HST Program
Newsletter
Issue No. 4,
September 2005
In this issue:
.
. . [Message from the Director]
.
. . [Updates from Our Alumni]
.
. . [Updates from The Faculty]
.
. . [Updates from Current Students]
FROM THE
DIRECTOR
Last fall the
Graduate School decided
that our Program should merge with the smaller graduate program in
History
of Medicine, which has only two full-time faculty. The new name will be
Program in History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. This spring
and
summer the faculty of the two programs worked hard at devising a new
curriculum
and degree requirements for the joint program. We expect that our
larger
size and broader coverage will allow us to attract more graduate
students.
If the new program is approved, as we fully anticipate, we will start
admitting
students to the joint program for the 2007-08 academic year. This is a
merger only of the graduate program. Our Program will remain in
the
Institute of Technology and the History of Medicine in the Medical
School.
Appointments and undergraduate teaching will remain unchanged.
An unusual
opportunity through a
spousal hire with the Law School arose last year to make an additional
appointment in history of biology, something that has long been a
priority of the Program. Susan Jones, who was in the History Department
at the University of Colorado, joins Mark Borrello, who we appointed
last
year, in Ecology and Evolutionary Behavior as an associate professor.
Before
doing her graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania in History
and
Sociology of Science, Susan was a practicing veterinarian for a
few
years. She wrote a book on the history of veterinary medicine in the
United
States and is now working on zoonomic diseases. You can read more about
her on our web page. Arthur Norberg retired last spring and a search
for
a new Director of CBI and professor of history of technology is not yet
concluded. We hope to able to make an offer by the beginning of
October.
Michel Janssen was promoted to associate professor with tenure last
spring.
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.
We hope to see
many of you at the
joint HSS and SHOT annual meeting, which will be here in
Minneapolis
from 2-6 November. As usual, we will have a reception in my suite on
Saturday
night after the HSS banquet.
Best wishes, and
we hope to see you
soon.
Alan Shapiro
ALUMNI UPDATES
Brett Steele
(1994)
Alexandria, VA
I have just
completed my first year
at the Homeland Security Institute and got to participate in some
classic
"start-up" dynamics. Having sunk my teeth into 2000 years of
innovation
history at the U of M sure helps keep things in perspective. I
got
to work on a wide range of issues, including fuel-air explosives,
wide-area
bio-restoration, consequence assessment and counterterrorism
strategy.
I am now supporting a major training and education initiative in the
Department
of Homeland Security.
In the mean time
I am pleased to
report that a number of publication projects have finally seen the
light
of day. The edited volume that Tamera and I worked so hard on
since
my postdoc days at the Dibner Institute finally emerged from MIT Press
in March. The Heirs of Archimedes: Science and the Art of War
through the Age of Enlightenment should be useful for those seeking
to better integrate early modern science into both European and Asian
History.
From a more modern perspective, my little RAND monograph Military
Reengineering
between the World Wars emerged in May, along with The UN's Role
in Nation-Building: From the Congo to Iraq. I wrote the
chapters
on the Congo and Sierra Leone, with far too little time and resources,
but nevertheless discovered how captivating modern African history can
be. The major RAND study Reexamining Military Acquisition
Reform,
in which I conducted some basic economic and historical analyses, also
emerged in print a few months ago.
In the mean time,
Tamera and I have
almost completed the upgrades to our new Alexandria home.
Replacing
a particularly ugly patch of linoleum will finally rid it of the last
vestiges
of that awful 1960s decor, which ensured its affordable purchase
price.
And finally,
please let me know if
anyone in the history of science/technology community is interested in
homeland security-related research and analysis. A combined
background
in the life or hard sciences, coupled with the humanities, and tempered
with Ph.D.-level research experience may be especially practical in
this
policy domain.
