PhD opportunity in history of science, UEA
Url: https://www.uea.ac.uk/study/-/science-in-the-trading-zone-the-school-of-environmental-sciences-uea-1967-2007-mahonym_u18sci-
Project Description
The enduring significance of the sciences of environmental
change, and their impact global politics, has increasingly attracted the
attention of historians of science (Edwards 2010; Howe 2014). Yet the
definition of ‘environmental science’ is often taken for granted. In
the post-war period the idea of ‘the environment’, and of a distinctive
‘environmental science’, began to take root across science and public
policy. Disciplines were encouraged to work together, new tools and
ideas were generated, and a whole new way of doing science was created.
Environmental science could be understood as a ‘trading zone’ (Galison
1997), where different scientific cultures interact, building new
languages and techniques of cooperation. We can also understand the
politics of environmental change as a trading zone where diverse forms
of knowledge rub-up against disparate political beliefs and commitments.
This project seeks to understand the historical development of
environmental science within the wider context of an evolving local,
national and global politics of environmental change.
The School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia
provides an ideal case study through which to understand this history.
Founded in 1967, the School developed an international reputation for
challenging disciplinary boundaries, and for changing the way ‘the
environment’ was viewed in science, politics and society more broadly.
Working with published and unpublished archives and oral histories,
this project will reconstruct the history of the institution and its
interactions with the wider world, while contributing towards developing
and maintaining an institutional archive within the School itself.
This PhD project would be suited to applicants with a background in
history of science, historical geography or related fields, and with
some knowledge of the environmental sciences. The student will sit
within the Science, Society and Sustainability (3S) Research Group, but
will interact with colleagues from across the School and University.
Interviews will be held w/c 22 January 2018.
References
i) Edwards, P. N. (2010). A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming. MIT Press.
ii) Galison, P. (1997). Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics. University of Chicago Press.
iii)Howe, J. (2014) Behind the Curve: Science and the Politics of Global Warming. University of Washington Press