Events for May 2008
May 1, 2008
Tara Nummedal, Brown University
“The Charlatan in Europe, 1500-1700”: Keynote Address
Co-sponsored by Princeton's Department of Art and Archaeology, Department of English, Program in the History of Science, and Office of the Dean of the Graduate School. | Visit site »
Graduate student conference, under the auspices of Renaissance Studies at Princeton.
Time: 4:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: Princeton University, McCormick 101
Contact: vkeller@princeton.edu
Also see May 2.
May 1, 2008
Norman Gevitz, Ohio University
“Other Healers: Unorthodox Medicine in America”
Drexel University, Great Works Symposium | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 - 7:20 p.m.
Place: Room 108, Disque Hall,
32nd & Chestnut Streets, Drexel University
Free and Open to the Public
For more information contact Scott Knowles, works@drexel.edu
May 2, 2008
“The Charlatan in Europe: 1500-1700”: Renaissance Studies Graduate Student Conference
Co-sponsored by Princeton's Department of Art and Archaeology, Department of English, Program in the History of Science, and Office of the Dean of the Graduate School. | Visit site »
Time: 8:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Place: Princeton University, McCosh 60
Sessions on: International Intrigue, Chimeras and Natural Philosophy, and Charlatans in the Marketplace.
Pre-circulated papers are available online and are password-protected; please contact vkeller@princeton.edu for the password.
Also see May 1.
May 4, 2008
John B. Osborne, Millersville University
“Preparing for the Pandemic: City Boards of Health and the Arrival of Cholera in Montreal, New York, and Philadelphia”
The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center | Visit site »
Time: 2:00 p.m.Place: 640 Waterworks Drive, Philadelphia
Information: Drew Brown, 215-685-6098
Dr. John B. Osborne, Professor Emeritus of History at Millersville University, will lecture on his finding that cholera--a deadly, water-borne bacterium--hit Philadelphia more gently than other cities in the 1830s, probably because of the relative purity of the Schuylkill River and the unrivaled efficiency of the City's water system. His paper on "Preparing for the Pandemic" was published in the Urban History Review's issue on "Public Health in the City" in Spring 2008.
May 6, 2008
Gwen Ottinger, University of Virginia
“Black-Boxing Citizen Science: The Evolution of Community-Friendly Air Monitors in the Environmental Justice Movement”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
The environmental justice movement has given rise to new instruments for air monitoring. The homemade “bucket” sampler and the more sophisticated “Hound” both allow residents of communities near chemical plants to measure levels of toxins in the ambient air. As tools for citizen science these devices alter the relationships between residents and experts from plants and regulatory agencies; however, the two do so in very different ways. Ottinger will chronicle the evolution of the bucket and the Hound, describing the disparate ways that use of the instruments configures relations among community members, environmental justice advocates, instrument designers, and industry and agency experts.
May 7, 2008
Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
“Duty and ‘Euthanasia’: The Nurses of Meseritz-Obrawald”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, History of Nursing Seminar Series | Visit site »
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
Why were nurses able to involve themselves in the systematic murder of psychiatric patients in Nazi Germany? How did they reconcile their views of their professional ethics with active involvement in euthanasia? In 1939, Hitler authorized a programme of `euthanasia’ of children and adults with physical and psychiatric disorders. Initially, gas chambers were established at six psychiatric institutions in Germany and Austria. This programme was officially discontinued due to community protests in August, 1941. But the killings continued on an individual basis. Physicians selected patients who were unable to work or who required extensive care, and ordered the nurses to administer lethal doses of sedatives to them. Meseritz-Obrawalde was a site for 10,000 of these killings This talk will review some of the ethical thinking and rationales of nurses involved in this period of so-called ‘wild euthanasia’ killlings at Meseritz-Obrawald which was locaed then in the province of Pomerania in Germany (now Miedzyrzecz in Poland).
May 9, 2008
Anke Timmermann, Chemical Heritage Foundation
The Philosophers’ Poem: Alchemical Recipes, 1500-1700
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, Regional Colloquium
Please download and read the paper in advance.
Location: The Franklin Institute, 222 North 20th Street
Time: 3:00 - 5:00 p.m., with a social hour, drinks and hors d’oeuvres following the discussion.