Brett.Steele@hsi.dhs.gov
Robert
Ferguson (1996)
Silver Spring, MD
I have a new son,
a new house, and
a new article. Giacomo arrived on August 12th. We moved
into
our house in Silver Spring, Maryland in July. And my article came
out in History and Technology in June. Looking forward to
seeing everyone at the bar at SHOT/HSS this fall.
rob@furglu.com
John P.
Jackson, Jr. (1997)
University of
Colorado--Boulder
This has been a
transitional year,
finishing up one large-scale project and beginning another. The
finished
project is the work I’ve been doing since graduate school on how
science
was enrolled in the twentieth-century United States in battles about
legal
segregation. This August New York University Press will publish
my Science
for Segregation: Race, Law and the Case Against Brown v. Board of
Education. This book explores how segregationists attempted
to
preserve racial segregation in the nineteen-fifties and
nineteen-sixties.
I am starting a
new project with
Professor David Depew of the Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry at the
University of Iowa. The tentative title for the book is Organisms
as Agents: The Fragile Rhetoric of Liberal Darwinism. The
book
will explore various ways that Darwinian theory has interacted with
social
theory in the United States from pragmatism to evolutionary
psychology.
Two of my books
are coming out in
paperback: Social Scientists for Social Justice will be coming
out
from NYU Press and Race, Racism, and Science: Social Impact and
Interaction,
written with Nadine Weidman will be coming out from Rutgers University
Press.
On the personal
front, my family
and I spent January in New Zealand. Michele was enjoying her
sabbatical
by teaching a summer class at the University of Waikato and, of course,
we all had to trail along. The kids enjoyed the beaches and
the January summer.
You can see
exciting pictures of
the New Zealand trip here: http://comm.colorado.edu/mjackson/nztrip/
You can see
boring stuff about my
professional self here: http://comm.colorado.edu/jjackson/
john.p.jackson@colorado.edu
Stephen
Johnson (1997)
Colorado Springs,
CO
I have just
switched jobs, now working
as Research Associate Professor in the Institute for Science and Space
Studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, where I have
been living for the last five years. I am working currently under
a research contract from NASA, spending about 2/3 of my time on
developing
theories and processes for dependable space systems engineering, as
well
as helping them with planning for the new "Vision for Space
Exploration"
to return to the Moon and Mars, and the other 1/3 on my own
research.
Currently, my major "research" is being the general editor for a
two-volume
space history encyclopedia. That project should be done in under
a year. I've also been communicating with Brett Steele, another
HST
alum, regarding issues of risk assessment in space and homeland
security
applications.
sbjohnson@adelphia.net
Amy Foster
(1999)
Orlando, FL
I completed my
Ph.D. at Auburn University
in May, and I am just beginning my new position as Assistant Professor
teaching Space History at the University of Central Florida.
Contact
information:
Office:
History
Department
University of
Central Florida
Orlando, FL
32816-1350
(407) 823-4614 or
(321) 433-7885
Home:
14248 Cheval
Danforth Ct. Apt 101
Orlando, FL 32828
(407) 737-6052
I'm less than an
hour away from all
the major attractions in the Orlando area and the Space Coast, and I'm
just 30 minutes from the airport. Visitors are welcome!
afoster@mail.ucf.edu
Mark Largent
(1999)
Lansing, MI
This fall I began
a tenure-track
position at Michigan State University. My position is located in
James Madison College, a residential public policy honors college on
the
campus of MSU. In addition to teaching history of science
classes,
I will direct the specialization in Science, Technology, Environment
and
Public Policy (STEPPS), which uses history of science, science,
economics,
and political science classes to train science policy analysts and
science
administrators. Nancy and I moved to Lansing this summer, bought
an old house near downtown Lansing, and (after five years of
Northwestern
drizzle) look forward to a good old long, harsh, Midwestern winter.
largent@msu.edu
Kai-Henrik
Barth (2000)
Washington, DC
I continue to
teach at Georgetown
University in Washington, DC. I am a Visiting Assistant Professor
and Director of Studies in the Security Studies Program. I teach
courses on technology and security, with a focus on nonproliferation of
nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons (www.georgetown.edu/faculty/khb3/)
My research focuses on the role of scientists and engineers in
international
arms control negotiations as well as in national nuclear weapons
programs.
