End Date :
The Heyman Center for the Humanities,
Komoda Room
The Institute for Comparative Literature and Society 2013 Graduate Student Conference presents and affiliated colloquium
“Universalizing” Science as Situated Knowledge —-Conversation between Steven Shapin and Matthew Jones
Students who are interested are welcome to bring your own work to the Conversation. Please contact the 2013 Institute for Comparative Literature and Society Graduate Student Conference Organizers Lei Lei (ll2720@columbia.edu)and Jessica Kirzane (jak2211@columbia.edu) if you have any questions.
PROGRAM
The 17th century and the 18th century saw the beginning of the perceived “universalization” of scientific knowledge across the globe. One condition of scientific knowledge becoming global or universal is that it spreads from its local point of origin. However science and scientists are located in particular physical spaces, times, cultures and societies. Social formations, ethics, spirituality, material conditions and politics are not only integrally interconnected with science but are themselves constitutive of what science is. How did place and time figure in scientific practices/theorizations as Europeans began to exert power throughout the world? What kinds of problematics arise when science is claimed to be a “universal” knowledge that transcends the particularities of time, space, body and sociopolitical context? The purported significations of science indeed became reified, changed, and took on new meanings as various agents and networks in both Europe and other places began conducting commerce and negotiating power throughout the world. This colloquium brings Professor Steven Shapin (Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University) and Professor Matthew Jones (James R. Barker Associate Professor of Contemporary Civilization at Columbia University) together to shed light on these riveting questions. Michael Griffith (Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society) will be moderating the event.