Your RSVP to would be appreciated.
Abstract: Many alchemists composed recipes for the philosophers’ stone in the form of poetry: when copied from one manuscript into others, rhymes and rhythms kept the recipes as fresh as the ingredients for alchemical concoctions. At the May session of the Philadelphia Regional Colloquium in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, we will discuss how early modern alchemical recipes assisted the communication of theory and practice between alchemists, across the centuries.
Anke Timmermann is a historian at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. She was awarded a PhD in History of Science at the University of Cambridge in 2007. She is currently working on a revision of her doctoral thesis (on which the PACHS talk will be based) for publication.
Please download and post the event poster (PDF).
May 21, 2008
Keith Mages, Doctoral Student, University of Pennsylvania
“The Bellevue Classification Scheme: The Cultural Commentary of a Nursing Library Classification System”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, History of Nursing Seminar Series | Visit site »
Time: 12:15 p- 1:30 p.m.
Place: Room 115 Fagin Hall (*Please note room change*)
This paper analyzes the Bellevue School of Nursing Library and the meaning of its unique classification system developed specifically to organize the texts that represented early 20th century nursing print culture. It explores how the organization and classification of disciplinary print materials works to produce and disseminate nursing’s perceived professional and cultural spheres.
May 21, 2008
North by Degree: An International Conference on Arctic Exploration
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society and The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum of Bowdoin College
In conjunction with the International Polar Year (2007 - 2008), this 2-½ day interdisciplinary conference on North American Arctic (and sub-Arctic) exploration will will focus on the period from 1850 to 1940. Papers will be given by a combination of invited scholars and as well as emerging scholars whose submissions have been peer-reviewed.
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Times and Locations
Wednesday, May 21, 12:00 to 7:00 p.m.,
in the American Philosophical Society’s Benjamin Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut Street
Thursday, May 22, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m,
at The Academy of Natural Sciences
Friday, May 23, 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.,
at The Academy of Natural Sciences
Saturday, May 24, Arctic Film Fesitval,
10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.,
at The Academy of Natural Sciences
This event is co-hosted by The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, Bowdoin College (Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center) and the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science (PACHS).
Conference sessions (two in the morning, two in the afternoon) will be arranged topically, rather than by disciplines. Some of the themes to be addressed include:
* Strategic issues propelling northern exploration
* Consequences of culture contact
(Western-Inuit/Inughuit relations)
* The impact of Arctic exploration on popular culture
* National identity and the “Race for the Pole”
* Increases in knowledge of the natural world
* Advances in maritime technology
* Changes in navigational techniques
* Advances in travel and communication technologies
* The culture of the explorer
“North by Degree: An International Conference on Arctic Exploration” is being planned as the second part in a series of three international conferences. “Exploring and Being Explored: Africa in the 19th Century” was held at the National Maritime Museum in England in March 2007. A conference on the exploration of the South Pacific will be held at the Museum of Mankind, Paris, in 2009.
The Arctic conference planning committee includes: Phillip Cronenwett (MIT), Lyle Dick (Parks Canada), Susan A. Kaplan (Bowdoin College), Martin L. Levitt (The American Philosophical Society), Robert M. Peck (The Academy of Natural Sciences), and Babak Ashrafi (Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science).
For further information contact:
Robert M. Peck
Senior Fellow of the Academy
peck@ansp.org
(215) 299-1138
May 22, 2008
North by Degree: An International Conference on Arctic Exploration
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society and The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum of Bowdoin College
This interdisciplinary conference continues at The Academy of Natural Sciences, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Featured on May 22 is a lunch talk by Tori Murden McClure, “To Rise for Brief Moments Above the State of Crawling Things: The Rewards of Exploration.” Tori Murden made world headlines in 1999 when she set out to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone. She reached her goal after 81 days of rowing over 2,962 nautical miles. McClure was also the first woman to ski to the South Pole, and the first woman to climb Lewis Nunatuk in the Antarctic. She has made a practice of challenging her mind as well as her body; she holds a bachelor’s degree from Smith College, two master’s degrees (in divinity, from Harvard University, and in fine arts, from Spalding University) and a law degree from the University of Louisville.
