Democracy and Diversity in Science
Winter 2009
Science at its best—well functioning science—is often taken to exemplify democratic ideals of deliberation: the high value placed on the open exchange of ideas, requirements of public reporting not only of the results of inquiry but of their bases, and the emphasis on collective practices of critical scrutiny are key examples of deliberative processes that that are presumed necessary for, or central to, successful science. Dewey characterized democratic deliberation as an experimental process, while contemporary “proceduralist” theorists of science reframe ideals like objectivity in terms of well functioning processes of community deliberation which ensure that scientific inquiry draws on a rich and diverse a range of epistemic resources as possible. A growing body of historical and socio-cultural scholarship reinforces these normative arguments for broad critical engagement, throwing into relief the crucial contributions made to the sciences by diversity among its practitioners, and the forms and contexts of its practice. The goals of the Winter quarter SSNet seminar are to assess these lines of argument for recognizing the importance of diversity in science, and to articulate more clearly exactly how scientific practice is, or should be, informed by ideals of (democratic) deliberation.
Core Seminar Organizers
Graduate Fellows
- Julie Homchick (Communication) – distributed fellowship [Bio]
As a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Communication, Julie is currently writing her dissertation. Generally, she is interested in how public audiences come to believe or disbelieve in scientific information. For her dissertation, she analyzes how evolutionary theory museum exhibits and creation science museum exhibits around the United States respond to, reject or appropriate aspects of creation science and how their rhetorical choices affect the public’s understanding of evolution. To conduct this research, she performs close readings of the exhibits by drawing upon work done in the areas of the rhetoric of science, visual rhetoric and the history of science. Homchick serves as the Lead TA in the Department of Communication and has presented work from her dissertation for the History of Science Society, the Society for the Social Studies of Science, and the Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology. This winter she will present her work at two more conferences: “Evolution and Religion: Towards an Evolving Relationship” and “Darwin’s Reach: Reflections across the Disciplines.” She is currently co-authoring a piece on lines of argument in creation science with William Keith (U. Wisconsin – Milwaukee) for Keywords and Controversies in the Rhetoric of Science and Technology.
- Jentery Sayers (History) [Bio]
JENTERY SAYERS is a PhD candidate in English. He teaches courses situated in the digital humanities, Anglo-American modernism, and technoculture studies. As a 2008-09 HASTAC Scholar and a 2008-09 Huckabay Teaching Fellow, as well as the recipient of the 2008 Kairos Computers and Writing Teaching Award, Sayers is invested not only in cultural histories of technology, but also in exploring ways that technology can be mobilized through creative, critical and collaborative projects. His dissertation project attends to how technology is culturally embedded in 19th and 20th century Anglo-American literature, with an emphasis on the relations between sound technologies and literary production. In 2008, he was selected to co-teach the Summer Institute in the Arts & Humanities on the theme of “Media and the Senses.” Through the Simpson Center’s partnership with the contemporary performance center, On the Boards, he is producing a podcast on No Dice, by the Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He has also published an article in Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy and two book reviews for the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies, with another to be published in mid-2009. Forthcoming are chapters in the anthologies Writing (and) the Digital Generation and Collaborative Writing in Virtual Workplaces.
Faculty Fellows
- Sareeta Amrute (Anthropology) [Bio]
My work explores the connection between computer technologies, patterns of migration and imagined lives. I am currently writing a book on Indian IT workers in Germany, tentatively titled "The Circulation of Capital and Code". I argue that a horizon of aspiration for Indian IT workers emerges
out of subtle and ongoing negotiations over the meaning of nation and science, success and struggle. I am particularly interested in computers as part of social imaginaries and in the relationship between coding as a kind of labor and ITers world-making practices. I completed my doctoral dissertation in anthropology at the University of Chicago in early 2008 and joined the faculty of the Anthropology department at UW in September of the same year.
- Angela Ginorio (Women’s Studies) [Bio]
Angela B. Ginorio is associate professor in Women Studies, and adjunct associate professor in the Departments of Psychology and American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington-Seattle. Her scholarship focuses on feminist science studies emphasizing the participation of ethnic minorities and women in STEM, access issues in education for Latino/as and first-generation college students, and knowledge claims of victims. She just finished work as P.I. of the Sloan-funded Interdisciplinary Social Science Approaches to the Participation of Ethnic Minorities in STEM.
She is lead author of ¡Sí se puede! Latinas in schools and co-author of the chapter on Latino education in the just released Handbook on Achieving Gender Equity Through Education and contributed to Access Denied: Race, Ethnicity and the Scientific Enterprise. She has published on these topics in Technology and Culture, Educational Leadership, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, and Women’s Studies Quarterly.
She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association.
Sarah Elwood is an associate professor in the Department of Geography. Her research focuses on the social and political impacts of geospatial technologies ranging from conventional GIS to collaborative mapping platforms such as GoogleMaps, particularly as these technologies are taken up in activism, social movements, and community-based organizing. In this work, she incorporates qualitative methods, participatory action research, and experiential learning pedagogies. Sarah is currently completing a 5-year collaborative research project with community-based organizations on Chicago’s west side, that considers the sustainability and impacts of their use of GIS in community-controlled redevelopment and neighborhood revitalization efforts.
- Andrea Woody (Philosophy) [Bio]
Andrea Woody is Associate Professor of Philosophy as well as Adjunct in the departments of Dance, History, and Women Studies at the University of Washington. She received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton and her doctorate from the department of History & Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include philosophy of science, history of science, aesthetics, and feminist perspectives in philosophy. She continues to investigate visual representations as part of a larger project examining how pragmatic techniques for manipulating scientific theories, such as model building and alternative forms of representation, are developed and justified by scientific communities. This work incorporates philosophical issues concerning explanation, reduction, and the rationality of theory change in science. She also has a longstanding interest in feminist epistemology as it intersects with philosophy of science. While her primary historical work has involved the early development of quantum chemistry in the 20thc, other historical interests include the chemical pedagogy of William Cullen and Joseph Black in 18th century Scotland, conceptions of the periodic law and Benjamin Brodie’s chemical calculus in the late 19th c, and the inclusion, and exclusion, of women in American science classrooms and professional societies.
Readings
Updated list of readings for each meeting. Check here for updates before each meeting. (Requires a UW Net ID for access.)
Sample readings include: Daston and Galison, Objectivity (2007); Fricker, Epistemic Injustice (2007); Kellert, Longino, and Waters (eds.), Scientific Pluralism (2006); Longino, The Fate of Knowledge (2001); Kitcher, Science, Truth and Democracy (2001); Rose, Politics of Life Itself (2006); Schiebinger, Plants and Empire (2004); Sunstein, Why Societies Need Dissent (2003); Young, Inclusion and Democracy (2000).
Schedule
- January 12: Curriculum Initiative & Democracy in Science planning meeting
- January 26:Genetic Testing and Social Identities (led by Sareeta Amrute) [
Readings Online]
- February 2: HUM596 - Well-ordered Science: Democratic on the Inside? (led by Andrea Woody) [ Readings Online]
- February 9: "The Politics of Nutrition" - Kelly Moore (University of Cincinnati) [ Readings &
Podcast Online]
- February 23: Democratizing Science and Social Justice: Case Studies and the "Who" and "How" (led by Angela Ginorio) [ Readings, Handout, & Podcast Online]
- March 2: HUM596 - Intelligent Design and Pluralism (led by Julie Homchick)
- March 9: "Can You Fix My Computer?" Or, Science, Technology and the Participatory Question (led by Jentery Sayers) [ Readings & Podcast Online]