I am editing (with John Krige) Vol. 21 of Osiris: Science,
Technology,
and International Affairs: Historical Perspectives, which will be
published
in 2006. As a physicist and historian of science and technology I
enjoy working with political scientists and hope that I can build more
bridges between natural scientists, historians and political
scientists.
Outside of work, I have rediscovered my love of photography (Photoshop
CS2 rules!) and developed a new hobby, composing music with GarageBand.
My wife Kati
continues to be very
successful as a Green Roof consultant and advocate (see www.scholz-barth.com).
Our son Per-Niklas is 3 years by now, and he is a big fan of loud
music,
soccer, baseball, the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History
Museum.
All three of us love Washington, D.C., and have made it our home.
khb3@georgetown.edu
Al
Martínez (2000)
Austin, TX
Since this year
has been the centenary
of Einstein in 1905, I traveled to Boston, San Juan, Tenerife, and
Switzerland
to give talks about special relativity, Einstein, his first wife, etc.
Now I've finished my visit as an Instructor at Caltech, where students
behave like zombie androids in class and like people in private. As a
spin-off
of a course on replicating scientific experiments (co-taught with Jed
Buchwald),
I'm now working on a paper that presents surprisingly good results on
my
reconstruction of Coulomb's torsion balance of the 1780s. Also, while
in
Pasadena I got to spend some time with Erik Conway, watching low-grade
Hollywood flicks. My articles this year include "Handling Evidence in
History:
The Case of Einstein's Wife," in School Science Review (March
2005),
and "Conventions and Inertial Reference Frames," in American
Journal
of Physics (May 2005). My book, Negative Math, is due out
in
December, thanks to Princeton U Press. My manuscript on kinematics
still
waits and hesitates at Oxford UP. Anyhow, I'm now at the University of
Texas at Austin, as a visiting lecturer. It's hot here, way too hot,
but
my air-conditioner is doing well.
wendigo00979@yahoo.com
Kevin Francis
(2002)
Olympia, WA
I have just
completed my first year
at the Evergreen State College—a public liberal arts college in
Olympia,
Washington—where I was hired as a philosopher of science. (Previously,
I was the “science department” at Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict,
Oregon for four years.) During my first year at Evergreen, I taught a
full-time
program called “Introduction to Natural Science” as part of a
four-person
faculty team. For most of the next two years, I’m slated to teach
first-year
students in programs called “History and Evolution of Disease” (with
two
biologists) and “Visualizing Ecology” (with an artist and an
agronomist).
I really enjoy the work and Evergreen’s unorthodox approach to
learning,
which is good since so far it has kept me very busy. Tom (my partner)
also
started a new job this year. He has been teaching evidence and legal
analysis
at the University of Washington law school. After working on court
opinions
and appellate briefs for the past few years, Tom is happy to be
teaching
again. I have been taking advantage of the Puget Sound by learning to
sail.
We look forward to visitors in Olympia or Seattle. We can be reached at
227 Sherman St NW, Olympia, WA.
Phone: 360-352-3317.
francisk@evergreen.edu
David Sepkoski
(2002)
Oberlin, OH
All things
considered, I guess you
could say the past year has been a pretty good one. Dara and I
are
still at Oberlin, where we'll be for the next year at least. Our
daughter, Ella, turned 2 in June and is very happy and healthy.
On
the professional front, while I still haven't landed that tenure-track
job, things are nonetheless looking up: I got a contract from Routledge
to publish my dissertation, and one from U Chicago Press to publish a
book
I'm co-editing with Michael Ruse titled Paleontology at the High
Table.
