Human Sciences (inactive)

We discussed chapters from the book The Lost White Tribe: Explorers, Scientists, and the Theory That Changed a Continent with its author, historian Michael Robinson. 

We spoke with Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan about his recent article  “The Family as Machine: Film, Infrastructure, and Cybernetic Kinship in Suburban America,” and a dossier of Bateson's works Grey Room (January 1, 2017): 70–101, 103-110
 

We spoke with Cathy Gere about her recent book, Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good: From the Panopticon to the Skinner Box and Beyond, Chicago, 2017.  Readings will be the introduction and chapters 1 and 5.

Note Special Day
We discussed articles in the special issue of the journal History of the Human Sciences on "Psychology and its Publics." 

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Discussion of course syllabi and reading lists in the history of the human sciences

Note Special Day
 
A series of short reflections (each about 500 words) on the future of the history of anthropology. These pieces were recently published as part of the digital relaunch of the History of Anthropology Newsletter. 

Ian Merkel (NYU), "Atlantic Crossings and Disciplinary Reformulation in the 1930s: the case of French Social Science at the University of São Paulo"

Rosanna Dent, (University of Pennsylvania) "Fission-Fusion: Interdisciplinarity in the Human Geneticists’ Tribe."

Alicia Puglionesi (Consortium for History of Science, Technology & Medicine NEH Postdoctoral Fellow), "The Stars, the Weather, the Flowers, and the Mind: Psychical Research Among the Observational Sciences.”

The group discussed three articles from the recent Osiris volume on the "History of Science and Emotions."

Greg Eghigian (Penn State) discussed the introduction to the forthcoming edited volume The Routledge History of Madness and Mental Health

Erika Milam of Princeton University introduced her draft chapter, "Death of the Killer Ape: the 'New' Politics of Humans as Animals"

Audra Wolfe, Independent Scholar, introduced an excerpt of Thomas Medvetz, Think Tanks in America (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

Nadia Berenstein of the University of Pennsylvania introduced her paper, “Defining Flavor: Taste Panels and Sensory Research, 1930-1950"

Rachel Walker of the University of Maryland and the Library Company of Philadelphia introduced her paper, "Character Detectives: Female Physiognomists in the early American Republic"

Jason Oakes of UC-Davis introduced his draft chapter, "The Road to Tragedy: Garrett Hardin, the Systems Approach, and the Political Economy of Population Science"

Whitney Laemmli of UPenn introduced a draft dissertation chapter "'Dance as the Measure of Man': Alan Lomax, Choreometrics, and the History of Humankind (1965-1985)"

Greg Eghigian of Penn State introduced a draft of his paper "UFOs and Aliens as a Problem in the History of the Human Sciences"

Erika Milam of Princeton University introduced selections from Aaron Panofky's Misbehaving Science: Controversy and the Development of Behavior Genetics (Chicago, 2014).

Jamie Cohen-Cole introduced the "Introduction" and chapter 5, "Scientists as the Model of Human Nature,” from his book, The Open Mind: Cold War Politics and the Sciences of Human Nature, Chicago 2014.