Tag Archives: history of science society

History of Human Science Talks at HHS, Atlanta, Nov. 3-6, 2016

As a followup to yesterday’s post on the Forum for History of Human Science (FHHS) sponsored session at the History of Science Society (HSS) meeting, November 3rd through 6th in Atlanta, we’ve rounded up all the history of human science content on the program.

Still to be announced are the FHHS business meeting and invited speaker.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016
1:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Session 1. Between the Natural and Human Sciences: Historical Lessons from the Study of [Our] Brains and Behaviors
Chair(s): Tara Abraham, University of Guelph
Organizer(s): Tara Abraham, University of Guelph

Neurohistology and the ‘Radical’ Surgical Treatment of Epilepsy in the 1920s and 30s. Delia Gavrus, University of Winnipeg

Radical to Some Yet to Others, Ho-Hum: Adolf Meyer’s Biological Theory of Mind, 1895- 1925. Susan Lamb, University of Ottawa

The Sciences of Brain and Mind in American Medical Education: The Case of Harvard’s Medical School, 1900-1945. Tara Abraham, University of Guelph

Epigenetics as Trending Science. Michael Pettit, York University

Thursday, November 3
3:45 PM – 5:45 PM

Session 11. Collecting, Colonialism, and Material Culture in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Materials of the Mind: Phrenology and the Making of a Global Science, 1815-1920. James Poskett, University of Cambridge

Session 16. Reforming the Everyday: Scientific Expertise and its Publics
The Psycho-Technocratic Society: Psychological Expertise and Everyday Life in Progressive Era America. Jeremy Blatter, New York University

Session 19. The Fake and the False: Science, Law, and Trickery
Counterfeiting Madness: The Problem of Imposture in Nineteenth-Century Insanity Trials. Susanna Blumenthal, University of Minnesota

Friday, November 4
9:00 AM – 11:45 AM

Session 21. Binaries, Scales, and Other Modes of Classification in the Social and Life Sciences
Left, Right, Mixed, or Scaled? Dexterity Questionnaires and Genetic Theories of Handedness in Britain, 1967–1979. Tabea Cornel, University of Pennsylvania Continue reading History of Human Science Talks at HHS, Atlanta, Nov. 3-6, 2016

FHHS Sponsored Session: “Human Science Fictionalized: A Novel, a Visual Narrative and an Indie Film”

This November’s History of Science Society (HSS) meeting features a session sponsored by HSS’s special interest group the Forum for History of Human Science (FHHS). The HSS meeting runs November 3rd through 6th in Atlanta, Georgia. The session “Human Science Fictionalized: A Novel, a Visual Narrative and an Indie Film,” organized by Ben Harris (right), will take place on the morning of Sunday November 6th. Full details follow below.

Sunday Nov. 6, 9-11 am
Session 87. Human Science Fictionalized: A Novel, a Visual Narrative and an Indie Film
Chair(s): John Carson, University of Michigan
Commentator(s): Nadine Weidman, Harvard University
Organizer(s): Ben Harris, University of New Hampshire

A Novelist’s Perspective, Andromeda Romano-Lax, Independent Scholar
An Artist’s Perspective, Matteo Farinella, Independent Scholar and Columbia University
Putting Stanley Milgram on Film, Gina Perry, University of Melbourne

Summary:

In studies of science popularization the focus is usually on non-fiction. But what about fictionalized portraits of science? This session looks at three attempts to bring the human and neuro- sciences to the public through fiction. Among the questions explored are: how is the fact/fiction boundary negotiated? how do a “fact writer” and a “fiction writer” think about popularization differently? What are the different relationships that they have to their sources, or that they envision with their audiences? Andromeda Romano-Lax is a successful novelist whose most recent work, Behave (2016), dramatizes the life and career of Rosalie Rayner, wife and former student of behaviorist John Watson. Matteo Farinella is an illustrator and artist with a doctorate in neuroscience. His visual narrative, Neurocomic (2013, co-authored with Hana Roz), portrays the history of neuroscience through a young man’s a voyage of discovery in a land of giant neurons and encounters with famous scientists. Gina Perry is an Australian journalist who used her investigative and narrative skills to write a Behind the Shock Machine (2013), a history of Stanley Milgram’s obedience studies. Now a doctoral student in psychology, she will review Experimenter, Michael Almereyda’s 2016 film about Milgram and his work. Our commentator is Nadine Weidman, a historian of science at Harvard University known for her work on public controversy and popularization in the twentieth century human sciences. Our Chair is John Carson, a historian at the University of Michigan and Director of Undergraduate Studies for its Program in Science, Technology, and Society.

Come back tomorrow for a roundup of all the history of human science related programming at HSS!