HST Program
Newsletter
Issue No. 3,
September 2004
In this issue:
.
. . [Message from the Director]
.
. . [Updates from Our Alumni]
.
. . [Updates from The Faculty]
.
. . [Updates from Current Students]
FROM THE DIRECTOR
Awards were showered
on students, alumni,
and faculty this year. A record three students — Paul Brinkman,
Georgina
Hoptroff, and Margot Iverson — won Graduate School Dissertation
Fellowships.
Stephen Johnson (1997) won the Eugene Emme award for Astronautical
Literature
from the American Astronautical Society for his book The Secret of
Apollo
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002); and John Jackson (1996) won the
Early Career Award for Scholarship in the History of Psychology from
the
American Psychological Association for his overall achievement, which
includes
his book Social Scientists for Social Justice: Making the Case
against
Segregation (New York University Press, 2001). And to cap it off,
this
Spring Sally Kohlstedt won the prestigious President's Award for
Outstanding
Service. Congratulations to all!
After an
extensive search last winter,
Mark Borrello accepted a joint appointment with our Program and Ecology
and Evolutionary Behavior as an assistant professor to fill the open
history
of biology position. Mark did his graduate work in HPS at Indiana
University
and taught for three years at Michigan State University. Students and
faculty
are enthusiastic about his arrival. Arthur Norberg will be retiring at
the end of the year and a search has begun for a replacement as
Director
of CBI and an appointment to the ERA chair in our program.
The drive for
Graduate Student Fellowship
funds picked up this year. Your generous contributions have played an
important
part in our success. The Tomashes have now contributed $150,000 for a
fellowship
in the history of computing and related fields, and we have raised
$80,000
for the Roger Stuewer fund. We are now past the half-way mark in our
goal
for the Stuewer Fund. Despite the somewhat slow start, we are making
substantial
progress. The university is still matching contributions to the Roger
Stuewer
Fellowship Fund, so if you wish to make a contribution this year, it
will
in effect be doubled. Contact Barbara or me to make a contribution,
which
is, of course, tax deductible.
Many of us,
faculty and students,
will be at the HSS meeting in Austin this November. We hope to see you
there, and remember that the Program always hosts a reception in my
room
for the Minnesota community one evening, usually on Saturday. And a
reminder:
a joint HSS and SHOT annual meeting will be held in Minneapolis 2-6
November
2005.
Best wishes, and
we hope to see you
soon.
Alan Shapiro
ALUMNI UPDATES
Brett Steele
(1994)
Alexandria, VA
I have spent the
past four years
working for the RAND Corporation on wide range of Army-related research
projects. These involved acquisition reform, technological assessment,
military transformation, terrorism deterrence, air- mobility analysis,
joint-force doctrine, civil-military relations, and stability-and
support
operations. Recently, I started working at the Systems Division of
ANSER's
Homeland Security Institute, where I have plunged into a wide range of
biological and chemical issues associated with counter-terrorism
strategy
and disaster management. Speaking of strategy, I was teaching an
engineering
strategy class at UCLA for the past two years. Just when the course was
finally coming together, however, Gov. Arnold's cuts led to its demise.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted to empower/corrupt those bright EE
and CS undergraduates with some basic history of science and
technology,
along with economics and ethics.
Tamera and I
(along with our terriers
— "Kepler" and "Pico", I confess) recently moved into our spacious new
home in the rain forest outside of Alexandria, VA — near the Huntington
Metro stop. It is a very welcome change of pace after almost 10 years
of
LA grime and congestion. It is also good to now be within driving range
of the kids: Elizabeth has started her graduate studies in nuclear
physics
at Yale, while Ian has finished his freshman year at Lehigh.
Brett.Steele@hsi.dhs.gov
John P.
Jackson (1996)
Erie, CO
It has been a
very good year professionally
for me.
I have finally
finished book manuscript
tentatively entitled "The Scientific Defense of Segregation" on science
in American racial politics in the 1950s and 1960s. Both of New York
University
Press's referee reports were very positive and the book should appear
sometime
in 2005. Since researching this book took me into the murky world of
the
neo-Nazi underground of American politics, I am looking forward to
leaving
the world of the "Lysenkoist Jewish Conspiracy" that was attempting to
destroy "the protoplasmic integrity of the Nordic race."
For those of you
who don't want to
wait for NYU Press to get around to my manuscript, I have a book coming
out in September 2004. Nadine Weidman of Harvard University and I have
written Science, Race, and Racism; a survey of the race concept
in western science for ABC-Clio under the editorship of Mark Largent,
previously
of the University of Minnesota, now at the University of Puget Sound.
