Teaching
Radiation Objects that Made Science History
In 2009, the Science Museum in London conducted a public poll to decide the objects “that made the biggest mark on history”.1 One of the most popular objects chosen was x-rays, that not only “led to a radical new diagnostic tool for doctors” but also initiated the first regulations on radiation safety. Scientific objects have longed fascinated, caused fear and sparked debates, and perhaps few more some than Radiation Objects. From the discovery by Röntgen in 1895, to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, to the reactor meltdown of the Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine in 1986 and beyond, radiation objects have made Science History.
Historians of science have long recognized the power of objects, and with this course, we wish to focus on objects and their materiality, specifically radiation. This course focuses literary on new “objects of knowledge”, in order to explore the history of radiation protection throughout the 20th century. At the same time, it goes one step forward and asks what has been the role of materiality and its politics in the production of scientific knowledge.
As a way to understand how epistemic authority has been bestowed on objects, even those ones that had nothing to do with science, we introduce the term of “epistemology of the familiar” to highlight how scientific objects became “everyday objects”, as well as how radiation objects were debated through the exhibitions of museums.
More information and dates on Campo
The History of Science in the Cold War
With the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the world has once again been forced into an East-West divide. The war has impacted countless sectors, a major one the area of science. Scientific cooperation and technological development have been severely impacted by the War in the Ukraine. Not only have expenditures in military science and technologies increased dramatically, scientific cooperation between the “East” and “West” has been cut-off, and new scientific findings that could have military use are kept secret and well-guarded. Sanctions on scientific research and international technological exchange have been put in place, with dubious results and unknown implications for the future.
None of this is new. During the Cold War, from around 1945 to 1991, the Western bloc, led by the USA and NATO, and the Eastern bloc, led by the USSR and Warsaw Pact, clashed on the issues of science and technology. In many ways, the Cold War was defined by science and technology, however, the reverse is also true; science and technology was shaped and changed by the Cold War. The most striking example was the enormous, secret and scientifically ground-breaking work of the Manhattan Project in the USA, that led to the creation of the atomic bomb used to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and started the nuclear arms race that defined the Cold War. However, the Manhattan Project, nuclear energy and atomic weapons were just one of several Cold War scientific and technological developments that still defined human existence to this day.
The aim of this course is to give an introduction to the history of the Cold War, the histography of Cold War Studies and the History of Science during the Cold War. Approaching the subject from varied perspectives, the course offers several vantage points to view science, scientific developments and the role of scientists during the Cold War and beyond. The aim is also to provide the students the opportunity to critically reflect on current societal debates on the role of science and technology, informed by historical precedence and developments.
More information and dates on Campo
How Does Gender Shape Science? The Intermingling of Gender and Natural Sciences in Historical Context
Gender interacts with knowledge in multiple ways. From the very questions that we choose to ask or not to ask, to the way research is conducted, to the language and images we use for thinking, discussing and communicating, science reflects the gendered values of the societies that produced and consumed it. Organized around four broad themes that have structured main lines of research in gender studies –Intersections, Sites, Languages, and Images—the course explores ways that gender has historically influenced the development of scientific ideas and instances in which science naturalized gendered assumptions. During the course we will focus on the achievements of feminist historians and outline recent historical questions in the field of gender and science. We will explore sites beyond the academy and the traditional experimental laboratory. We will focus on the house, the field, and on a number of surprising places where knowledge is produced. In addition, we will explore how images and metaphors have shaped research in scientific fields such as physics.
The course will be primarily taught to the Department of Physics. Students from the Institute of Sociology and the Department of History are more than welcomed.