Stevens Institute of Technology
College of Arts & Letters


“Science, Technology, and the Humanities:
A New Synthesis”

An International Conference held at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey,
April 24-25, 2009

Program

Friday, 24 April


Concurrent Sessions I
2:00-4:30 pm


Session 1: Science, Fiction, and the Future

“Nineteenth Century Techno-Warriors: Frank Stockton’s The Great War Syndicate and Garrett Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars,” Kathleen N. Monahan, English, Saint Peter’s College

“Physics and Science Fiction,” Allen I. Janis, Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh

“From Carbon Nanotubes to the Nanobama: How Science became Art,” Rasmus Slaattelid, Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen, Norway


Session 2:  Issues in Cognitive Theory

“De-Humanities: Comparative Philology, Psycholinguistics and the Mechanical Neuron,” Mark Robinson, Anthropology, Center for the Study of Religion, and Program in American Studies, Princeton University

“Borderland Poetry and Models of Bilingual Semantic Processing: Using Cognitive Science to Understand the Literature of the US_Mexico Border,” Jessica Sullivan, Cognitive Development Lab, Wesleyan University

“Morality, Mirror Neurons, and Midrash,” Susan Schept, Social Sciences, Stevens Institute of Technology


Session 3:  Conceptual Changes

“Plato’s Neurobiology: A Call for a Psychotherapist King?,” Elizabeth Laidlaw, Philosophy, Monroe Community College

“Science and the Humanities from the Perspective of Late Nineteenth-Century Sprachwissenschaft,” Judy Kaplan, History of Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison

 “The Questions Technology Asks Us,” Eric Rabkin, English, University of Michigan


Session 4: Darwinian Implications

“Attack of the Evo-Psychos: How Darwinians are Trying to Take Over the Humanities,” John Horgan, Center for Science Writings, Stevens Institute of Technology

“Ingredients for Human Cancer: The Mechanism of Natural Selection,” Predrag Sustar, Philosophy, University of Rijek, Croatia

“What is the Logic Science,” George Dourdounas, Stevens Institute of Technology


Session 5:  Math, Science, and Humanism

”The Math, Music, and Mysticism of the Quadrivium: The Four Paths to a Theory of Structure,” Daniel Newsome, History, CUNY and Stevens Institute of Technology

 “Humanist Science,” John T. Blackmore, Philosophy, Emeritus, Bethesda, Maryland

“What People Think Mathematics Is Will Limit What Mathematics Can Say to the Humanities,” Carlos Bovell, Independent Scholar


Plenary Session I:
Friday, 24 April 2009, 4:45-6:00
Babbio 122


Welcome: Dr. Harold J. Raveche, President of Stevens Institute of Technology

Introductory Remarks: James E. McClellan III, Professor and Dean, College of Arts and Letters

Introduction of Plenary Speaker. Mr. John Horgan

 “Locating the Soul in an Age of Molecular Medicine,” Dr. Robert Pollack, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, and Director, Center for the Study of Science and Religion, Columbia University

Reception: 6:00-7:00 pm
Babbio Atrium

Dinner: 7:00-9:00
Faculty Club
Howe Center

Dinner Speaker: Prof. Trevor Pinch, STS, Cornell University, “The Moog Synthesizer”

__________________________

Saturday, 25 April
Breakfast, 8:00 - 9:30 am
Bissinger Room, Howe Center

Concurrent Sessions II
Saturday, 25 April, 9:30 am-12:00 noon

Session 6: Americana

 “Purity and ‘Pollution’ in Modern America,” Kathy Cooke, History, Quinnipiac University

“Emblems of the Soul: A Natural History of the American Renaissance,” Angela Conrad, English, Bloomfield College


Session 7: Implications for Ethics

“Ethics as Social Technology,” Morton Winston, Philosophy and Religion, The College of New Jersey

 “Engineering Ethics and Philosophy,” James A. Stieb,  English and Philosophy, Drexel University

 “Ecology of Spirit,” Michael Steinmann, Philosophy, Stevens Institute of Technology


Session 8: Literature and Technological Change

“A 17th-Century Intersection of Science, Art, and Literature: The Rise of the Art of Medicine (1683),” Robert Kramer, Fine Arts, Manhattan College

“Color and the Technologies of Literature,” Nicholas Gaskill, English and Comparative Literature, UNC, Chapel Hill