It
should be out any day now and would be perfect for all those on your
"hard
to shop for" Christmas list.
2004 marked the
fiftieth anniversary
of Brown v. Board of Education and I was fortunate enough to
take
part in some events commemorating social scientists' role in that
decision.
I was invited by the American Psychological Association to take part in
a plenary session at this year's APA convention in Honolulu. On the
panel
was M. Brewster Smith, a psychologist who had testified at the trials
and
signed the brief submitted to the Supreme Court in 1952 and Minnejean
Brown
Trickey, one of the "Little Rock Nine" who braved mobs of angry whites
to desegregate Little Rock Central High School in 1957. As I said in my
talk, it was a great honor me to share a panel with those who actually
made the history that I only wrote about.
I was further
privileged at the APA
convention when I received the "Early Career Award for Scholarship in
the
History of Psychology." I was the first person to receive this award
who
does not have a Ph.D. in psychology, so I felt doubly flattered. I
wanted
to wear my UM-HST T-shirt to the award ceremony, but my wife convinced
me that that was too casual even for Honolulu where ties were strictly verboten.
The other
conference I went to this
summer was in Akron, Ohio. Without getting into any ugly comparisons,
and
at the risk of appearing to denigrate my beloved Midwest, I will just
say
that if one has a choice between attending a conference in Honolulu or
Akron, choose Honolulu.
The final bit of
news is that the
University of Colorado has finally recognized the error of its ways and
transformed my instructor's line into a tenure-track position. This
transformation
owed, in part, to Michele (my wife) getting tenure. So we had two bits
of good news this year on the job front.
The kids, Maggie
(10) and Jack (7)
continue to grow. They are clever, smart, funny-all those things that
you
want in people that you have to spend a lot of time with.
If anyone wants
to know more about
my work, I have papers and project descriptions posted to my website: http://comm.colorado.edu/jjackson/.
john.p.jackson@colorado.edu
Stephen
Johnson (1997)
Grand Forks, ND
The biggest news
for me over the
last year is that my book The Secret of Apollo, a much-improved
version of my 1997 dissertation, won the Eugene Emme award for
Astronautical
Literature. I continue to work at the University of North Dakota, be
the
editor of Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly, and am
the
general editor for the first encyclopedia of space history, which will
be called Space Exploration and Humanity, published by
ABC-CLIO,
probably in 2006. Otherwise, I am continuing to work on my next book,
on
the early history of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence.
I am far enough along to have figured out there is more to do than I
originally
thought, and so the first draft will probably be done sometime in late
2005.
sjohnson@space.edu
Chris Young
(1997)
Milwaukee, WI
Chris Young
continues in his position
at Alverno College in Milwaukee. Administrative duties are
accumulating;
he (it's fun writing about yourself in the third person) advances plans
to take over the institution. His main duties include teaching
introductory
biology to the enormous class of entering students looking to make a
career
in nursing. His department chair hopes he will also teach microbiology
or anatomy and physiology. In an effort to derail her hopes, he has
agreed
to serve as the assistant coach for the cross country team this fall.
She
doesn't know that yet. Chris also hopes to teach upper level courses in
evolution and a seminar on global climate change, eventually. For now,
he is preparing a senior seminar for biology and chemistry majors that
will examine scientific controversy in historical contexts. Imagine
that!
He also plans to write the paper he is scheduled to present at HSS.
He'll
see you in Austin!
chris.young@alverno.edu
http://depts.alverno.edu/nsmt/Facbiol.htm
You can also
check out the element
of his life that is highest on the "cuteness" index: http://depts.alverno.edu/nsmt/youngcc/RD/.
Erik Conway
(1998)
Pasadena, CA
I've accepted a
new job at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, as its first historian.
My task there will be building a history program, including oral
history
and publications. I move out to the Left Coast on 2 September, and
start
at JPL on the 13th. I plan to be at the History of Science Society
meeting
in November (although perhaps only for Friday night and Saturday), and
I hope to see everyone there and meet the new graduate students!
E.M.Conway@larc.nasa.gov
Diana Kenney
(1998)
Marstons Mills, MA
The highlight of
my year was winning
a science journalism fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory in
Woods Hole, Mass. During the first week I took a biomedical laboratory
course where I sequenced and cloned DNA, learned how to use genomic
databanks,
and other useful skills. For two following weeks I went to scientific
lectures,
used the MBL's fabulous library and wrote. Last week I conducted an
hour-long
interview with James D. Watson and Matthew Meselson for the MBL's
archives.