The latter represents a fairly radical departure from my dissertation
work
on 17th century math; it's a collection of essays about the
transformation
of paleontology in the 1970s and 80s into a more theoretically-driven,
evolutionary science. In addition to the edited volume, I'm
working
on my own book, tentatively titled Re-Reading the Fossil Record:
The
Rise of Paleobiology as an Evolutionary Discipline. I've been
digging extensively into archival records and published literature, and
I'm in the process of conducting interviews with the key players who
are
still living. The other bit of good news is that I got a big
grant
from NSF to fund this research, and I'll be able to take the Spring off
from teaching to write. I've also published a couple of articles
this year: one in Historia Mathematica and the other in JHB.
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in Minneapolis in November,
where--as
has become an annual tradition--my session has been scheduled in
conflict
with Don Opitz's.
David.Sepkoski@oberlin.edu
John Gustafson
(2004)
Knife River, MN
After a long
process of graduate
studies lasting well over a decade and bridging two centuries, in July
of 2004 I finally completed the requirements for the Ph. D.
degree!
I may be the oldest living fossil uncovered in Minnesota's History of
Science
and Technology program. My dissertation Wolfgang Pauli 1900 to
1930:
His Early Physics in Jungian Perspective dealt with Wolfgang
Pauli's
early fascination with Jungian archetypal concepts and how those
thoughts
influenced his physics, and thus the history of quantum
mechanics.
If you are having problems sleeping at night, contact me for a copy of
my dissertation. Seriously, I feel extremely privileged to have
had
the opportunity to return to graduate studies in my middle years, and
to
have studied under Roger Stuewer who taught me to see so much more in
the
history of physics. I am currently teaching at Fond du Lac Tribal
and Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota in a full time adjunct,
grant-funded
position, where I have recently developed a two-year degree program to
train Native Americans for apprenticeship openings in the electric
utility
industry. The program is called the Electric Utility Technology
program.
I am now focusing on ways to incorporate into the existing program new
courses in renewable energy technologies. I am also involved with
a new initiative for our college, which is to develop a four year
degree program in sustainable development using a Native American
perspective.
Meanwhile, I continue to teach introductory physics and other science
courses,
while pounding nails for a new dining room for our home. Needless
to say, my work in the history of physics has lapsed, hopefully just
temporarily.
In trying to maintain momentum in the field of history of science and
technology,
I am exploring some new topics of interest...Mayan mathematics, Frank
Oppenheimer,
etc. Pauli continues to talk to me, although the next level of
Pauli
research will require more concentrated effort than I am currently able
to provide. Thus, I plan to soon start looking for a position
where
I can actually do professional work in my degree area, before I retire
in a decade or so. My wife Karen and I live within a stone's
throw
of Lake Superior, and Knife River's best smoked fish shop. When
you
are next traveling along Minnesota's north shore, drop in for a visit
to
our home, a snack of smoked fish, and some lively conversation. I
may be reached at jgustafson@fdltcc.edu,
and 218-834-3378.
Don Opitz
(2004)
Mounds View, MN
My big news is
that I graduated last
December! I probably set a record for the amount of time between
admission (1991) and graduation (2004)--but who's counting? I
continue
to work as a teaching specialist and coordinator of math tutoring in
the
University of Minnesota's General College as I apply for new
jobs.
I have been dividing my time between my history of science scholarship
and developmental education work, which has resulted in an interesting
mix of presentations and publications this year.
On the
presentations side, I had
the pleasure (and pressure!) of giving my first "extempore" talk to the
Columbia History of Science Group at Friday Harbor in March, but then
reverted
to reading a paper at the ISHPSSB conference at Guelph, Ontario, in
July.
