Past Events
"Signal (1): The Body of Transductions and Cascades -- Hormones, Neurotransmitters and Growth Factors After 1960"
Hannah Landecker, Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department, Rice University, and in 2007-2008 Visiting Assistant Professor in the History of Science Department at Harvard
April 1, 2008: Landecker discusses the transformation of the hormone after 1955 from messenger to signal. Today the interaction of the inside and the outside of organisms, and the interaction between different parts of the body is understood in terms of signals and signal transduction cascades. The categories of different kinds of molecules, from hormones to growth factors to neurotransmitters to cytokines. The history of metabolic hormones is discussed here as as an example of a larger history of the organism and its milieu in twentieth century biology: how the field of cell signaling or cell signal transduction moved to the center of our understanding of the mediating mechanisms between bodies and environments.
Joint seminar with the Department of Modern Culture and Media
"Empires and Science: Contact, Authority, and Collaboration"
March 28 - 30, at the Joukowsky Forum in the Watson Institute
"The Pharmaceutical Person"
Emily Martin, Professor of Anthropology, New York University
March 12, 2008: This illustrated talk takes as its starting point an exhibit at the British Museum. The central exhibit in the newly-opened Wellcome wing of the museum is “Cradle to Grave,” a 40 feet long table displaying in black net fabric the 14, 000 pills taken by a British man and woman over their lifetime. http://www.cradletograve.org/ Martin traces the historical development of personhood in relation to psychotropic drugs over the last few decades in the US. In particular, she analyzes the underside of pills -- their “side” effects -- in relation to fears and desires characteristic of contemporary US culture.
"In Defense of Food: The Omnivore's Solution"
Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC-Berkeley and director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism
Author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma
February 21, at 6:00pm (Salomon Center): What should we eat? is a question most people for most of history have had little trouble answering. You ate what tradition (aka your mother) and nature dictated. Now, we have something called "nutritionism," an ideology promoted by science, the food industry, government and the media that has hopelessly confused the issue and done nothing for our health, except to make it worse. Pollan traces the rise and triumph of nutritionism and the Western Diet, before proposing an alternative approach to eating that promises to improve both our health and the health of the environment.
Science Narrative: "Galileo's Daughter, Longitude"
Dava Sobel, award-winning science journalist
February 20 at 6:30pm: Part of the Brown University Department of English Great Nonfiction Writers Lecture Series
“Fishes and Loaves: The Politics, Science, and Ethics of Food”
February 13, 7:00-9:00pm (Smith-Buonanno Hall, Room 106)
Come see provocative film clips about the politics, ethics, and science of food production and hear some of Brown's leading experts talk about them! Co-sponsored by the Cogut Center for the Humanities, Program in Bridging the Sciences and Humanities
"Reclaiming Water and Power in India's Krishna Valley"
Roopali Phadke, Environmental Studies Policy and Politics, Macalester College
February 4, 2008: 12:00pm (The Taubman Center, 67 George St.)
2007-08 Special Series on Science and Public Policy. Jointly sponsored by the Committee on Science and Technology Studies and the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions.
"Inclusion and Difference: Gender, Race, and the New Biopolitics of Medical Research"
Steve Epstein - Dept. of Sociology and Director, Science Studies Program, University of California, San Diego.
December 3, 2007, 12:30pm, Taubman Center, 67 George Street
2007-08 Special Series on Science and Public Policy. Jointly sponsored by the Committee on Science and Technology Studies and the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions.
"The Persistence of American Indian Health Inequalities"
David Jones - Dept. of History of Science, Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MITNovember 14, 2007: 4:00pm, Foxboro Auditorium, 151 Thayer Street
Jointly sponsored by Lectureship Series on "Bioethics and Culture", The Herbert H. Goldberger Lectureship Fund, The Dean of the Faculty, The Department of Anthropology, and The Committee on Science and Technology Studies.
"Toward Anticipatory Governance of Emerging Technologies"
David Guston - Dept. of Political Science, Arizona State University.
November 13, 2007: 12:00pm, Taubman Center, 67 George Street
2007-08 Special Series on Science and Public Policy. Jointly sponsored by the Committee on Science and Technology Studies and the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions.
"Nature's Disciplines"
October 20, 2007:
2007 New England Renaissance Conference
Brown University
Springing from the groundwork laid by the Cogut Center's Humanities Research Grant Group by the same name, Nature's Disciplines expanded its scope to host the 2007 New England Renaissance Conference. Co-sponored by the Committee on Science and Technology Studies.