Also wrote an article about Watson's visit for the Cape Cod Times, and
this week have a story coming out on reproductive technologies. It's
been
great to re-immerse myself in science and history of science. I saw
John
Beatty at the MBL; he's doing well in Vancouver but misses you all in
Minnesota.
dkenney@capecod.net
Mark Largent
(1999)
Vashon, WA
This year will be
my forth year teaching
history of science classes at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma,
Washington. All of my classes for the 2004-5 school year will be taught
in the new program I co-founded with Mott Greene and Jim Evans, the
Program
in Science, Technology, and Society at Puget Sound. My research is
increasingly
focusing on the history of eugenics and coerced sterilization, and I
have
begun work on a biography of Charles Davenport. Nancy and I recently
bought
a small house on Vashon Island, which is located in the Puget Sound
between
Tacoma and Seattle.
mlargent@ups.edu
Al
Martínez (2000)
Pasadena, CA
Hi everyone.
Here's what I've been
up to. Over the past year I've been a Research Fellow at the Center for
Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. I mainly
carried
out my research at their affiliated Center for Einstein Studies with
the
friendly guidance of John Stachel.
Finally, I
finished my book manuscript: Neglected
Science of Motion, A History of Kinematics from Ampère to
Einstein,
which is now under review at Princeton U Press. And even better, great
news from them: they have already approved to publish another book
manuscript
of mine dealing on controversies in the history of the algebra of
signed
numbers.
Aside from that,
I also carried out
research at the American Institute of Physics, History Center/Bohr
Library,
thanks to an AIP grant. My articles this year are: "Ritz, Einstein, and
the Emission Hypothesis," Physics in Perspective 6 (April
2004),
4-28; "Arguing about Einstein's Wife," Physics World 17, No. 4
(April
2004), 14; "Kinematic Subtleties in Einstein's First Derivation of the
Lorentz Transformations" American Journal of Physics, 72 (6)
(June
2004), 790-798; "Material History and Imaginary Clocks:
Poincaré,
Einstein, and Galison on Simultaneity," Physics in Perspective
6
(June 2004). I also submitted "Euler's 'Mistake': The Radical Product
Rule
in Historical Perspective" to The Mathematical Intelligencer,
but
I've waited a year on that and I'm giving up hope that they'll ever get
around to accepting it or rejecting it. I also submitted an article on
"Conventions and Inertial Frames" to the AJP, and I co-authored
with Sam Schweber an article on "Field Theories," forthcoming in the New
Dictionary of the History of Ideas (Charles Scribner's Sons/Thomson
Gale).
Moreover and
overburdened, I've also
been working as a midwife since last Dec. as an editor for the "Physics
of Scale" branch of the History of Recent Science and Technology
project
at MIT's Dibner Institute, as well as serving as an interviewee for a
TV
series for science teachers produced by the Media Group of the
Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics.
All this work and
headaches, and
blood, tears, toil and sweat brought along some more good news. A job!
Starting this Sept, I'll be an Instructor on history of science at
Caltech.
Sunny rosy Pasadena, with L.A. pollution in the sky; what more could I
want?
wendigo00979@yahoo.com
Karin Matchett
(2002)
Minneapolis, MN
At the 2-year
post-Minnesota mark,
life is very good. In a couple of weeks I will finish up my postdoc as
a research assistant for Dan Kevles in the History of Science and
Medicine
at Yale. It's been a great two years here. I've had the chance to do
varying
amounts of research into the history of horticulture and animal
breeding,
the Patriot Act and its effect on the practice of science, forensic
DNA,
etc. I taught two renditions of a seminar on history of agriculture and
public health in Latin America and advised senior essays by some really
outstanding people.
This fall I've
chosen to continue
doing research for Kevles part time, and to physically return to
Minnesota
in November to connect back with the university and Minnesota issues in
general. Right now I'm talking with people on the St. Paul campus about
possibly coordinating work on an interdisciplinary initiative on
sustainability,
energy, and the environment. No position announcement exists yet, but
I'm
hopeful that I'll be officially involved this winter. In the meantime,
I have a lot of work left to do on my dissertation-based book on corn
and
culture and politics in Mexico. I will be spending September and
October
once again at the Rockefeller Archives finishing research for the book.
I've had an article accepted in the Journal of History of Biology
and am working on a chapter in an edited volume on the life sciences
and
industry, one that grew out of a Woods Hole seminar a few years ago.