For publications, 2004 was my anno mirabilis: articles on the natural
history
of Alice Balfour (Archives of Natural History, vol. 31) and the
photography of Mary Rosse (Studies in the History of Sciences and
Humanities,
Prague, vol. 13); the introduction to a reprint of Mary Roberts's Conchologist's
Companion in the Science Writing by Women series (Thoemmes
Continuum);
and several entries in the Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British
Scientists (Thoemmes Continuum). In press is a chapter on
country-house
science for the forthcoming anthology, Sidelined Sciences? Shifting
Centres in Nineteenth-Century Scientific Thinking (Anthem) and,
reflecting
my developmental education work, two coauthored chapters for The
General
College Vision: Integrating Intellectual Growth, Multicultural
Perspectives,
and Student Development. Works-in-progress include two book
reviews
and an entry for the new Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
I am also preparing a book prospectus based on my dissertation,
"Aristocrats
and Professionals: Country-House Science in Late-Victorian Britain."
Although much of
my energy will go
into job applications these coming months, I am excited to be teaching
two classes, including a Freshman seminar on literacy (in which the
students
will do some volunteer community work), and to be otherwise engaged on
campus. Off-campus I continue to play French horn in the
Calhoun-Isles
Community Band in Minneapolis, as well as lend my administrative skills
to the band's Board of Directors, for which I serve as Co-President. On
the home-front, my life partner Gregg Albrecht is preparing
applications
for graduate school: apparently my own trials and tribulations did not
disenchant him!
opitz@umn.edu
FACULTY UPDATES
Jennifer Alexander
My book
manuscript, "Encountering
Efficiency," is now under contract to Johns Hopkins, and I will deliver
the final manuscript this fall. Work on the next project, "Sport
and Work," a study of the international biomechanics movement,
continues;
I will speak on one aspect of it at the SHOT/HSS meeting in Minneapolis
in October. Our informal science studies group has now been
funded
by the University's new Institute for Advanced Studies as the working
group
"Science/Nature/Culture," and includes faculty from a variety of
departments
and programs across campus, including history, anthropology, sociology,
and rhetoric.
jalexand@me.umn.edu
Mark E.
Borrello
Not surprisingly,
my first year at
the U has been a busy and productive one. In the fall I gave a paper at
the American Philosophical Society as part of a conference organized by
Minnesota alum Joe Cain. I’m currently finishing the manuscript of the
paper for inclusion in the volume “Descended from Darwin: Insights into
American Evolutionary Studies 1920 – 1950.” I’ve also just begun
work on a chapter for a forthcoming volume “Rebels of Life:
Iconoclastic
biologists of the 20th Century”. In June I spent a couple of weeks in
Panama
working with my colleagues from Michigan State on our course on
Tropical
Ecosystem Biodiversity and Conservation. Then, after a family visit to
Hawaii, I spent a sweltering week in Guelph participating in a
roundtable
on teaching the Darwinian Revolution and presenting a paper on the
history
of group selection. On the personal side, Regina, Nico and I moved to
the
Lyndale neighborhood last fall and we were joined in March by our new
baby
Gia. I’m looking forward to a busy fall. I’ll be teaching a seminar on
the concept of progress in evolutionary theory and my biology and
society
in the 19th and 20th centuries course. I’m also excited about the
arrival
of Susan Jones (another historian of science in St Paul!) and the
possibility
of Dylan show with Michel sometime in the next year.
borrello@umn.edu
Michel Janssen
Like "the summer
of George" on "Seinfeld,"
this should have been my year. After all, we're supposed to be
celebrating
the centenary of Einstein's annus mirabilis 1905. Sure enough, I've
given
over a dozen talks so far, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to London,
Ontario,
and from Portland, Oregon, to Tampa, Florida, but mostly for half-empty
rooms. The US, it seems, couldn't care less about Albert.
This
is very different in Europe. I was blown away by the Einstein
exhibit put together by my dear friend and long-term collaborator
Juergen
Renn smack in the middle of Berlin. Juergen has thereby secured
the
existence of the Max Planck Institute for History of Science in
perpetuity.
The Einstein exhibit forcefully drove home the point that I missed my
share
of opportunities. Robert Schulmann and I still haven't managed to
drum up any interest in our treatment for an Einstein movie and
Christoph
Lehner and I won't put out the Cambridge Companion to Einstein till
2006.
