Call for participants for symposium on History of Pariah Science, 7th ESHS, Prague 2016
Dear Colleagues,
We are putting together a multi-panel symposium on what
we call “Pariah Science,” which will analyse the processes of legitimization-illegitimization
of science in the modernity. Please find the abstract of the session below. If
you are interested in participating, please send a short abstract and a cv to
Jan Surman (jan.surman@herder-institut.de<mailto:jan.surman@herder-institute.de>)
before 20. November 2015. (for more info on the ESHS conference visit their
homepage at http://www.7eshs2016.cz/)
Best regards,
Friedrich Cain / Jan Surman / Zsuzsanna Török
Pariah sciences. Episteme, Power and Legitimization of
Knowledge, from Animal Electricity to Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions. Symposium
at the 7th International Conference of the European Society for the History of
Science
Venue: Prague, Czech Republic
Date: 22–24 September, 2016
Organizers: Friedrich Cain (Konstanz), Jan Surman
(Marburg), Zsuzsanna Török (Konstanz)
If history should be the history of winners, much is lost
in the process of writing it. Our session aims at looking consciously at
precise moments at which modern disciplines, research programs or scholars
cross the threshold of legitimacy, one way or another. We intend to analyze via
microstudies how science is made legitimate/illegitimate, who are the actors
behind this process and which strategies have led to achieving the quality of
crossing this strong discursive boundary. Cold fusion, 19th century natural
law, astrology, Lyssenkoism, Soviet sociology, are known examples of how
knowledge once regarded legitimate turned into “pariah science” (Goodstein
1994), the two latter fields also going the other way round. But the ways their
stories are told differ greatly, ranging from references to obstacles presented
to them by political power to failure to bring reliable results. We feel,
however, that the canvas is more complex, and can be unwoven best through case
studies, which will include cultural, religious, political and epistemic
factors.
Regarding the political framework, our symposium
addresses not only absolutist, despotic, totalitarian and semi-totalitarian
regimes, which, as recent studies have accentuated, allowed lot of individual
freedom and thus manipulation, but also constitutional monarchies and liberal
democracies where science has been a field closely interwoven with politics.
Moreover, recent works in anthropology (Proctor/Schiebinger 2008) have focused
on a field that spans between politics and scholarship on the one hand, and
provable and not provable information on the other. In this highly politicized
arena, notions of ambiguity become central to discourses transgressing science
and politics. Indeed, the field of exclusion and delegitimization is a
particularly tangled one: governments and (un-)enlightened despots used
religious claims to legitimize the banning of politically unwanted knowledge,
while the Church (re-)connected with politicians and political activists to
achieve its epistemic aims (e.g. Roman Catholic Church in the anti-modernist
struggle). Scholars often played a key role in these struggles helping to
sustain their research programs by cutting off their competitors with the help
of non-academic actors. Visualizing the strings and actors pulling them, will
give, as we believe, a detailed and dynamic view of science as an endeavor
involving manifold actors, not only those confined to academia. We are
interested in case studies from around the globe addressing one or more of the
issues listed below. We are particularly keen on contributions problematizing
the politics-scholarship dichotomy:
- Who were
the actors and institutions behind the processes of legitimization and delegitimization
of knowledge? What were their aims and interests? What were their strategies?
- What were
the strategies of defending knowledge under attack? What were the arenas of
negotiation?
- What
happened to delegitimized knowledge (and scholars)? Was it conveniently hidden
into basement, or spatially, medially and discursively removed? Could
delegitimized scholars pursue their interest, remain in academia with different
affiliations or were they persecuted?
- We are
also interested in contested cases, where the battle for legitimation has not
been decided, e.g. in the case of alternative healing methods in postwar
medicine, such as Homeopathy.
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Dr. Jan Surman
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Leibniz Graduate School “History, Knowledge, Media in
East Central Europe”
Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central
Europe Gisonenweg 5-7, D-35037 Marburg
Tel.: +49 6421 1754983
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