I've
also been getting more involved in encouraging discussion among people
who do history of science and environmental history, in the HSS and
American
Society for Environmental History.
As of September,
my email will be match001@umn.edu,
and phone is (612) 729-6782. If you pass through town, please call!
FACULTY UPDATES
Jennifer Alexander
Revisions to the
efficiency book
manuscript have kept me busy most of the summer — its current title is
"Seeking Efficiency, Encountering Mastery," but other suggestions are
welcome.
I have also been pleased to find some wonderful materials right here,
at
Minnesota, for "Sport and Work," my on-going project on the history of
the international biomechanics movement. At graduate student request, I
am developing a new graduate seminar on the Industrial Revolution that
will be offered for the first time next spring; it grows out of an
article
I am writing on eighteenth-century engineer John Smeaton and the
engineering
concept of experiment. This fall the informal science studies group at
Minnesota will begin meeting again; it is a group that came together in
discussions about revising the graduate minor in Studies in Science and
Technology, and shows the broad interest in science studies across
campus.
I am helping to get it together, and it includes faculty from a number
of departments, including history, anthropology, rhetoric, and
sociology.
jalexand@me.umn.edu
Mark E.
Borrello
Rather than
update I'll make this
an introduction. As a new faculty member in HST I've spent the summer
making
the transition from Michigan State University to the University of
Minnesota.
I spent the early summer in Panama teaching a course in Tropical
Biodiversity
and Conservation, which was great fun. My wife Regina, my son Nico and
I are all incredibly excited to be here and have taken full advantage
of
the farmer's market, the museums and the lakes. We celebrated Nico's
first
birthday on the 25th of July with a beautiful day at Lake Calhoun. I'll
be teaching Biology and Society in the 19th and 20th Centuries this
fall
and getting to know my new colleagues and students. I'll also be
participating
in the Future Directions in History and Philosophy of Biology in San
Francisco
in September and another workshop at the American Philosophical Society
titled "Descended from Darwin: Insights into American Evolutionary
Studies
1925 - 1950" in Philadelphia in October.
borrello@umn.edu
Michel Janssen
As usual, my year
revolved my two
great heroes, Einstein and Dylan (not necessarily in that order). I
wrote
a lengthy paper with Juergen Renn of the Max-Planck-Institut on how Al
found the field equations of general relativity. This paper should
finally
supersede the classic 1984 paper on the same topic by John Norton that
made me decide to go study with him at Pitt back in 1989. Juergen and I
had been trying to do this for years. John has yet to concede but I
think
we succeeded this time. Research has gone well this year. I think I may
even have found a viable topic for my first outing in history of
quantum
theory. It's about time because this is what I have been promising ever
since I got here four years ago. I talked about it at this year's Seven
Pines symposium (we got a two-page spread in Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/304/5679/1896.pdf).
Unfortunately, half of what I said was nonsense. Ah well. At least the
quote I get in Science is spot on even if I stole the quote from my
friend
and quantum guru Christoph Lehner.
And I did finally
publish my first
article on Bob. In the Seward Profile no less — the local rag
of
the Seward neighborhood. It's based on an interview with the local
musicians
who played on Dylan's 1975 masterpiece, Blood on the Tracks.
The
bass player on his thoughts while accompanying Bob on the interminable
"Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts": "How are we going to bail out
this sh**?!" Copies of the relevant issue of the Seward Profile
are available on request. My TA Tom Noerper stole a whole stack of them
for me. Just send a SASE. I saw Dylan himself in concert three times
this
year, once in St. Paul and twice in Chicago, all three times together
with
fellow traveler Paul Brinkman. While Brinkman was picking up the pieces
of his love life, I managed to pick his brain on "vert paleo" in the
19th
century. I gave the lecture both in my history of science survey course
and to a much more appreciative audience, my son's 2nd grade class.
That
was it for outreach this year I'm afraid. I'm off to see Dylan the
fourth
time around this year in Madison, this time with Brinkman and Rich
Bellon,
who'll drive in from East Lansing (caught the Blonde on Blonde
reference?).
While in Madison I hope to see Karin Ellison, whom many of you will
remember
from her stint in the program in 2000-2001.
Happy trails,
Michel.
janss011@umn.edu
Sally Gregory
Kohlstedt
My manuscript on
nature study is
finally drafted, although there is still considerable work to be done
to
bring it to publication. A plenary lecture for a 2002 NSF conference on
women in science was published in the NWSA Journal and an
article
with Paul Brinkman, "Framing Nature The Formative Years of American
Natural
History Museum Development" is in press in the Proceedings of the
California
Academy of Sciences. I keep busy as DGS and with a wonderfully hard
working and smart group of graduate advisees who keep me reading
chapters.