At least I made tenure this year. As newly tenured faculty, we
all
got a clock. I thought the tenure clock was supposed to STOP
ticking
at this point. Go figure. Anyway, my first foray into the
history
of quantum theory is still going well. I'll be giving another
talk
on my project at the HSS meeting here in Minneapolis in November under
the title "The Dawn of Quantum Mechanics in Minnesota" singing the
praises
of our own John Hasbrouck van Vleck (OK, until he left us high and dry
to go to Wisconsin). Finally an official apology: for someone who
owes his entire career to Einstein, it was unseemly to call him a
"fuddy-duddy"
on BBC television.
janss011@umn.edu
Sally Gregory
Kohlstedt
Seeing life as an
adventure, I agreed
last fall to chair the Department of Anthropology for one year; then,
with
the promise of a search for an outside chair who would start in fall,
2006,
I have agreed to continue for another one. My new colleagues have
been very cooperative, putting together an important cross-discipline
colloquia
series, producing a newsletter, and generally helping publicize the
quality
of a great program with several enthusiastic and energetic junior
faculty.
Nonetheless, I am still fully engaged in our HST program, serving as
DGS
as well as teaching, advising, and writing. Right now my
challenge
is to keep up with my advisees who are producing chapters almost as
fast
as I can read them carefully - so watch for a fresh group of UMN Ph.D.s
to be out soon in the ranks of historians of science. My own
academic
work on nature study continues. You will see an article in the
September
2005 Isis. No sooner was that manuscript in the works
this
spring than I was asked to write something reflective on museums for a
"forum" in the December issue of Isis. Reviews,
occasional
editorial board work for Isis and Minerva, and all the
other
professional tasks are part of the mix. Only an occasional break
to visit that new cabin on the Gunflint Trail, but the memories of
starry
skies, occasional moose sightings, and the sound of a mournful loon
keep
my city life with all its allures in balance.
sgk@umn.edu
Bob Seidel
I continue
working on a book on technology
transfer, teaching ethics in science and technology, historiography,
science
in American culture and high-tech weapons, and organizing the
department
colloquia. I served as an alternate to the Faculty Senate this
past
year, which meant I had to go to every meeting. The highlight of
the summer was my daughter’s wedding and I also had fun learning to
drive
formula racing cars. I am also writing several articles for
various
reference works, and a paper for the History of Science Society
meeting,
where I expect to see many of you in November.
rws@umn.edu
Alan Shapiro
Working on art
and science gets me
invited to classier conferences and workshops, where I mingle with art
historians, artists, and museum curators as well as a few historians of
science, than those in history of science and technology. Next summer I
will give a paper at a workshop—"Inside the Camera Obscura:
Optics
and Art under the Spell of the Projected Image? - 1600-1675"—at the Max
Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. The focus of the
workshop will be on Vermeer and the camera obscura, and I will talk on
how the images projected in a camera obscura effected the development
of
optics. Last fall I attended a workshop on “Light in
Seventeenth-Century
Painting” at Wolfenbüttel, a very pretty town where Leibniz had
been
the librarian to the Duke of Hanover. I just finished revising my paper
on “Cartesian Painting” for the proceedings. Last November Jed Buchwald
and I organized a workshop to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the
publication
of Newton’s Opticks at the Dibner Institute at MIT. It was
deemed
sufficiently successful that Jed and I were invited to publish the
proceedings
in the Dibner workshop series. To my surprise, I learned this summer
that
I was elected a Vice President of the International Academy of the
History
of Science. Alas, for four years this will require attending Council
meetings
in Paris. Linda retired from her job at the university in June, and she
now does some free-lance writing while collecting her social security
check.
ashapiro@physics.umn.edu
Roger Stuewer
The journal that
John S. Rigden and
I founded, Physics in Perspective, is now in its seventh year
of
publication and doing well: People continue to tell us that they read
its
four annual issues cover to cover. We publish articles written in
English by authors from many parts of the world, so as editor I have
become
quite expert in converting X-English into English, where X stands for
the
author’s mother tongue. I also continue to edit the Resource
Letters
of the American Journal of Physics, probably the most valued
section
in this journal as revealed in part by a five-year review that the
American
Association of Physics Teacher undertook of it this past year.