"Building Genetic Medicine: Assessing and Regulating Ethically and Socially Controversial Technologies"
Shobita Parthasarathy - Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan.
October 15, 2007: 12:30pm, Taubman Center, 67 George Street
2007-08 Special Series on Science and Public Policy. Jointly sponsored by the Committee on Science and Technology Studies and the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions.
Thursday, September 27, 2007: Greg Moynahan - Dept. of History, Bard College
Lownes Room, John Hay Library
"The Politics of Science in Cassirer and Heidegger's 1929 Davos Disputation"
Sponsored by the Department of History and the Committee on Science and Technology Studies
Monday, September 17, 2007: Margaret Lock - Dept. of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University.
4:00 pm, Smith-Buonano 106
"Seduced by Plaques and Tangles: Alzheimer’s Disease and the Cerebral Subject." Professor Lock also presented a paper entitled: “Globalization and the State: Is an Era of Neoeugenics in the Offing?”
Monday, September 17, 2007: Margaret Lock - Dept. of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University.
4:00 pm, Smith-Buonano 106
"Seduced by Plaques and Tangles: Alzheimer’s Disease and the Cerebral Subject."
Wednesday, April 25, 2007: Peter Koehler, Atrium Medical Center, Heerlen
"Charcot, Hysteria, and Hypnosis: A Constant Source of Inspiration for Literature."
5 PM - Wilson 102
Wednesday, April 18, 2007: "Rachel Carson Was Right"
4 PM - 6PM, MacMillan 117
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of noted writer and ecologist Rachel Carson. Presenters: Dianne Dumanoski is the co-author of Our Stolen Future, which continues the story begun by Carson in Silent Spring. Dr. Julia Brody is the Executive Director of Silent Spring Institute, a non-profit scientific research organization dedicated to identifying links between the environment and women's health.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007: Troy Duster, New York University
"Drug Arrests, DNA, Research and Race: What's the Connection?"
Dr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Barnes Jr. Lecture in Public Health
Monday, March 5, 2007: Helen Longino, Stanford University
"Theoretical Pluralism and the Science of Human Behavior."
4 PM - Smith-Buonanno Room 106
Thursday, March 1, 2007: Doug Haynes, University of California-Irvine
The History of Race in Medicine and Public Health
"'Almost Perfect Machinery': Racial and Sexual Politics in the American Medical Association, 1850-1900."
4 PM - Smith-Buonanno Room 106
Friday, Feb. 23, 2007: Janice L. Neri, Dept. of Art, Boise State University
Sponsored by the Cogut Humanities Research Group on Nature's Disciplines
"Beyond 'Art' and 'Science': Maria Sybilla Merian's Crafting of New World Nature"
3:30 PM - 5 PM. Annmary Brown Memorial, 21 Brown St.
Thursday, February 1 , 2007: Evelynn Hammonds, Harvard University
The History of Race in Medicine and Public Health
"Race and Science: New Challenges to an Old Problem."
4 PM - Smith-Buonanno 106
Thursday, November 9, 2006: Keith Wailoo, Rutgers University
The History of Race in Medicine and Public Health
"How Cancer Crossed the Color Line: Race and Disease in America."
4 PM - Smith-Buonanno 106
Saturday, April 29, 2006: Science in the Public Eye: A Science and Technology Studies Symposium
10 am: Bruce Lewenstein, Associate Professor of Science Communication, Cornell University: "Must the Media Always Inflame Public Controversies about Science?"
11:15 am: Fred Quivik, Consulting Historian of Technology: "Mining in the West: Who Pays for the Cleanup?"
1:30 pm: Edwin Dobb, Writer/Associate Producer, Rattlesnake Productions / Contributing Editor, Harper's Magazine: "Impertinent Questions and Bloody Fingers"
2:45 pm: Pamela Roberts, Director/Producer, Rattlesnake Productions: "Teach Globally, Learn Locally: Telling Universal Stories about Particular Places"
Moderated by Catherine Imbriglio, Lecturer in English, Brown University.
Monday, March 13, 2006: Susan Lindee, University of Pennsylvania
"Genes and Disease: the rise of genomic medicine in the United States"
Tuesday, February 7, 2006: Tom Gieryn, Indiana University
"Truth-Spots: How place lends credibility to claims and legitimacy to beliefs."