If you go to the AAAS meeting in Washington this February, you will see
me there because I am currently on the Council and chairing the
Committee
on the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion. This spring I was
honored
with the UMN President's Award for Outstanding Service, a recognition
of
my efforts as Board chair renovating and reviving the Campus Club. When
you alums come back, give me plenty of warning and I would love to take
you to lunch to show off the new facility. In the spring David was a
Moore
Visiting Professor at CalTech, so I made several extended trips to
Pasadena
(winter hardship duty!) where I had a desk in the Einstein Papers,
occasionally
used the Huntington Library, but most often enjoyed just reading in the
gardens. Kris is still a computer scientist at Orbitz in Chicago and
Kurt
will be going for an MA in architecture at UWashington in Seattle in
the
fall, so some of you Northwest Coast types may see me more often.
sgk@umn.edu
Bob Seidel
Bob Seidel has
been working on a
history of technology transfer focusing on the question of
privatization
of university and non-profit generated technology, helping Ioanna
Semendeferi
rework her dissertation for publication, refereeing NEH grant
proposals,
and teaching historiography, ethics in science and technology and, for
the first time, Science in American culture. His mother's death this
past
summer and antecedent arrangements to place his parents in
assisted-living
in Dallas have been sad interruptions to this work. On a happier note,
he attended Anne Fitzpatrick's wedding in Santa Fe, NM and saw his
daughter,
Mary, graduate from the University of New Mexico, where she will attend
law school this fall. Chris continues to help autistic children with
speech
and language difficulties in the Prior Lake school system. Oh, yes,
then
there's the car:
He's put 28,750
miles on it, circling
the West in 2003 and oscillating between Minneapolis, Dallas and Santa
Fe this year. So look out, he may be coming your way.
rws@umn.edu
Alan Shapiro
This fall and
winter I will be giving
more talks than usual. My interest and work in art and science have
increased,
and I am now getting invited to workshops and conferences on that
topic.
Last fall I attended an exciting workshop in Ghent on David Hockney's
thesis
concerning optics and the origin of realism in Renaissance art. (I even
got to know David Hockney a bit, since we often went out together to
smoke.)
This October I am giving a talk at a workshop on Light in
Seventeenth-Century
Painting at Wolfenbüttel. My talk will be on Descartes' theory of
light. In November I have organized a workshop to celebrate the 300th
anniversary
of the publication of Newton's Opticks at the Dibner Institute
at
MIT and will also give a talk there. The physicists at the University
of
British Columbia invited me to give a few talks in January. I am also
looking
forward to seeing John Beatty there.
ashapiro@physics.umn.edu
Roger Stuewer
First things
first: John Gustafson,
my last graduate student, defended his thesis in June; his predecessor,
Ioanna Semendeferi, defended hers last year — happy events indeed.
Another
happy development is that Physics in Perspective, the journal
that
John S. Rigden and I founded and is now in its sixth year of
publication,
is doing well, so well in fact that the Harvard Physics Librarian told
us it is the most read journal in the library, which makes it the most
stolen journal, so he keeps it in his office for safekeeping — quite a
remarkable testimony to its excellence, we think. I also continue to
edit
the Resource Letters of the American Journal of Physics, and
this
past year I served as Chair of the Selection Committee for the Abraham
Pais Award for the History of Physics, which is jointly sponsored by
the
American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics — the
winner
for 2005, the first year of the award, is Martin J. Klein.
Research and
writing, too, remain
part of my life. This past July my wife Helga and I flew to Vienna and
then left to attend an international conference in Keszthely, Hungary,
on beautiful Lake Balaton, where I gave a talk on "Historical
Surprises,"
which will be published in a future issue of Science and Education. We
then went to Prague, where the author of a future article for Physics
in Perspective took us to Einstein's old haunt, the Louvre Cafe,
for
coffee. Returning to Vienna, I participated in a meeting of the Program
Committee of the Vienna International Summer University (VISU), before
and after which we had the great pleasure of seeing Helen Longino and
John
Beatty there; they were teaching in VISU 2004. In fall semester, with
Michel
Janssen on sabbatical leave, I will be teaching a course on the history
of 19th-century physics. Then further travel beckons: In March and
September,
in conjunction with the celebrations for the World Year of Physics
2005,
the 100th anniversary of Einstein's annus mirabilis, I am scheduled to
give talks in London and Warsaw on the discovery of the Compton effect.