I remain active
in the Forum for
History of Physics (FHP) of the American Physical Society (APS).
This past year I served on a committee that succeeded in raising an
additional
$100,000 to enable us to convert the Pais Award into the Pais Prize for
the History of Physics just in time to present its first winner, Martin
J. Klein, with a check for $10,000 instead of $5,000 at the APS meeting
in Tampa last April. I was Chair of that Selection Committee and also
served
on this year’s Selection Committee that recommended John L. Heilbron as
the second winner of the Pais Prize, which he will receive at the APS
meeting
in Dallas next April. I also was recently elected to serve a
four-year
term as the FHP representative on the Council of the APS beginning next
January.
In connection
with the World Year
of Physics 2005, I gave invited talks on the discovery of the Compton
effect
at meetings in London, England, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Warsaw, Poland,
and also a talk on a topic in the history of nuclear physics at a
meeting
in Piaski, Poland, which is on one of the beautiful Mazurian Lakes.
This
summer my wife Helga and I again expect to go to Europe where I will
participate
in a meeting of the Program Committee of the Vienna International
Summer
University and also quite likely in an international conference on the
history of physics in physics teaching in Oldenburg, Germany.
rstuewer@physics.umn.edu
CURRENT STUDENT UPDATES
Paul Brinkman
It pains me to
admit that I really
don't have anything interesting to share. All I've been doing for
the last 12 months is slavishly working on my dissertation. I
expect
to defend it sometime in the fall - I guess that's worth putting in the
newsletter.
brin0142@umn.edu
Sara Dietrich
I will complete
my coursework (including
some Latin and a history minor) in the fall and will take my exams in
the
Spring of 2006.
diet0157@umn.edu
Erika Dirkse
I continue to
work on my dissertation:
a comparative history of the formation and practice of economic geology
by late-eighteenth and early nineteenth-century naturalists with an
emphasis
on the making and meaning of the different types of expertise attached
thereto. Presently I am working on a chapter titled "Humboldt's Moral
Economy:
The Pictorial Utility of Nature and Number" in which I investigate the
aesthetic and moral values displayed in Humboldt's collection,
organization,
and translation of private, piecemeal note-taking into political
economic-minded
publications. This fall I will participate in the workshop "Maps,
Pictures, Graphs: Scientific Images and Science" to be held at the
University
of British Columbia.
ejdirkse@sbcglobal.net
Suzanne Fischer
I've been working
on my dissertation,
tentatively titled "VD on Display: Sexuality, Masculinity, and the
Business
of Commercial Medical Institutes, 1900-1945." It focuses on the
three
Reinhardt brothers, who owned many Midwestern VD clinic/museum hybrids,
and treats issues around sexuality, quackery and public health. I
presented a paper at the Midwest Junto this spring on the Reinhardts'
exploits
in Milwaukee. Writing and research proceed apace, including a
very
productive trip to the American Medical Association archives in
Chicago.
The plan is to finish by the spring of 2006. In other news, I've
been volunteering at the Midtown Public Market (farmers' market) on
Lake
and 22nd, and I recently bought a spinning wheel.
fisc0310@umn.edu
Amy Fisher
I am now entering
my fourth year
in the program. I spent a pleasant and fruitful summer working at the
Bakken
Library and Museum. I received a SSHRC doctoral award for this coming
year.