Tori Murden McClure’s talk and the lunch is included with conference registration. See May 21 for links to download the full conference program and to register online.
McClure’s precis of her talk:
What motivates the human need to explore? To go out in the interest of science, to add to our understanding of the natural world, to open trade routes, to rescue others in peril, or to uphold some sense of national pride are all motives that have been embraced by popular culture. Other motives seem less laudable: the desire to be first, an attempt to break a record, or taking on an extreme test of fortitude without some preceding accident.
A laudable motive by itself is not enough, more is required. The role of the explorer in popular culture ebbs and flows, but the western image of the hero has been clearly charted by myth and literature. When the explorer path parallels the traditional hero path as outlined in books like Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale, Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces, or Dorothy Norman’s The Hero/Myth/Image/Symbol all is well. The western hero is usually male, typically a Caucasian male, and most often he is a Caucasian with affluent connections. When an expedition leader does not fit this traditional paradigm eyebrows are inclined to rise.
Popular culture tends to gauge the importance of an expedition by the motivations and personal profile of the expedition leader. Occasionally, we may scrutinize the motives and profile of the expedition sponsors as well. The rewards of exploration, the things that motivate the explorer, are important for us to consider. As we become more interdisciplinary in our approaches to the study of exploration and its history, we must examine our preconceived notions about who has been permitted to walk the explorer’s path and how he or she paid the expenses. As children, we all explore. As adults, we should cling to the explorer’s path as much as we are able.
May 23, 2008
North by Degree: An International Conference on Arctic Exploration
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society and The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum of Bowdoin College
This interdisciplinary conference continues at The Academy of Natural Sciences, 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
See May 21 for links to download the complete conference program and to register online.
May 24, 2008
“Arctic Exploration in Motion”: A Film Festival Featuring Historic Arctic Film Footage
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society and The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum of Bowdoin College | Visit site »
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Place: The Academy of Natural Sciences
This film festival will present rare, historic motion picture film footage drawn from a number of film archives. Footage being shown features Arctic explorers in action, Inuit working with explorers and involved in various pursuits, Western andInuit technologies employed by explorers, Arctic landscapes and wildlife, and scientific work. The organizers will offer brief commentaries, providing background information and context for watching the films and film clips, most of which are silent.
This program is free and open to the public with the price of regular museum admission. It is included in the registration fee for participants in the “North by Degree” international conference on arctic exploration. See May 21 for information about the conference and links to download the program and to register online.
Film Festival Organizers: Susan A. Kaplan and Genevieve M. LeMoine, The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum; Audrey Amidon, National Archives and Records Administration; and Audrey Kupferberg (Film Studies at SUNY Albany).
May 24, 2008 - September 28, 2008
“Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics”
The Academy of Natural Sciences | Visit site »
Behind much of today’s scientific research lie the groundbreaking theories of “the father of genetics,” Gregor Mendel (1822-1884). This friar, naturalist, agriculturalist, and botanist undertook revolutionary experiments that have shaped our modern understanding of genes, crossbreeding, and heredity. “Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics” uses a compelling combination of rare artifacts and interactives to tell the story of Mendel’s life and research in the 1800s, to chart the rise of classical genetics in the 1900s, and to highlight research conducted by the scientific heirs of Mendel’s work to study evolution, systematics, and biodiversity.
May 28, 2008
American Health Care Reform and Social Justice
Spring 2008 Great Works Symposium, Drexel University | Visit site »
This informal event features three mini-lectures which analyze the
following topics: (i) the problems of the American health care “system” today - rising
costs, declining coverage, growing disparities; (ii) the history of health care policy in
America, especially in relation to universal coverage; and (iii) current reforms in
Massachusetts and Vermont, proposed reforms in Pennsylvania and California, and
the policy proposals of 2008 presidential candidates.
Lecturers include: Stephen F. Gambescia, Assistant Dean of Academic & Student
Affairs and Associate Professor in the Health & Society and Health Administration
Programs of the College of Nursing & Health Professions; James A. Schafer, Visiting
Faculty Fellow in the Pennoni Honors College; and Dennis Gallagher, Associate
Professor of Health Management & Policy at the School of Public Health.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 5:00-9:00 p.m.
Behrakis Grand Hall North, 32nd and Chestnut