Retirement, it seems, carries with it little change in lifestyle.
rstuewer@physics.umn.edu
CURRENT STUDENT
UPDATES
Mary Anne Andrei
Before moving to
Charlottesville,
Virginia last June, I presented "Jumbo Stuffed: Carl E. Akeley and the
Mounting of Barnum's Great Elephant" at the Midwest Junto. This spring
I presented "The Society of American Taxidermists, 1881-1886 at Friday
Harbor. This fall I will present "Smithsonian Taxidermy and the Birth
of
Wildlife Conservation" at the HSS in Austin. These papers are portions
of my dissertation, a study of a small group of taxidermists who
trained
together at Ward's Natural Science Establishment and went on to play
foundational
roles at many of America's major museums, including the National
Museum,
American Museum, Field Museum, and Carnegie Museum. Most of my research
is now complete and I am concentrating on writing. Settled in Virginia
with my husband Ted and son Jack (who turns two in October), I am
working
steadily toward the completion of my dissertation and also working as
an
editorial assistant at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement
Series,
at Monticello. In the summer of 2004, I participated in the
preservation
of museum taxidermy mounts at the Smithsonian Institution.
andre057@umn.edu
Nicolas
Bergeron
During the last
year, I worked on
my dissertation, which will focus on the emergence of computer security
in the United States, from the 1950s to the end of the 1970s (and a
little
beyond, when necessary). I am presently working on the military side of
security, exploring the paranoia of military for spies and Communists
and
the technological transformations that influenced research on computer
security. I was also involved in an interesting project with a
professor
in the department of journalism and mass communication on e-mail
history.
This project helped me understand many issues regarding network
security
and the specific problems encountered during the design of Arpanet. I
presented
a paper at the 2004 Midwest Junto and am revising that presentation as
an article. Finally, I am enjoying my life as a married man (to
Valerie)
and the adoption of two wonderful cats.
berg1204@umn.edu
Anne Brataas
Anne opened her
sole-proprietor science
communications and curriculum development company, The Story Laboratory
(607 Grand Avenue, #300, St. Paul 55102; 651-298-0689), in the fall of
2003. Her clients include university and non-profit biomedical research
enterprises, for which she translates research into accessible lay
language,
often for media distribution or medical newsletters and newspapers
columns.
She also writes science curriculum for kindergarten through grade 4 in
hopes of starting habits of mind and inquiry that will serve and endure
until the current 5 year olds reach graduate school. In January 2004
her
curriculum on evolution, "The Placoderm Club," won a AAAS science
educators
award, presented at the annual meeting in Seattle (where she
unexpectedly
saw Sally Kohlstedt!). The lesson was presented in a poster session,
which
was a riot! Dinosaurs, move over. It is also being published on the
AAAS
science educators' website, Science Net Links. She would love to hear
from
former and current students.
brataas@ties2.net
Juliet Burba
I am completing
my dissertation on
Native American origins research and its relationship to
anthropological
method and theory in late 19th and early 20th century United States. I
am also working for the Science Museum of Minnesota on an exhibit on
the
subject of Race (http://www.aaanet.org/press/pr_nsfgrant_race.htm),
being done in collaboration with the American Anthropological
Association
and with funding from the National Science Foundation.
burb0006@umn.edu
Sara Dietrich
I am a
second-year student interested
in early modern science. Among the more exciting things in my life
recently
was my trip to Tokyo at the beginning of the summer. While in Japan,
visited
many shrines and gardens, had excellent fresh sushi, and met two STS
graduate
students studying at the University of Tokyo.
diet0157@umn.edu
Suzanne Fischer
Suzanne plans to
take her preliminary
exams in fall 2004, and is excited to begin research on
nineteenth-century
popular anatomy museums.
fisc0310@umn.edu
Amy Fisher
I hope to take my
qualifying exams
in December and have been doing preliminary research on topics on
eighteenth-century
electricity. This summer I have worked at the Bakken Museum and am
learning
a lot.
fish0349@umn.edu
Ron Frazzini
Travels occupied
a good share of
the past academic year. First to Ivrea, Italy in December '03 to scout
out the Olivetti archives. A trip to New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, India
with side trips to Amsterdam and London took three weeks in March and
April.
