After last week’s discussion, I thought S&Jers might be interested in this Wired blog post on this PLoS Medicine paper highlighting the power of data in both reflecting and perpetuating racial inequality.
Research Blog
Reading Responses: Situational Mapping
akargl Says:
October 10th, 2011 at 5:12 pm edit
I absolutely devoured these readings. I found it extremely useful for the stage I’m at with my project. Also, in commencing to create maps of my project, I appreciated Star & Bowker for, among other things, explicitly implicating the maps we’re about to make in the web of things the maps will organize. (I’m imagining some sort of M.C. Escher-inspired bubble embedding the whole map within itself.) Rather than discuss all that I found wonderfully useful (which I think just seems harder right now because I’m anxious to try stuff out), I want to draw out three areas I needed more help with:Continue Reading Reading Responses: Situational Mapping
Of Interest: Lisa Jean Moore to present annual Baskin Ethics Lecture
Lisa Jean Moore, professor of sociology and gender studies at Purchase College, State University of New York, will deliver the second annual Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture on Wednesday, October 19.
The lecture will take place at 5:30 p.m. in UCSC’s Humanities 1 Building (room 210). Admission is free and open to the public. A reception will follow at 6:30 p.m.Continue Reading Of Interest: Lisa Jean Moore to present annual Baskin Ethics Lecture
Greenhouse Site
At the end of this summer we finally were allotted space to build a prototype greenhouse on campus. The UCSC Arboretum graciously donated a plot in their research section, and the campus approved a temporary (read: not open to the public) structure to be built.
Continue Reading Greenhouse Site
Science & Justice Methods, Week 2 Thread
Post your reading reflections for 10/5 in here.
akargl Says:
October 2nd, 2011 at 1:58 pm edit
Starting with Akrich (1992), I found the descriptions tracing the networks within which technical objects are embedded helpful for illustrating how to complicate object boundaries. Her theory overall, however, while posthumanist at first glance, maintains representationalist ontoepistemological stance with humans at the center. For me, the first hint of this came with her statement that, “the methodological problem is that if we want to describe the elementary mechanisms of adjustment, we have to find circumstances in which the inside and the outside of objects are not well matched” (207). This takes for granted that Continue Reading Science & Justice Methods, Week 2 Thread
Dawkins Rap
Apropos of Jenny’s earlier post about Sam Harris, I felt obligated to post the famous Richard Dawkins rap animation. I still love this years later.
What would a Neanderthal think of Disneyland?
I was trolling the Internet last week, looking for articles about Neanderthal cloning, and came across a rather bizarre claim about ethics and science. Why was I looking for material about Neanderthal cloning? Ed Green, who ran the bioinformatics portion of the Neanderthal Genome Project, was hired by UCSC last year and is visiting my bioethics class next week.Continue Reading What would a Neanderthal think of Disneyland?
Best-Selling “Science and Values”
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Sam Harris | ||||
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Last week, Sam Harris, the author of the best-selling book, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, appeared on the Daily Show. Not even Jon Stewart could make this stuff funny. In this country, we desperately need less impoverished imaginaries about science and religion.Continue Reading Best-Selling “Science and Values”