CfA: Negotiating radiation protection
Conveners:
Prof. Angela Creager, Princeton University
Prof. Kenji Ito, SOKENDAI
Prof. Susan Lindee, University of Pennsylvania
Prof. Maria Rentetzi, Technical University Berlin/Max Planck Institute for History of Science
The
history of radiation protection is more than just a story of scientific
standard-setting and regulatory control both within and among nations.
The subject calls for a broader conception of international relations,
science diplomacy, and circulation of knowledge, materials, and
expertise. Over time, radiation protection involved experts in fields
ranging from physics to ecology, engineering to political science, and
even sociology, public health, and psychology. These experts competed
and cooperated to exert their authority through international
organizations and regulatory bodies. This webinar explores
the kind of organizational structures, material resources, knowledge
systems, and diplomatic practices that allowed the social and political
shaping of the scientific field of radiation protection.
Focusing
mainly on the period before World War II, historians have highlighted
scientists' struggles (a) to define the appropriate unit of radiation;
(b) to invent suitable measurement devices; (c) to detect and to agree
on the effects of radiation on biological systems; and (d) to identify
the acceptable risk of radiation exposure. The scientific controversies
that emerged in these processes reveal the powerful role of those
scientific institutions responsible for standards for radiation safety.
Most of these studies are focused on the U.S.
After
World War II, the rapid development and adoption of new medical
technologies such as radioisotope teletherapy units and the development
of the nuclear power industry posed numerous challenges in the field of
radiation protection, pushing traditional centers of power such as the
Paris and Vienna Radium Institutes aside. The mass quantities and new
types of radiation and radioactive materials forced new approaches in
the field and created opportunities for the international regulation of
radiation risks. Undoubtedly, the international regulatory system that
took shape at the end of the 1950s was a result of the geopolitical
division of the Cold War. Regulation became an instrument of social
management and a matter of political dispute among UN agencies,
established international disciplinary organizations, state and
non-state actors, groups of prominent scientists, and uneasy diplomats.
As the nuclear power industry became multinational, radiation protection
standards were negotiated in the context of international politics
where centralized global
This webinar seeks
to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars working, among
other fields, on the transnational history of nuclear knowledge, on
diplomatic history and political sciences, on history of international
law, on history of medicine and epidemiology, and the role of
international organizations in shaping policies concerning radiation
protection throughout the 20th century. Our main question is
how the notion of radioactive contamination crossed the border between
science and politics. We are interested in the work of those who employ
historical, philosophical, sociological methods and methodological
tools from political sciences and international relations in order to
investigate (to mentions just a few research directions)
· the
nuclear diplomacy in and around international organizations such as
IAEA and ICRP or important bilateral institutions such as RERF;
· bilateral negotiations in relation to exchange of material and human resources in the field of radiation protection;
· science diplomacy concerning radiation protection, nuclear safeguards, and technical assistance programs;
· the historical role of diplomats and science/technical experts in negotiating nuclear agreements;
· the international law concerning nuclear issues.
The webinar takes
place once a month during the academic year 2020-2021 from September
2020 to June 2021 (10 meetings). Participants are invited to present
their pre-circulated papers and a commentator leads the online
discussion. Key scholars from diverse fields will be invited as commentators to encourage strong interdisciplinary discussion.
At the end of the academic year—if the covid-19 pandemic allows us—the
entire group will meet in Berlin for a workshop and for planning the
publication of a collective volume. Some travel funding will be available for participants whose institutions cannot cover their trip to Berlin.
The webinar is
part of the HRP-IAEA project that has received funding from the
European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme (Consolidator Grant agreement
No770548) led by Prof. Maria Rentetzi at the Technical University
Berlin.
Application procedure:
Please
send us a brief description of your research project (up to 1500 words)
and a short cv. Applications should be sent to Ms Nina Krampitz and Maria Rentetzi.
Deadline: 30 July 2020