We managed to get in a week in Colorado before heading off to Sweden,
Norway,
and the Highlands of Scotland for three weeks plus. Had wonderful
times,
met many new people, and had first hand reactions to our foreign
policy.
I'll be returning to Ivrea in October for about six weeks to
concentrate
on the dissertation research in the archives, with side trips to
authors
and scholars in Rome, Milan and Turin. There are still many Olivetti
people
in Ivrea and nearby towns which will provide a rich interview base. The
writing, as one might guess, is proceeding slower than I'd like.
fraz0046@umn.edu
Margot Iverson
This past year I
passed my preliminary
exams and started work on my dissertation (working title, "Genetic
Studies
of Native Americans and the Debate over Biological Theories of Race in
American Anthropology,1940-1970"). This summer I'll be visiting
archives
in Washington, DC, and Philadelphia (at the APS) and then next year I
will
be at the University of British Columbia (working with John Beatty)
while
on a dissertation fellowship. So if anyone will be visiting Vancouver
during
the next academic year, please get in touch!
mliverson@mindspring.com
Kate Jirik
I am interested
in the interplay
of biological science, politics, and ethics. I am focusing on eugenics
at the moment. My talk at the Midwest Junto in April considered the
eugenics
articles
that appeared in Good Housekeeping in the early twentieth
century.
I generate a student email discussion after each colloquium talk. Two
different
projects have my current interest: I am looking in the YMCA Archives at
the University of Minnesota's Social History Archives for evidence of
eugenic
ideas in their publications. The other project is looking at a journal
published between 1896 and 1918 written by and for superintendents for
the feeble-minded.
jiri0006@umn.edu
Rachel Mason
I am interested
in twentieth-century
evolutionary biology. I have a sustained interest in the history of
various
applications of evolutionary theory to human behavior, such as
sociobiology
and evolutionary psychology. Recently, though, my curiosity has been
piqued
by the history of interspecies associations, such as symbioses and
pollination
systems. This interest was initiated during a recent research trip to
Costa
Rica, where I assisted my fiancé, Bryn, in his collection of
macrofungi.
Bryn and I will become the first members of the Mason Dentinger family
at the end of August; and I will become Rachel Mason Dentinger.
aydin@visi.com
Georgina
(Hoptroff) Montgomery
My dissertation
focuses on primatology
in America between 1930 and 1950 and examines the development of places
and practices for field studies of animal behavior. During the last
year,
I have presented papers concerning the field methodologies used by
American
primatologist Clarence Ray Carpenter at both ISHPSSB and HSS. These
papers
explored Carpenter's use of increasingly experimental field practices
and
how these techniques challenged his concept of 'natural' primate
behavior.
A manuscript based on these presentations is currently under editorial
review for publication in JHB. This summer, I will be
conducting
archive research with the aid of a travel grant from the University of
Minnesota Graduate School. Looking ahead to my fifth year, I am excited
to work full time on my dissertation with the support of a Doctoral
Dissertation
Fellowship from the University of Minnesota Graduate School for
2004-2005.
Finally, on a more personal note, I will be getting married this summer
to Bobby Montgomery.
georginahoptroff@hotmail.com
Don Opitz
I'm continuing to
write the dissertation
on science and the aristocracy in Victorian Britain. Several articles
have
been published this year: an introduction to a reprint of the first
edition
[1824] of Mary Roberts's Conchologist's Companion and five
biographical
sketches for the Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists.
Articles
in press are "'Behind folding shutters in Whittingehame House': Alice
Blanche
Balfour (1850-1936) and amateur natural history," Archives of
Natural
History; "'This House is a Temple of Research': Country-House
Centres
for Late-Victorian Science," in Sidelined Sciences? Shifting
Centres
in Nineteenth-Century Scientific Thinking; and "'So Clever a
Photographer':
Mary Countess of Rosse and Victorian Photographic Science," in Women
Scholars and Institutions, Proceedings of the International
Conference
organized by the Commission on Women in Science of the IUHPS in Prague.
