakers from a number of fields and disciplines who will help us understand the way we access and understand information and help us apply lessons learned from history in our decision-making process.
This event is free and open to the public, but please:
Panel:
Brook Lenker, Director of FracTracker.org, former Manager of Education and Outreach for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Director of Watershed Stewardship for the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.
Susan Phillips, reporter for WHYY and contributor to State Impact PA who is covering the fiscal and environmental impact of Pennsylvania’s booming energy economy, with a focus on Marcellus Shale drilling.
Sara Wylie develops new modes of studying and intervening in large-scale social issues through a fusion of social scientific, scientific and art/design practices. She co-directed development of web tools for community monitoring of Natural Gas Industry for her dissertation, is presently Director of Toxics and Health Research for publiclaboratory.org and teaches at RISD.
Moderator:
Babak Ashrafi, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science.
Event Co-sponsors: This Philadelphia Science Festival, the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, the Wagner Free Institute of Science, Chemical Heritage Foundation, and Temple University Libraries.
April 23, 2012
Ulf Schmidt, University of Kent and Jonathan Moreno, University of Pennsylvania
From Nerve Gas to Neurons: Military Medical Research in the Cold War and the War on Terror
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 3:30-5:30 pm
Location: 337 Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania
April 23, 2012
Andrew Hodges, Oxford University
Alan Turing: An Atlantic Perspective
Louis Clark Vanuxem Lecture, Princeton University | Visit site »
Time: 8:00pm
Location: McCosh 50, Princeton University
On September 29, 1936, Alan Turing arrived at the Graduate College, Princeton, knowing that at 24 he had already made a major discovery that would change mathematics. In particular, his definition of the “universal machine” had opened the way to modern computer science. In this talk Dr. Hodges will survey Alan Turing’s life and work in this, the centenary year of Turing’s birth. During Turing’s time at Princeton, Turing had to make difficult choices about how to build on his astonishingly early achievement. The very individual decisions he made in 1938 affected everything thereafter, including the outcome of the Second World War. Those decisions also foreshadowed his later commitment to computer-building and his role as computer prophet. Although his time in the United States was short, connections with the new superpower remained vital in his remaining 16 years. And that famous poisoned apple in a famous 1938 American film became the image Alan Turing chose for his death in 1954. This event is in conjunction with the Turing Centennial Celebration beginning in May (see princeton.edu/turing).
April 24, 2012
Jongmin Lee
Demonstrating for the Environment: Scrubbers and EPA’s Sulfur Dioxide Control during the 1970s
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in December 1970 at the beginning of the “environmental decade.” In the following 10 years public awareness of the pollution and efforts toward its remediation dramatically increased. The EPA was often found at the hearings, courtrooms, and classrooms. What was happening inside the EPA’s offices and laboratories? Here I focus on scrubbers, devices absorbing sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power-plant emissions. I first examine how EPA engineers successfully developed and demonstrated scrubbers as the pollution-control technology against its technical and regulatory alternatives like low-sulfur coal, stack height increases, and intermittent control systems. Then I point out the EPA’s response to the environmental effects of scrubbers, such as the disposal of sludge. Finally, I aim to show the rise of the control-technology approach in the subsequent air-pollution control. I am interested in illustrating how engineering approaches to the environment gained legitimacy in the regulatory process.
April 25, 2012
“A Glorious Enterprise” book talk and signing
Academy of Natural Sciences
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Academy of Natural Sciences
Academy Senior Fellow Robert M. Peck and historical biographer Patricia Tyson Stroud chronicle 200 years of Academy history in their newly published book A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science. This beautifully illustrated book is the first complete history of the Academy and includes natural-light photographs of Academy specimens by noted photographer Rosamond Purcell. Boyd Matson, a lead on-air journalist for National Geographic, will interview the authors.
April 26, 2012
Life, Sex, Death, and Food: A Historical Look at the Science that Drives Us
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, Philadelphia Science Festival
Time: 7:00-8:30pm
Location: Main Stage,
Chemical Heritage Foundation
315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
You’re born, you eat, you reproduce, you die… these four acts have been pondered over, questioned, and theorized throughout history. We look to science to understand particles and the cosmos as well as everything in between including life, sex, death—and food. How did past scientists, or philosophers, understand life from birth (or generation) to meaning and significance? How did bananas change the fate of humanity? What have medical and public health professionals said about sexual behavior? How has death been defined, and resisted? Join historians and comedians for glimpses and interpretations of science past.
Collaborators: Darin Hayton, Haverford College; Karen Reeds, Independent Scholar; Elly Truitt, Bryn Mawr College; and Mike Yudell, Drexel University; Philadelphia Area Center for the History of Science; Chemical Heritage Foundation; Philly Improv Theater; Secret Pants Sketch Comedy.
April 30, 2012
Symposium on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
The Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Pennoni Honors College of Drexel University | Visit site »
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Location: SkyView Room, 6th Floor MacAlister Hall, 33rd and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
The Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry will be hosting a day-long symposium to evaluate the past, present, and future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. By the date of the Symposium, the Supreme Court will have heard oral arguments in what will likely prove to be a landmark ruling on the constitutionality of the law in early June 2012. The symposium will feature historians, political scientists, legal scholars, and media experts who will place the law and current health care policy debates in larger social, political, and economic context.
Symposium Presenters (in order of appearance): James A. Schafer, Ph.D., History Department, University of Houston; Beatrix Hoffman, Ph.D., History Department, Northern Illinois University; Jennifer Klein, Ph.D., History Department, Yale University; Marie Gottschalk, Ph.D., Political Science Department, University of Pennsylvania; Karen Curry, Executive Director, Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies, Drexel University; Theodore Ruger, J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School; Kevin Egan, Ph.D., Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry, Drexel University.
This event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided for those who register by April 15, 2012. To register, please send an email, subject line “PPACA Symposium,” with your name and affiliation, to Kevin Egan (kde25@drexel.edu).
For a full schedule, please visit here.