I am now ABD and I am enjoying research and writing.
fish0349@umn.edu
Ron Frazzini
The past year has
been occupied with
research for the dissertation on the innovation process at Olivetti,
the
Italian typewriter and calculator manufacturer. I spent seven
weeks
in Ivrea, Italy, at the Olivetti archives, a beautiful little town at
the
foothills of the Alps. Most of this was completed with the help of the
Babbage-Tomash Fellowship. I am presently well into the writing,
and hope to be completed by next February. Another two weeks in
Italy
is in order to track down a couple of specific, but elusive items (I
know,
but someone has to do it).
fraz0046@umn.edu
Margot Iverson
I’ve just
finished my fourth year
of graduate school and am currently working on my dissertation on the
history
of genetic studies of Native Americans. I was fortunate enough to
receive a UMN doctoral dissertation fellowship this past year
(2004-2005),
and I spent my fellowship year living and dissertating in many places,
but principally in Vancouver, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. I
presented a poster last August at the 2004 Gordon Research Conference
on
Science Policy, and in the spring of 2005 I gave talks on different
chapters
of my dissertation at Penn State and the University of Puget
Sound.
I, my car, my cat, and my many boxes of documents all enjoyed many
adventures
driving around the continent this past year, but I am now living once
again
in Minneapolis and am delighted to report that I have firm plans to
remain
geographically stationary for the next year.
mliverson@mindspring.com
Kate Jirik
This year I have
pursued part of
my supplemental program by looking at political and cultural influences
on science. I gave a talk at the Midwest Junto in April, “Some
Cultural
Influences on Aristotle's Biology”. I'm still interested in the
intersection
of science, politics and ethics, with a focus on American
eugenics.
I also initiate the weekly grad student email discussion on the Friday
colloquium.
jiri0006@umn.edu
Nick Martin
We’ve enjoyed our
first year in Minneapolis
quite well and I equally enjoyed my first year in the program.
I’ve
been able to narrow my interests over the course of this year to
concentrate
on early modern astronomy and am working to find specific topics to
pursue.
I had the pleasure of joining the U of M HST group that attended the
Midwest
Junto conference in April and am looking forward to the HSS meeting on
our home ground.
mart1466@umn.edu
Rachel Mason
Dentinger
I am currently
studying for my preliminary
exams, which I hope to complete during September 2005. I look
forward
to discovering a fruitful dissertation topic in twentieth-century
evolutionary
biology soon afterwards.
aydin@visi.com
Hyung Wook Park
I recently
learned that my paper
on Frank Macfarlane Burnet was accepted for publication in the Journal
of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. It should be
published
in October 2006. My current doctoral research project is about the
biological
study of senescence in the early twentieth century, which was primarily
done by Edmund Vincent Cowdry and his colleagues and Peter B. Medawar.
I am now planning to apply for grant-in-aid at the Rockefeller Archive
Center, where Cowdry and his friends (E. Cohn, A. Carrel, and others)
did
their early research. I am also searching for the archival resources in
the British National Archive, Wellcome Library, and Rice University,
which
contain some of Medawar's papers. Unfortunately, Medawar papers were
not
collected by one institution. I passed my French course, and now
I am preparing for my preliminary written exam of this August.
park0717@umn.edu
Susan Rensing
This past year
was a busy one for
me. I presented on various aspects of my dissertation at Friday
Harbor
in March and ISPSSB in July, and upcoming at HSS in November. I
taught
in the honors program again last fall, and have been active with the
Dissertation
Writing Group (DaWGs) which will be turning out a record number of PhDs
in the near future. I am currently finishing up my dissertation
on
eugenics and women's social reform and also taking my first steps into
the job market this fall. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone
at HSS on home turf soon!
rens0031@umn.edu
Betty van Meer
I look forward to
seeing everybody
again at HSS/SHOT in November. The past year I have been busy reworking
the drafted chapters for my dissertation. This summer, my husband and I
undertook the experiment of co-teaching a class together at IU
Bloomington.
And this Fall I will be an adjunct teacher for a World Civilization
survey,
focusing on history of technology, at Franklin College here in Indiana.
vanm0020@umn.edu