Currently the Math Center coordinator in General College, I coauthored
two chapters concerning developmental mathematics education in Integrating
Intellectual Growth and Student Development: The General College Model
(scheduled for May, 2005).
opitz@umn.edu
Hyung Wook Park
While in Korea
this summer I practiced
driving for my international driver's license. I also read some
articles
and books necessary for the revision of my article, based on my MA
thesis,
which I hope to publish in one of the history of science or history of
medicine papers. In order not to forget my spoken English, I have met
Samantha
Pace from time to time, who is now staying in Korea to teach English,
after
receiving her master's degree with John Eyler in history of medicine.
park0717@umn.edu
Susan Rensing
This past year
has been a busy one
for me. I spent the summer of 2003 at New York University at the
Margaret
Sanger Papers Project, doing an archival internship for the electronic
edition of her papers. Then I spent a month at the American
Philosophical
Society doing research before returning to the Twin Cities to delve
into
writing with the help of a Dissertation Fellowship. In the Spring I
taught
a CLA Honors seminar on the history of eugenics and current issues in
genetics,
which I really enjoyed. Jackie and I bought a house in the Longfellow
neighborhood
of Minneapolis in March and are enjoying home ownership immensely. In
the
meantime, I have also presented topics from my dissertation at the
Comparative
Women's History Workshop, The Women and Gender Historians of the
Midwest
Conference, and at our very own DaWGs (Dissertators and Writers Group).
rens0031@umn.edu
Karen Ross
For the past year
I have been teaching
history of American science and technology at Iowa State University. I
also gave papers at the American Association for the History of
Medicine
and the newly revived Women and Gender Historians of the Midwest
meetings.
I had a wonderful time in Ames, but I am happy to be back in the Twin
Cities.
I am finishing my dissertation on early twentieth century American
biomedicine
and working at the Division of Epidemiology on the cardiovascular
disease
epidemiology history project.
ross0199@umn.edu
Gina Rumore
I am a second
year student interested
in the history of ecology. Currently I am looking into the historical
role
of national parks in generating and disseminating scientific knowledge.
I believe that national parks are a good analytical tool for gauging
the
ever-changing scientific and popular understandings of "wildness"
through
the 19th and 20th centuries and across national boundaries. When I am
not
buried in the annals of the history of science, I spend my free time
running,
biking, and swimming (I am aiming to finish a half-ironman triathlon
and
the Boston Marathon in the coming year) and hanging out with my husband
Sean and the latest addition to our family, Kona (he's a puppy).
rumo0001@umn.edu
Pete Schmidt
In addition to
finishing up course
work for my second year in the program, I completed four dictionary
entries
for Thoemmes Press publications and I also presented two papers. At
this
year's Midwest Junto I examined the relations between genetic art and
science,
and at this year's Popular Culture Association conference in San
Antonio,
I continued my exploration of the representations of science and
technology
in American comic books. In addition, I presented a guest lecture on
aspects
of culture and ethics in upper division classes. If all goes according
to plan, I should be taking (and passing) my exams at the end of this
summer.
In the fall I hope to begin research on my dissertation, which will
examine
the creation of and relationship between professional and popular
images
of space and space exploration.
schmi385@umn.edu
Rick Swanson
I've begun work
on my dissertation,
an examination of the extent to which chemistry influenced medical
theory
and practice, set against the backdrop of an evolving national identity
and the quest for scientific and medical authority. The dissertation
examines
both the theoretical and experimental "tool kits" American chemists
employed
in their quest to understand and combat the yellow fever epidemics of
the
1790s. I am awaiting the publication of "The Entrance of Informatics
into
Combinatorial Chemistry" in Proceedings of the Second Conference on
the History and Heritage of Science and Technical Information Systems
(HHSTIS2); the conference was in November 2002 and publication should
be
in Fall 2004.
RSwanson@tpt.org
Betty van Meer
I am currently in
Prague for research
on my dissertation dealing with Czech engineering professionalization.
The list two years I have presented papers at the SHOT, HSS, and
Midwest
Junto conferences, besides writing on my dissertation. This August I
will
participate in an interdisciplinary seminar for junior scholars at the
Woodrow Wilson Center.
vanm0020@umn.edu
Olivia Walling
Olivia is writing
a dissertation
in the history of physics in postwar United States. She is researching
the investigations of the abundance of elements by astronomers and the
synthesis of elements in stars by physicists at the California
Institute
of Technology. Her research as been supported by the Maurice A. Biot
Fund
of the Caltech Archives and by a grant-in-aid from the Friends of the
Center
for the History of Physics, American Institute of Physics.
oliviawalling@yahoo.com
Michael Ziomko
After passing my
exams last May (2003)
I switched my area of interest from modern technology to early modern
science,
so I've been reading Scientific Revolution literature to narrow and
define
a topic for my dissertation. I am currently focusing on matter theory,
specifically, the question of the coherence and organization of matter.
Robert Boyle's work looks especially promising on this topic. I
certainly
wouldn't mind a research trip to England! — though it's not clear that
that's on the horizon.
mziomko@scc.net
