Bruce Hevly: Areas of Graduate Study
Division: History of Science
History of Science
A general field, designed to begin preparation of graduate students aiming
to teach undergraduate courses or pursue research in history of science
during their careers, and to introduce the general historiographical framework
and development of the field. The field can be modified to meet the student's
particular interests. This would normally be the second field for students
interested in becoming historians of science.
Science and Technology Studies
"STS" engages in the variety of new approaches to understanding
the sciences which have emerged in the wake of Thomas Kuhn's Structure
of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Drawing from diverse academic disciplines,
such as philosophy, sociology, and anthropology, scholars in the 1970s
and 80s developed powerful and controversial new methods of analyzing
science as a social construction or network, and critiqued the role of
gender and race in scientific practice, theory, and organization. More
recently, cultural and anthropological studies of science have presented
new means to interpret science alongside alternative systems of human
(and even 'non-human'!) action and belief. Postcolonial studies of science
and technology have traced science's interactions with empire, development,
and indigenous knowledges. Students taking this field will engage with
these diverse approaches of recent STS through reading, writing, and discussions.
A knowledge of the tools and concepts of STS has been indispensable for
recent history of science, and the field will deepen and broaden participants'
perspectives on science.
History of Technology
A general field, designed to begin preparation for graduate students aiming
to teach undergraduate courses or pursue research in history of technology
during their careers, and to introduce the general historiographical frameworks
and development of the field. The field can be modified to meet the student's
particular interests; in the past, students interested in environmental
and western history have been important members of the seminar.
History of Physics
Introduction to the literature, practices, and current problems in the
study of the emergence and development of physics since the beginning
of the nineteenth century. Professor Hevly has particular interests in
nineteenth-century British and twentieth-century American cases, but other
concentrations are possible as well.
History of Terrestrial Physics
This is a more specialized field, which aims to explore the history of
terrestrial physics as an alternative to the standard view in history
of modern physics which has focused on the reductionist program of atomic
and sub-atomic sciences. Topics include various studies since the eighteenth
century: terrestrial magnetism and electricity, auroral studies, glaciology
and ice caps, ocean sciences, studies of the upper atmosphere. Also considers
expeditionary science, and developing connections between science and
state.
Science, Technology and the Military
Exploration of the institutional, cultural and conceptual relationships
between science, technology and the military components of that state
since the early modern period. This field centers on the modern military
as a set of self-consciously technologically-conditioned communities,
and on science and technology as constrained by the aspirations, commitments
and structures of the modern state. Depending on the student's area of
interest, the field may also be oriented towards issues of science and
gender, cyborgia, space programs, or other issues of interest. Professor
Hevly's particular interest is the development of intellectual systems
to enlist the Earth into reliably-functioning technological systems.
Division: United States
History of Science and Technology in American Culture
This field is designed to explore science and technology in the context of American social, cultural, or intellectual history. Undertaking sufficient comparative history to justify claims about American peculiarities, the field will look for the ways in which American contexts since the seventeenth century influenced the content and construction of science and technology. It might be particularly appropriate for American historians interested in ways to integrate the history of science and technology into research and teaching programs in the broader field.