How do social movements relate to science? Do they influence how science and technology are applied and
who benefits, or even more than that: the content of scientific theories, the configuration of technologies?
Normative values, climate science, agricultural and climate technologies, critique of political economy, as well
as information theory will be used as springboards to explore this relation in the contemporary planetary
conjuncture.
The workshop “Science and Social Movements” is organized by Daniel Cunha, Visiting Fellow at the Center
for Humanities and Information. You are invited to discuss science as socio-historical process in a warming
planet.
The event is open to everyone, and questions can be sent to dzd5566@psu.edu.
Time | Event |
---|---|
8:45 a.m. | Breakfast |
9:15 a.m. | Director’s Welcome: Eric Hayot, CHI |
9:20 a.m.-10:50 a.m. | Daniel Cunha (Penn State) Holly Jean Buck (University at Buffalo) Q&A |
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | Dan Boscov-Ellen (Pratt Institute) Devparna Roy (Nazareth University) Q&A |
Lunch Break |
|
1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. | Discussion |
Holly Jean Buck is assistant professor in the Department of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo. She has a doctoral degree in development sociology (Cornell University) and a master of science degree in human ecology (Lund, Sweden). Her research interests include climate change, global environmental governance, environmental policy, science and technology studies, public participation in emerging technologies. She published Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero is not Enough and After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration, both by Verso.
Dan Boscov-Ellen is an environmental political philosopher and ethicist with a background in critical theory. His work focuses primarily on theorizing the ecological dynamics of capitalism and imperialism and explicating the political- theoretical and ethical entailments of these dynamics. His 2021 Ph.D. dissertation, After the Flood: Political Philosophy in the Capitalocene, is a systematic theory of the normative political implications of capitalogenic environmental crisis. His recent articles on related topics have critically interrogated the universalizing discourse of the Anthropocene; worked to correct the capital-blindness and selective historical amnesia of many ethical accounts of responsibility for climate change; and analyzed the ethics of climate migration with a focus on reparative climate justice in the context of colonial oppression and capitalist exploitation. He is currently working on a book, provisionally entitled Climate Ethics in the Real World: Essays on Capitalism, Colonialism, and the Climate Crisis, which will build and expand upon these arguments. He is a member of the editorial board of Spectre.
Devparna Roy is the director of the global sustainability program and an assistant professor of sociology at Nazareth University, Rochester, New York. She earned her degrees at Cornell University (doctoral degree in development sociology), Utah State University (master’s degree in the sociology of international development), and the M.S. University of Baroda, India (master’s degree in biotechnology and bachelor’s degree in chemistry). She has also worked as a full-time journalist with India's leading financial daily, The Economic Times, in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India). She is keenly interested in the ways in which individuals and social groups think about the environment, race and ethnicity, and international development, not only in social terms, but in political, cultural, and economic terms as well. Those interests have led her to pursue an ever- expanding menu of research—on the genetically modified organisms (GMO) question, on the use of farmland for development purposes, on migration and bioregionalism, and more recently, on environmental racism and the agency of various groups (including diverse racial groups) in the world-system. her publications have appeared in the Journal of World Systems Research, Agricultural Biotechnology and Development Review, Journal of Development Studies, and other venues.
Daniel Cunha is Visiting Fellow in the Center for Humanities and Information at Penn State. He is a Ph.D. in Sociology (Binghamton University), a master of science degree holder in environmental science (UNESCO-IHE, The Netherlands), and a Chemical Engineer (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). His research integrates historical sociology, critique of political economy, and the natural sciences. He is currently investigating the historical constitution of climate science. His article “Climate Science as Worldview: Constitution of the Planetary General Intellect” is forthcoming, and he is preparing a book on the theme. He previously published in Critical Historical Studies, Mediations, Journal of World-Systems Research, and The Anthropocene Review.
Occurrences
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Friday, March 22, 2024, 8:45 a.m.–3:30 p.m.