“Computing “Kubla Khan”: The Idea of Computation and the Analysis of Literature,” William L. Benzon, Independent Scholar


Session 9:  Metaphysical and Epistemological Issues

 “Renaturalizing philosophical naturalism,” Rebecca Bamford, Philosophy, Hunter College

“The Promise and Threat of Naturalism: The Reach of a Unifying Science,” Keith A. Nier, Independent Scholar

“Scientific Knowledge and the Humanities: How Molecular Biology Illuminates the Problem of Epistemological Skepticism,” Jeff Buechner, Philosophy, Rutgers University-Newark and CUNY (Kripke Center)


Session 10: Beyond the West

 “Orientalism as a Human Science,” B. Harun Küçük, History, UC San Diego

“Written in the Flesh: Historical Epistemology and the Changing Medical Perceptions of the Body in China,” Howard H. Chiang, History of Science, Princeton University

“Ming Qing Medicine: Plurality and Interaction,” Sare Aricanli, History of Science, Princeton University


Session 11: Practical Impact of Technologies

“Transportation: Synthesis of Disability Justice and Ecological Rationality,” Doris Zames Fleischer, Humanities, NJIT

“Science and Technology in the Countercultural Back to the Land and Environmental Movements of the Sixties and Seventies: The Birth of Ecofuturism?,” Adam Tinkle, Writing Program, Wesleyan University

“From Cargo Containerization to Contemporary Globalization – the Historical Impact of a New Techonology,” Arthur Donovan, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (retired)



12:00 noon – 2:00 pm
Luncheon
Bissinger Room


Luncheon Speaker: Prof. Karen Barad,
Professor of Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness, and Philosophy, UC Santa Cruz



Concurrent Sessions III
Saturday, 25 April,2:00-4:30


Session 12: Poetry as Technological Artifact

“Digital Poetry: ‘slippingglimpse’,” Stephanie Strickland

“’Lest you shall chance to whip your information’: The Aesthetics of
Database Management,” Andrew  Klobucar, NJIT

 “Poems of the Web, by the Web, for the Web: The Google Synthesizers , ” Chris Funkhouser, NJIT


Session 13: Relations Between Art and Science

 “Art or Science?: The Practices of Tactical Media,” Hannah Rogers, STS, Cornell University

“The Sewing Needle: Technology Piercing the Science/Art Divide,” Maura Flannery, Biology, St. Johns University

“Positive Potential: Technology and Fashion in the 1960s,” Sarah Scaturro, Textile Conservator, Smithsonian, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

    
Session 14: Literature, History, and Science

“An Alternative End to History: The Da Vinci Code Phenomenon and Orthodoxy,” Derek J. Thiess, English, Auburn University

“Science Through the Lens of Brecht’s Hollywood: The Case of Galileo,” Alice Craven, Comparative Liverature, American University of Paris

“Emblems of the Soul: A Natural History of the American Renaissance,” Angela Conrad, English, Bloomfield College


Session 15: Episodes in the History of Science

“Going Small in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Thoughts on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Richard Feynman’s ‘There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom’,” David Valone, History, Quinnipiac University

“Perceptual History and Visual Psychology: A Nineteenth-Century Case Study and James Gibson’s ‘Ecology of Light’ Theory,” Alice Barnaby, Exeter Interdisciplinary Institute, University of Exeter, UK

“Ancient Roman Technology in Modern Archaeological Scholarship,” Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, History, Stevens Institute of Technology


Session 16: Advanced Technologies and their Impact

“Aristotle’s E-Mail, Or Friendship in the Cyber Age,” Tim Madigan, Philosophy, St.  John Fisher College

“Knowledge, Reputation, Discourse: The Creation of Relevance in Search Technology,” Finn Brunton, Centre for Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen, UK

“Cyborgs & Posthumans: The Encounters of Technology, Prosthetics, Bodies and Memory,” Emilie Dionne, Social and Political Thought, York University, Toronto



Plenary Session II:
4:45-6:00 pm
Bissinger Room

Introduction of speaker: Prof. Lisa Dolling, Stevens Institute of Technology

 “From Scientism to Humanism: Reuniting Science with the Arts and Humanities”
Prof. David Lowenthal
Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography
University College London





Post Conference Reception
CAL Headquaters
308 Peirce Building, Stevens Campus

For more information please contact:

James McClellan III
Professor, History
Peirce
Room 308
Phone: 201.216.5395
Fax: 201.216.8245
jmcclell@stevens.edu