Seminars and Lectures

• The Center will co-sponsor, with Duke's Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory , a number of visiting scholars for short-term visits in a program of activities organized around the topic "Reconfiguring the Two Cultures: Contemporary Perspectives on the Sciences and Humanities."

  In the Fall semester:

  • Three Sessions by Arkady Plotnitsky. Author most recently of Complementarity: Anti-Epistemology from Bohr to Derrida, and co-editor (with Barbara Herrnstein Smith) of Mathematics, Science, and Postclassical Theory: Wednesday, October 2, "Epistemologies and Anti-epistemologies of the Oblique"; Wednesday, November 6, "Charm and Harm -- Scientists Against Postmodernism"; Wednesday, December ?, "Geometries of Reflection -- Plato's Diagonals, Hegel's Spirals, and Iragaray's Multifolds". [Please check with the Center for confirmation of time and place.]

  In the Spring semester individuals who have already accepted invitations to participate include:

  • I. Trevor Pinch, Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, co-author of The Golem, February 18-20, 1997
  • II. Lorraine Daston, History of Science, Max Planck Institute, Berlin, author of Classical Probability in the Enlightenment, March 3-5, 1997
  • III. Bruno Latour, Centre de Sociologie, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines, Paris. Author most recently of We Have Never Been Modern, and Aramis or The Love of Technology, March 24-26, 1997.
  • IV. Mario Biagioli, History of Science, Harvard University, author of Galileo, Courtier, April 8-9, 1997
  • V. Stevin Shapin, History and Sociology of Science, University of California at San Diego, co-author of Leviatan and the Airpump, author of The Social History of Truth, April 21-23, 1997

    [Please note that these dates are tentative; check with the Center for confirmation.]

• The Center also notes the preformance/presentation of "Water Over Time" on Monday October 7, 1996 at 7:00PM in the East Duke Theater, sponsored by the Duke University Institute Of the Arts, Women's Studies, and Women in Science and Engineering. Admission is free. For more information contact the Institute of the Arts at 660-3356.
• The Center will co-sponsor the 1996-1997 Triangle Workshop in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology.
  • October 11: Kuhn Reconsidered: A Discussion among Disciplines (In memorium, Thomas S. Kuhn). Kenneth Caneva (UNC-Greensboro, History of Science, Panel Chair),Neil Demarchi (Duke, Economics), Lynn Joy (Duke, History & Philosophy of Science),Angela O'Rand (Duke, Sociology of Science). 4:30 pm, 229 Carr Building, Duke East Campus
  • October 31: Daniel J. Kevles, California Institute of Technology. "Government, The Media, and Scientific Misconduct: The Baltimore Case in American Political Culture."
  • November 22: Alan Sokal, Physics Department, New York University. Title to be announced. 4:00 pm, 114 Math-Physics Building, Duke West Campus
  • December 13: Lawrence M. Principe, Johns Hopkins University. "Robert Boyle and the Promises of Alchemy." 4:00 pm, Medical History Reading Room, Seeley G. Mudd Library, Duke University Medical Center.

  More information about, and local arrangements for, this program can be obtained from Professor Seymour Mauskopf who can be e-mailed at shmaus@acpub.duke.edu .